Did you know more than 700 comms and media professionals from over 100 different organisations joined The Media Team Academy this year?
As applications open for 2023, Media First boss James White chatted with Sara Jones – a telephone journalist on many of our media training courses – about what’s new and what members can expect during the year ahead.
The boss of Media First is excited but not surprised by the success of The Media Team Academy’s first year.
The 700 members who signed up for the webinars, online courses, ebooks and more were only slightly more than he’d thought would join. Why was he so confident it would work?
“We have a good understanding of our customers and realised coming out of Covid that comms and media teams were struggling with working from home and getting training and support for their teams,” he said.
“They’re often used to organising training for their spokespeople, but there wasn’t much training for their teams. So, it wasn’t an invention as much as a development of something they had been screaming out for.”
Now he’s preparing to launch the second year of the programme.
James said: "We’ve worked hard to increase the value people get from The Media Team Academy, so we’ve added loads more features.”
Masterclasses
Anyone who signs up to The Media Team Academy in the next few weeks will have access to the same things as last year, such as training blogs, handy templates and eBooks.
But there will also be new online courses – including a series on crisis media management – and a packed programme of masterclasses led by industry experts.
James said in 2023 there will be eight Masterclasses on PR and media and four on management and leadership with a focus on health and well-being. These will be led by Media First’s sister company, The BCF Group.
And don’t worry if you missed any of the first series - they’ve all been recorded and are available in The Media Team Academy resource hub as part of your membership.
James said the masterclasses are designed following Media First’s guiding philosophy.
“We pick the right trainer for the right job. The trainer needs to be a good fit for the group of people,” he said.
“The people who run the masterclasses are all hand-picked. They’re people with relevant and up-to-date experience. Next year we’ll have people from large PR agencies, working senior journalists and experts in management and leadership. They’re all people members are going to get value from.
“One of the businesses that subscribed last year told us they found these sessions particularly useful. Even though their media team is experienced, they found the trainers always picked up on something they didn’t already know.”
The masterclasses are also the inspiration for many of the blogs produced by the Academy. Any topic that seems to have particularly piqued the audience’s interest will be further developed in an article available only to members.
Ask the expert
The newest offering for members of The Media Team Academy is a two-hour 'ask the expert' surgery. It is where all or part of a comms team can talk to a subject expert about a challenge they’re facing,
James said: “It might be that you’re thinking of running a particular campaign. And it can be a great idea to bounce your plan off a journalist before launch.
“Or you might want to discuss how to persuade reluctant spokespeople - anything you want to explore in depth in a confidential environment.
“We can schedule one of these sessions, and as part of your membership, you get two hours with an expert.”
The member mix
James is determined members of The Media Team Academy come from as many different sectors as possible.
“We have a massive mix of customers,” he said, “a lot of charities, healthcare and finance.
“We want to make sure we maintain that broad range of people. So, when you sign up, you can’t just click Buy Now unless you are an existing member wanting to renew – you have to go to the website and click Apply Now. We can monitor who’s applying so we don’t get 80% of people from, say, finance. We’ve never had to turn anyone away, but we monitor it.”
James believes this mix of sectors is one of the things that makes the programme so valuable - even though members might work in different industries, the media and comms problems are often the same, and members learn from each other.
He said that before Media First set up The Media Team Academy, the team gave a lot of thought to how members could feel it was a safe space to talk about the problems they or their organisation were facing. One of the solutions was an investment in Mentimeter software, which anonymises contributors to online discussions.
James said: “When people contribute through the chat or on the mic in the webinars, they can be completely anonymous. For example, if we asked them what they think are their biggest challenges of 2023, they can tell us but not give their name, company’s name or even the sector they’re from.
“We find the more people get involved, the more they come out of their shell, and they’re happy to share more with other people in different industries but with similar problems. Knowing you’re not alone is helpful.”
Membership for 2023 will cost £795 + VAT for up to eight members in a team. This gives comms and media teams access to all the training materials, the masterclasses, one session of Ask the Expert and access to online courses.
“If you want to sign up more than eight members, talk to us, and we can discuss prices and logistics,” James said.
Every day’s a school day
James acknowledged that within a business, the comms and media teams are the experts in their field.
“That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have support from people like Media First,” he said.
“Senior management is getting ongoing coaching from internal and external advisers.
“They know that only by looking outwards can they develop and learn. It’s the same for comms and media teams who need to see what training is available for them. Every day’s a school day; never stop learning.”
Find out more about The Media Team Academy by clicking on this link.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with more than 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
Click here to find out more about our media training
