Cultural PR Conference 2013 Meet the News Journalists

Top news journalists covering cultural stories share their views, experiences and give you the inside scoop on what they look for and how best to pitch to them. You will also have a chance to ask the questions that will help you develop strategies to increase coverage of your venue in the news media.

Session notes
Will Gompertz has been the BBC Arts Editor since 2009. Before that, he was a director at the Tate Gallery for seven years, where he was responsible for the award-winning Tate Online, the UK's most popular art website, and Tate Etc, the UK's highest circulation art magazine. He was voted one of the world's top 50 creative thinkers by the New York-based Creativity Magazine. In 2009 Will wrote and performed a sell-out one-man show at the Edinburgh Fringe called, Double Art History. Will has recently published a new book - What Are You Looking At?: 150 Years of Modern Art in the Blink of an Eye a detailed and entertaining history of Modern Art, from Delacroix to Damien Hirst.

BBC are hungry for arts stories insatiable appetite Run arts and cultural stories all the time New Director General is keen on art stories BBC is really two entities news and then programme making who all compete for stories HOWEVER if it is on Radio 4 Today, then you probably wont get it onto Front Row or Start the Week. If it is a good story however, you might get the 8am radio news bulletin, lunch time radio news bulletin, online story, Today Programme this would be for an exceptional story and can happen. There is a new Radio 4 programme called The Editors (11.30am/7.15pm?) 6-7min packages available to pitch for Longer features could appear on Front Row or Culture Show Hard news stories contact Will: o What is the news angle? o Interesting news angle o Unique o What does the campaign/exhibition say about life today? o Also interested in people commenting on art/culture stories from a right political persuasion. o What issues can Directors or Chief curators talk about? o Archive stories loves them o Brings something new and fresh to your collections, what is hidden away? o Loves doing lives o What issues are at your organisation? Love issues and problems which can be discussed Does not want: Diary stories REMEMBER TV takes time to produce, a good lead time would be 2-3 months to help plan and formulate a story.

Lucy Cotter is the Sky News Arts & Entertainment Correspondent. Lucy covers all the major award ceremonies and red carpet events including the Oscars, EMMYs and BAFTAs, and secures exclusive sit-down interviews with the worlds most influential artists. She also reports live from the Sky News studio in West London on the latest breaking entertainment stories, offering background expertise, insight and analysis. Lucy joined Sky News from ITV where she was the Entertainment Correspondent for London Tonight as well as a regular studio presenter for the programme. Before joining ITV, Lucy worked for Sky Arts on its first Hay-on-Sky series with Mariella Frostrup, presenting highlights from the literary festival. She has also worked for Granada, as a reporter and presenter of their news bulletins, and as a political reporter for their North West political programme.

Dont just pitch to the BBC!! Sky need more arts stories, they will never do as many as the BBC however their audience is huge If you have a story on Sky news TV, it will also be on: o Sky radio

Online Entertainment TV segments 24hr news thus your piece could roll for several hours. Lucy has to pitch for her stories to the Editor so pitches have to be strong and passionate
o o o Sky news has over 106 million in audience and is in 15 countries

8-10 million online viewers 34 million radio listeners Ipad edition Sell in stories to Lucy and her producer Entertainment was recently rebranded as Arts and Entertainment Sky Arts is a huge platform top people at Sky want more arts stories Live slots for Lucy include 8.45am Sunrise and 1.45pm which tends to be more high-brow culture Lucy is sent out to create whole packages during the day which can be shown at 5pm news bulletins. If you pitch a story, make sure you can deliver everything in that story Tell them if it is also appearing in other places Be patience TV takes time and we have to be demanding to an extent our editors are asking for more and more. Cannot promote products Watch sky and listen to find out the tone/usual content Email or phone to pitch but would rather have email first

Jonathan Derbyshire is Culture Editor of the New Statesman. His literary journalism has also appeared in the Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Guardian, New York Sun, Prospect, Times Literary Supplementand Time Out. In 2007, he edited Time Out: 1000 Books to change your life. He has also written reviews for The Philosophers Magazine and New Humanist. Jonathan was formerly a Contributing Editor of Granta and Reviews Editor of The Philosophers Magazine.

Web hits for New Statesman is over 1.2 million unique visitors NS is not a puff magazine serious stories see the magazine as a conversation across the magazine Weekly current affairs issues 100 years old in April 2013 Left-leaning News arts Events to review, profiles available to pitch for Political to arts across one read Books, music, theatre, arts, exhibition reviews Dont phone on a Wednesday Email is preferred

Nick Clark is the arts correspondent at The Independent. He joined the newspaper in June 2007, initially reporting on the stock markets. He has covered beats including the City, and technology, media and telecoms and made the switch to arts in December 2011. He has also contributed articles to the sports section. Prior to joining The Independent Nick reported on financial markets at weekly magazine Financial News.

Dont send reviews news stories! 8.30am pitch to news desk 10am morning conference Deadlines kick in by 4.30pm try not to ring after this time Prefer email, but do ring if its breaking news Straight forward arts Likes Expert analysis Archive hidden stories? Issues, comments from Directors, curators etc News editors are not culturally focused so Nick has to pitch Loves strong opinions

Can write a featury piece, but has to have a news hook Likes research-led pieces Social justice/quirky Likes to talk through potential ideas if you have something bubbling away but cant find the angle There is a daily arts page article works with David Lister Online Independent has 21 Million unique users Once he knows youre reliable hell come back for more!

Jack Malvern has returned to his roots as the arts correspondent at The Times, where he was formerly a general news reporter, arts reporter and editor of the occasionally missed Diary column. He reports on arts, history and things that (hopefully) make readers laugh.

News editors at The Times want more arts stories at least one per day Think about your pitching and Times content Only want very good research stories, only interested in exclusives if there really is something big Newspaper is smaller at the beginning of the week fewer competition then Sunday for Monday stories? News conference is at 10.30am He briefs the News Editor before 10am The more time the better when it comes to formulating stories

All like exclusives, however very happy to work with each other just all running at the same time.

Regional reporters for regional stories, perhaps CC the main arts correspondent in as well? Everyone wants more regional stories from the media outlets People will work to embargoes, but tell them about the story, dont leave a mystery otherwise theyll get bored and wont bother with the story Small arts organisations most prefer national, but are happy to have a look at a good small arts story.