4th Cultural PR Conference Afternoon News Panel Clair Woodward Arts and Entertainment Editor, Sunday Express Clairs

rs focus is between mainly news and reviews, including 3 major features per week The Sunday Express circulation is 650,000 with a readership of 2 million Their readership is older and Northern generally, so they would welcome more Northern focused pitches. They also like quirky and unusual stories Her editor Martin Townsend is very passionate about the arts The arts team is a small compact team Clair works Monday to Friday, but the rest of the paper works Tuesday to Saturday Tuesday morning is when they set the agenda for the paper and week ahead Mondays is the best time to call when she is mostly alone in the office and has more time to chat They can do late breaking stories on the Saturday, so you can still call her or the news desk, but dont call Fridays as they are usually putting the paper to bed Clair prefers a call first then maybe email follow-up. She is interested in well pitched features and as they are a small team, they can usually get back swiftly with a decision on a story Pet hates: please dont send emails with massive attachments People that ask about the listings section, they dont have one, its important to read and know the paper

Editors pet hates: anything sport related or fool hardy expeditions dont mention Ellen McCarthy! What has worked well recently the silk woven spider cap at the V&A and Grayson Perrys bike at the BM. Sometimes they might get a page 3 lead e.g. PD James, Death comes to Pemberley They like non-London centric stories, with a national remit or collaborations of organisations around the UK Exclusives she likes them, but they can run the same day as other publications. Do offer her them first, not just the other big papers or same people Embargoes are fine, but obviously not Mondays as they cant do anything with them In sum, Clair welcomes well pitched ideas and any stories related to Mad Britain

Farah Nayari, Arts Correspondent, Bloomberg Bloomberg was originally set up by Michael Bloomberg, the New York Mayor They are based in Finsbury Square, but plan to move in the future to newly built offices in Cannon Street (designed by Norman Foster) Their news is 24 hour and global. They used to just be US and Reuters is their biggest competitor. They have no deadlines, it is all immediate and they cant fall behind, they need news straightaway, however she does tend to get most of her stories out in the morning They have 310,000 subscribers, most important newspapers and magazines, including 146 news bureaus across 72 countries. They now do radio and TV. They have a comprehensive arts section called MUSE, but you dont have go to their website to look for it. Their arts and culture stories come up on all news alerts and search engines They extensive cover arts and have regular reviewers on all exhibitions and events Martin Gayford is the art reviewer, Warwick Thomson does theatre, Robert Heller does music, etc They cover all areas of the arts and are interested in everything esp. anything finance related, quirky or in London They are an electronic newspaper with columns, interviews and features, but they dont do listings Interviewing famous artists is the highlight of her job. Her most memorable was interviewing Damien Hirst the day of his Sothebys sale when Lehman Brothers had just collapsed They also film interviews now and put them on the site, as well as web they are multiplatform She reviews when Martin Gayford doesnt so please also put her on your radar When she first got into the arts, she found it very difficult to break through, but now she hopes most UK art PRs know who she is. She is looking to expand this and would like to do more global stories Pet hates: Spelling mistakes in releases and any errors in dates it must be perfect, because their work is instant and it gets magnified. Please always get your releases proof read before sending triple checked internally, particularly facts or dates as she cant always rely on Wikipedia She also doesnt like it when people dont handover the relationship when they leave an organisation as she may fall off the radar or mailing lists and miss stories

Sherna Noah, Arts, Entertainment and Showbusiness Correspondent, Press Association PA covers a huge patch and is the UKs National News Agency Their subscribers are all national broadcasters, radio and TV. They also have digital clients e.g. Huffington Post. They only cover British news. Clients can re-print stories verbatim or shape them to their style and she covers anything from BBC cuts to X Factor to the Tates latest show Her working day starts at 8am by going through the papers to see where their stories appear and speaking to her contacts. The phone tends to get busy after 9am, so please try and call before then as most stories are decided by 10am, follow up the call with an email Sherna is honest, if you call her with a story and she likes it, it will run, otherwise she will give you an answer straightaway PA is 24 hour, they have no deadlines, and things can go on the wire in the middle of the night They like to break things first in snaps, one line news stories, then they can add to it later and run a bigger story as the day goes on She usually doesnt come to exhibition previews as there are no stories left for her as they are old and have already run. She prefers early stories in advance it helps to ring and brief her before a press event. Come midweek before an event to discuss. Sherna doesnt work Fridays Sherna just covers news, no reviews and she writes stories she doesnt circulate press releases. PA is interested in stories that will be interesting to the wider public, so shes not interested in just London stories or arts sponsorship per se PA love great pictures e.g. Freuds last painting. They have 45 staff photographers, so they like fresh pictures which they can take. They also have a video department. Things she enjoys about her job is seeing her stories in local papers when she is only holiday abroad She covers a wide remit from book prizes, red carpet events to auctions. She is particularly interested in the contemporary arts, but finds dance venues hard to sell. She would be interested in more regional stuff, so please do pitch that to her Having an angle is very important; do think before calling about how your story is going to work for a wide variety of people to give it as many bites of the cherry as possible Ian Youngs, Arts and Entertainment Reporter, BBC News

Ian is part of a two person team based in Media City, Salford (the other person is Colin Patterson) They cover stories across the North, but also London the line can be a bit blurred as they have two London based reporters (and up until 18 months ago, he was also based in London) He covers arts and entertainment stories and features with a topical peg they go on the national BBC site, which has 1.6m views a day. Once the story goes on the site, it is often picked up more widely The main criteria for a story it should have a Northern brief and be of national interest. A household name helps to draw people in, either artist or talent. It has to be someone or something that means something to people more widely e.g. Charlotte Bronte Deaths are the most popular, followed by awards, big premier events, appeals to save things, discoveries and thefts. They like the Turner Prize and unpublished works by Enid Blyton, etc News hooks are often the unexpected or controversies although he knows thats not always something PRs want to publicise! He also likes things that tap into wider trends / debates or link to other national events e.g. art movements or artists taking over shops, philanthropy, the future of book shops, etc. That way it can feed into national stories and bigger issues. Case studies and quotes are also useful to colour a story The BBC is trying to pool their resources more at Media City to make the most of people coming over to Salford. For example, BBC Breakfast is moving there in April, so they will try and coordinate talent and guests more with opportunities across all programming. Once they are up there, they are gagging to get them on the sofa on as many shows as possible Questions Hannah, National Museums Scotland to Sherna Should she get in contact with her for arts stories or the PA Scottish Correspondent? Sherna Only if they have equal impact nationally. If its only for a Scottish audience then it should be the Scottish Correspondent who will put it on the wire. If its more general arts stories then come to her. Roberta Doyle, National Theatre Scotland to panel can you explain a bit about exclusives and embargoes how do we broker them? Clair their main rival is the Mail on Sunday. Be fair and share the stories. Have a good think about who the audience is for the story as they have a very broad remit (they do parochial quite well). She is willing to discuss a story if you are unsure she doesnt bite!

Farah Bloomberg is global with masses of British readers too everyone see it and other people pick it up too like ArtINFO. Agrees with Clair to thing about audience first if its a London story only, maybe the Evening Standard is better, if its global then us. Sherna is surprised when PRs give exclusives to one paper as it only appears in that outlet, whereas with an agency it goes everywhere. If its a strong story, the news desks will use it unless World events get in the way. Ian agrees with Sherna. If its good, it will be picked up everywhere. BBC can put it on all platforms. Clea Relly, Museum of London to the three online journalists Are you agencies or newspapers, for example, what is Bloombergs relationship with the FT do they take stories from you or are they competition? Farah Bloomberg is not an agency, but an electronic paper. She writes and spends days on a story just like a print correspondent. The FT is competition, but they may take stories from them too. Sherna We compete with everyone. Ian We pick it up and ideally have it first or pick up snaps on major stories from PA. Roberta Doyle, National Theatre Scotland to panel What are your thoughts on a cultural spokesperson? Most sectors have talking heads or commentators for their sector, but we dont seem to have a general one. Do you think we should or need one? Farah she thinks it does help. For example, when the Arts Council cuts were announced. All the museum directors held a mega press conference to protest, which worked well. It also works with the National Museum Boards and the Cultural Olympiad, as it is seen as unified, everyone bowling for Britain. Ian the music industry is the same, they dont have an industry spokesperson, so they developed the UK Body for Music however, he is not sure if that made a worthwhile difference. Session ends