We all know it’s been coming. The signs have been there for some time. The media silly season is upon us.
For me, it’s when the stories about sharks start circling that we know we’re in too deep. The Telegraph sought to surf the SEO wave of public interest by concentrating on ‘where to spot them’. The Sun had no such qualms about upping the ante, asking pretty much the question we all want the answer to: ‘how common are shark attacks and are there great whites in Britain?’ Even the BBC got in on the act.
Full marks, however, go to the Express, who even MAPPED (their caps) the shark threat hotspots round the UK, renamed the ruthless marine killers ‘Danger sharks’ and used the phrase ‘ominous fins’ in case you weren’t panicking enough already. If only Robert Shaw’s Quint had been an Express reader, with that sort of research at his gnarled finger tips, ‘Jaws’ would have been wrapped up in under half an hour.
News-wise, it’s not likely to get any better either. Traditional sources of media interest are drying up faster than the UK’s reservoirs. The World Cup’s over. Wimbledon’s over. Parliament is in recess. Brexit will rumble on, of course, in many ways like one long silly season story in itself. Dreamt up two years ago and scrawled on the back of a fag packet (or, rather, the side of a bus), but so far-fetched it’s proving impossible to refute.
We’ve all – everyone of us – become much more savvy and switched-on to this media-saturated world. I’m old enough to remember when the phrase ‘slow news day’ wouldn’t be used outside the media but now everyone says it. It’s become over-used, lazily-invoked and is almost always employed as a cynical critique.
But, for those of us who work in the PR and media relations industries, a slow news day is a day of opportunity. A silly season is a whole summer of it. Securing media coverage is a competitive business. But when the agenda gets a little quieter, papers don’t stop printing, websites don’t close down and the 24-hour news cycle doesn’t stop churning. It stands to reason that if you take a few of the traditional news-space-fillers out of the equation then there’s more room left for everyone else.
If you want to raise your profile, or promote your business, or project your message – this next month is a great opportunity. Get your story together. Research your media. Look at the news cycle. Have an angle. Plan ahead. Make yourself available. Take all these things into account and you’re much more likely to make your mark in the media – and that applies whatever the season.
It’s a bit like getting yourself in shape before you go in for the kill. Like a great white shark off the coast of Torquay…
If you’d like some help with your media relations, please get in touch.
Richard Ellis Communications 