The Planning Diary
My weekly newsletter straight from the heart of the ITV News Newsroom to help Comms and PR professionals understand the upcoming news agenda
Happy Friday!
I hope everyone had a great Easter and you’re enjoying the holidays if you’re off work.
I’ve been busy planning coverage for next Monday and next major step in the government’s roadmap. I have had some great pitches so thanks so much. Everyone seems eager to let the public know that they are open for business and I know lots of people eagerly awaiting that first restaurant experience, pub garden or shopping trip that will have had in quite some time.
Next week will definitely be about evaluating who the winners and losers are at this point. It will be interesting to see if there is a deluge of customers visiting their favourite stores and whether people will feel confident enough to head to busy restaurants to dial al fresco.
Other issues on the agenda for next week will include vaccines and the over 50s deadline, the volatile streets of parts of Northern Ireland and we’ll be looking ahead to the first events to trial a vaccine passport.
As ever, if you have a pitch related to any of these topics (or any other that you think might interest ITV News) please email me at carol.jordan@itn.co.uk.
Vaccine Apprehension
The MHRA guidance regarding young people and the Astra Zeneca vaccine has been one of the first bumps on what has been a remarkably smooth road for the vaccination programme.
One of the challenges for journalists in how to contextualize stories like this. On one hand this is an incredibly important news story but on the other, it’s equally important to explain to viewers exactly what this new information means, how likely it is to affect them etc.
When we look for experts, we are looking for people who have the knack for explaining and contextualizing this type of research and associated guidance in an easy to understand, digestible fashion.
So if you are someone, or have a client, who is immersed in the scientific or medical world who can go on camera and speak to a national audience on issues like the vaccination programme, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Data Delights
This week I have been participating in a course about how to be a data journalist (Thanks to ITV News and CIJ) and it has opened my eyes not only to the unfathomable amount of data which exists online but also to the work of people who have skills I can only dream of who can crunch and disseminate this data.
Just looking on social media, so many data-led projects are in progress with people doing some incredible work.
If you, your company or orgaisation are involved in a data project, bear in mind that this type of project can lead to some really great stories or news lines that could interest us.
Once again, feel free to let me know about any projects that you think might be of interest.
Brexit Blues
Banging my Brexit Blues drum again.
Looking at this week’s shocking scenes in Northern Ireland, most commentators have said that the anger is fuelled, in part, by the side-effects of the Brexit deal.
Anecdotally, we’re still hearing that importers and exporters are still experiencing red tape issues. Is this true? Is your company suffering because of Brexit? Or in fact, has Brexit created new opportunities?
Interested in hearing from all case studies and interested parties.
The Planning Diary
Saturday: Grand National
Monday: Northern Ireland lifts 'stay-at-home' rule
Tuesday: England women's football friendly against Canada
Tuesday: Chelsea in Champions League quarter-finals
Wednesday: Tesco full year preliminary results
Wednesday: Man City and Liverpool in Champions League quarter-finals
Thursday: Anniversary of Hillsborough disaster
Insider’s Tip!
Don’t you know who I am?
As most of us have been working from home, most pitching to our newsroom at least tends to be via email. And while some newsrooms will have a planning alias which means your pitch potentially gets to a number of people, it’s not always clear who checks them and how often. Plus I shudder to think how many pitches get sent to any generic alias like that.
You have a much better chance of getting eyes on your pitch if you can specifically target the best individual at a certain media outlet who could be most interested in your pitch, particularly if it’s of a specialist nature.
As Head of Planning and by circulating this newsletter, I obviously put myself out there as the best point of contact for pitches to ITV News (which generally I am) but I’m sure there have been occasions where a specialised pitch has come to me and I haven’t evaluated say in the same way as a dedicated Business or Science Correspondent or Producer.
So the tip is, if your pitch is very specialist, do your research and see if the media outlet that you’re pitching to has a specialist team. It’s often better to target someone from that team than sending your pitch to a generic email address.
Best of luck!
That’s it for this week.
I’m off next week so the next Planning Diary newsletter won’t pop into your inbox until Friday, 23rd April.
Enjoy all the shopping trips, pub gardens etc and feel free to distribute this newsletter to whoever would find it helpful.
Carol x