PR: 5 Ways to Get the Headline You Want

So a low carb diet is no good for us. Now the way to lose weight is to cut the fat. Yet another headline proclaiming the latest way to fight the flab from BBC Health. This time it is scientists in the USA who declare that cutting fat from your diet leads to more fat loss than cutting out carbs. Excuse me? Read that again. 

Health – whether it is diets, exercise or how to look younger – will always grab the headlines. And it is these headlines which drive scientists and academics crazy and leave the rest of us wondering whether to avoid carbs or fat. 

The problem is that as a journalist writing an article on health (or anything else for that matter) you will focus only on the headline figures i.e. the ones that will make news or whatever is going to surprise the reader the most. Ninety-nine operations carried out successfully doesn’t make a story. The one hundredth where it goes wrong? Well that does.

Read on in this carbs v fat story and you will see it begins to balance out:  “However, studies suggest that in the real world, where diets are less strictly controlled, people may lose more weight by reducing carbohydrate intake.”

But put that towards the top of the article and there would not have been a story. So now you can see why it has been left until further down. 

The journalist hasn’t done anything wrong. They have simply used the best bits, the ones that are the most startling, new and interesting, at the top of the story. 

That doesn’t mean that journalists don’t have to have a story that is factually accurate. Yes there are exceptions. Usually these involve celebrities who are not adverse to the old adage of “any publicity is good publicity.” Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster is a Sun classic but in the main we do need facts. What many people don’t understand though is how we use them.

So when you are preparing for media interviews you need to remember that the bits the journalist will use from any survey, research document, government paper, council meeting or interview are always going to be the ones that will grab the headlines. The ones the journalist considers are the most newsworthy. That means you have to be very clear from the start that the information you are giving them, written or spoken, is what you want them to use. In other words you decide beforehand what, ideally, you would like the headline or headline figure to be.

How many times have you heard interviewees complain they have been “taken out of context”? Well I have news for you. The context is in the hands of the journalist. Harsh but true. Don’t think this just applies to the tabloids. It doesn’t. Every time you do an interview, the journalist is going to be picking out the bits most likely to interest the reader. He or she is not there simply to take down your words of wisdom or cut and paste your research/survey/report.

So what can you do about it? At first it may seem there is very little. But actually that isn’t true. You need to think like a journalist and understand what makes a story. You can of course just huff and puff and complain about the non-news content of so many stories which appear now. Or you can see what works and what doesn’t and use that to help get your story and your message across.

A few thoughts...

• Keep it simple. Too many facts and figures and you will lose control of what will be used.
• If you are going to use statistics they have to be rounded up – 37.4% won’t make the cut. Around 40% will. (Yes I know scientists are going to be tearing their hair out at this point).
• Not all facts are headline material. Facts are important but recognise only the most interesting and headline grabbing ones will get used (certainly at the top of the article).
• Remember the journalist is not writing a research paper. It is a story to grab and keep the readers’ attention.
• Plan what it is you want to say. Don’t just amble into an interview and then complain about being taken out of context.

Finally, I loved the conclusion to the carbs v fat story mentioned above. A lovely quote from Prof Susan Jebb from Oxford University who had obviously been asked to comment on the study by the American scientists.

She said: "The investigators rightly conclude that the best diet for weight loss is the diet you can stick to.”

Now that is a fact that no-one can dispute!

Onyx offer media training to test your messaging and ensure you get it right.  All training is with our hardened BBC and broadsheet journalists.  Contact us on info@onyx-pr.com to find out more.