For our latest Small Talk, we were joined by Dominic O’ Connell, business presenter on Times Radio. Dominic previously held the same position on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Prior to this he was business editor of The Sunday Times for six years. Dominic has been presented with several national journalism awards for his broadcast work including the Wincott Award in 2017, the premier award for business writers and broadcasters. He was born in New Zealand and also writes a weekly column for The Times Business section.
What does Times Radio's Dominic O'Connell think about broadcast PR?
Dominic’s biggest gripe is spam email pitches, he much prefers tailored offers from someone who has really taken the time to fully understand the business they are working with. Someone who knows who owns the company, if it makes profit or not, and what the turnover is. He prefers to work with someone who knows answers to all the basic business in order for the pitch to be considered – he is a business journalist after all!
Furthermore, it’s important to ensure pitches are relevant to what Dominic does. He amusingly explained that he received a pitch earlier in the morning from a singer who had recorded a new album of all the songs the family of the late Jimmy Carter had sung who were apparently America’s answer to the Von Traps. This could be of interest to a journalist somewhere, but not the Business presenter at Times Radio! A mass mail out like this that holds no relevance to the recipient is a sure fire way of having the release sent straight to the junk box.
He also added that the big thing that stands out to him with radio and broadcast versus his time in print is that broadcast audiences really tend to pick up on an interviewees authenticity or reality. He believes they don’t always care too much about what they are saying, more how they are saying it. He gave the example of watching a politician on television who prevaricates leaving the audience to raise their guard and distrust everything else that the person is saying. To avoid this, Dominic wants real people with real things to say, he doesn’t want to interview people that have pre-prepped lines that they will then read out like a script. He wants guests to consider interviews with him as a normal interaction between two people, and in this frame of mind, clients will get an awful lot out of it as audience will grasp onto the true authenticity immediately.
The Times Radio Audience
Times Radio listeners tend to be A1 B1 consumers. These tend to be the upper class and highest earners in the socio-economic classification system. They also tend to be slightly older than those of some of their competitors – not quite as old as listeners to Radio 4’s Today programme, but typically late 30’s upwards – quite similar to readers of the Times newspaper.
The male to female split is usually 50/50. Interestingly though, this doesn’t always impact the type of stories Dominic will be interested in. His priority is a how good the story is versus age or demographics. If you can offer a strong relevant release with a great spokesperson who isn’t going to regurgitate scripted answers to questions, you’re more likely to garner interest from Dominic over anything else.
Instead, they would like guests to go further in discussing business topics such as inflation, the budget or GDP announcements for instance. The key thing is that they will need something to add to the conversation and have know what they are talking about!
If offering a guest, the day before is usually fine in terms of timeframe, especially in terms of breaking news as things can change very quickly. That said, as per the previous point, Dominic doesn’t want any pre-scripted contributors – offer a real person with real opinions who can weave company standpoints into an interview in a real and authentic way.
Exclusivity in Broadcast PR
Sometimes, offering a story as an exclusive and promising not to offer to any other competing broadcasters until after an interview is aired is a good way to achieve successful coverage on a top tier broadcaster. For the likes of BBC Breakfast or Good Morning Britain it’s also a good way to land a highly coveted sofa slot – so long as the story is relevant and good enough of course! That said, for Times Radio, Dominic says it’s not make or break to offer an exclusive, though it certainly helps in some circumstances.
He went on to explain that it all comes down to how impactful the story is. For big stories from big companies it’s more likely they would want exclusive rights to allow them to own the announcement above other stations, however for smaller stories, there’s not much point as people won’t care as much. Here at Shout! Communications we can advise you on whether offering exclusivity is appropriate for your story based on strength of any announcement, data and spokespeople.
How can Shout Communications help secure you coverage on UK national radio stations like Times Radio?
Shout! Communications is a team of broadcast PR professionals with decades of experience creating and leading broadcast content for national radio and TV. As well as being broadcast PR experts, we think like the broadcast producers we used to be. We know what broadcasters want, and more importantly, what they don’t want.
We have strong relationships with journalists just like Dominic and can help make your story stand out from the crowd and increase the chance of landing an interview for your client. To learn more about how we can help you with radio and TV media relations, as well as media training, contact us today.
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