Media training for membership organisations

01/ Why associations need it

You speak for members who disagree with each other.

A company spokesperson speaks for one employer. An association spokesperson speaks for hundreds or thousands of members, some of whom compete, and some of whom will read the interview looking for what you got wrong.

That changes the job. The message has to be one the board has agreed, the evidence has to be the sector’s, not one member’s, and the tone has to work for the members who were not consulted.

Journalists call associations because they want the sector view fast. A spokesperson who is ready gets quoted; one who needs a day to check gets replaced by whoever answers the phone.

02/ Who should speak

Match the spokesperson to the story.

The president gives the organisation’s voice on big moments: a policy position, a report launch, the annual conference.

The chief executive handles the continuing relationship with journalists and the questions about the association itself.

Member experts are the most under-used asset. A practising member explaining what a rule change means in a real workplace is often the quote a journalist wants most.

Write down who speaks on what, and who signs off. Ambiguity here is how two people end up saying different things on the same morning.

03/ The message house

One roof, three pillars, evidence underneath.

A message house is a one-page structure for what you want to say. The roof is a single sentence a member would agree with. The pillars are three supporting messages. The foundation is the evidence for each.

Write the roof in words a member would use at the bar, not in strategy language. If the president cannot say it naturally, it will not survive a live interview.

Every figure in the foundation must be sourced and agreed beforehand. An interview is the worst place to discover that a number came from one member’s slide.

04/ Interview formats

Broadcast, print and podcast need different preparation.

Live broadcast gives you a few answers and no edit. The roof message has to come first, in a sentence that stands alone if it is the only thing used.

Pre-recorded broadcast is edited, so every answer should make sense on its own. Avoid answers that rely on the question being heard.

Print interviews are longer and quoted in writing. Accuracy matters more than delivery, and the journalist will check facts; offer the source for every figure.

Podcasts are long and conversational. The risk is drift: forty minutes in, a spokesperson relaxes and gives a personal view as the association’s.

05/ Difficult questions

Rehearse the questions you hope nobody asks.

Every association has them: why members are leaving, why fees went up, what the association did about a scandal in the sector, why it says one thing and some members do another.

List them before the interview and draft a true, short answer to each. Acknowledge the point, give the fact, bridge back to a pillar.

Never mislead to escape a question. CIPR members commit to “deal honestly and fairly” with the public (CIPR Code of Conduct), and a misleading line is the one a journalist checks first.

If something is a live crisis rather than a hard question, it belongs to crisis communications for membership organisations.

06/ Broadcast due impartiality

Why broadcasters will bring in the other side.

UK broadcasters must preserve due impartiality on matters of political or industrial controversy and current public policy (Ofcom Broadcasting Code, rule 5.5).

Ofcom explains that “due” means adequate to the subject, so it does not require equal time for every view, but on major matters an appropriately wide range of significant views must be included (Ofcom, rules 5.11 and 5.12).

For an association, that means an interview on a contested policy will often include a union, a campaigner or a rival body. Prepare for the other voice, and do not treat it as an ambush.

Print is different: newspapers can be partisan, but IPSO’s Editors’ Code still requires them to distinguish clearly between comment, conjecture and fact (IPSO Editors’ Code, clause 1).

07/ Media training for charities

Charity spokespeople have one extra line.

A charity may campaign and speak on policy when that supports its charitable purposes, but in the political arena it must stress its independence and cannot exist for a political purpose (Charity Commission, CC9).

In an interview that means a spokesperson can criticise a policy, explain its effect on beneficiaries and call for change, but should never endorse a party or a candidate.

Brief charity spokespeople on that line before election periods especially. For charity marketing more broadly see membership marketing for charities, and for media work see charity PR.

08/ Keeping spokespeople ready

Prepare before the call, not after it.

Most interview requests arrive with a deadline of hours. Preparation has to happen in quiet weeks.

Refresh the message house when policy changes, practise before each big moment, and debrief after every interview: what was used, what was cut, what to change.

Measure the outcome, not the airtime. AMEC’s Barcelona Principles push evaluation towards outcomes (AMEC Barcelona Principles 4.0); for a spokesperson that means whether the roof message was used and whether members recognised their view in it.

For how the same messages reach members directly, see member communications.