Report Reveals Media Training Best Practices

For immediate release                                  Contact:         Ed Barks
Monday, May 15, 2023                                                        (703) 533-0403
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Most companies pursue a media training strategy that fails to provide maximum benefit.

That’s the contention of the updated research report  titled The Lasting Effects of Media Training: Long-term Strategies for Developing Stellar Spokespeople by Barks Communications President Ed Barks

“It’s all about sustained professional development,” said Barks. “Companies that grasp that fact stand to extract maximum benefit from their media training program. Those that hew to the outdated ritual of trotting a group of executives through a single half-day workshop risk losing out on their business and public policy goals.”

As he writes in the report, “The fact is a single media training workshop, in and of itself, is of relatively negligible long-term value. One lone day will do little to fast forward your communications strategy. Rather, it is the results that a continual media training program helps to achieve — a shinier brand, a promotion on the job, victory before lawmakers and regulators — that matter.”

Barks regularly updates his research to keep matters current for his clients and other readers. “The Lasting Effects of Media Training” was last updated in 2018. “I’ve written three books in the interim and published a second edition of a fourth, so figured it’s time for another look at the media training landscape, particularly in light of changes the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought,” he said.

The report includes an entirely new section on remote training options held on such services as Zoom and Teams. It notes, “Smart businesses help their spokespeople get up to speed on the finer points of remote video interviews for, born of the pandemic necessity, Zoom and similar video platforms have become a common choice for news outlets.”

Regarding the value of remote learning, Barks writes, “I am not going to try to convince you that remote professional development options are on a par with in person sessions. I have argued for years that they are not, and have not changed that view. My estimate is that remote trainings can provide approximately 70 to 80 percent of the value as compared to in person workshops. Still, that percentage is better than zero.”

The full report is available as a bonus when joining Barks’ Communications Community.

Ed Barks is an author and communications strategy consultant who works on extended engagements with Fortune 1000, Inc. 500, and association clients that want to refine their message and sharpen their executives’ communications skills. They gain an enhanced reputation, greater confidence, more opportunities for career advancement, and achievement of long-term business and public policy goals. He is the author of four books: Insider Strategies for the Confident Communicator, Reporters Don’t Hate You, A+ Strategies for C-Suite Communications, and The Truth About Public Speaking. As President of Barks Communications, he has taught more than 5700 spokespeople how to succeed when they deal with the media, deliver presentations, and advocate before policymakers.

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