CIPR Corporate and Financial Group lunchtime meeting with Tim Weber BBC Online on Tuesday 13 April 2010
Notes by Sally Carpenter with additional reporting by Simon Sanders
Tim Weber, business editor of BBC News (interactive and radio), is in charge of business output on domestic radio news programmes and all interactive services (the BBC News website, Ceefax) plus the technology section of the BBC news site. His team covers the business news on: Radio 5 Live, Radio 4's Today programme; Radio 2 Drive Time. He's part of the Business and Economics Unit - in the same team as Peston, Pym etc. The team is very busy and thinly stretched.
Some stats
The BBC News website has a daily reach of about 6.5 million unique users and the business pages reach about 1.5 million readers. Big stories mean an uplift and HBOS / Lloyds scoop by Peston saw figures reach 2.6m daily. The tech pages will reach 400k daily and 2m weekly.
About the offering
Tim explained: "We try to position ourselves as a provider of business news for the licence-payer, ie more of a general than business audience." When many PRs may be hiding under the duvet, the BBC targets their first business audience with Radio 5 Live's "Wake up to Money" at 5.30 am, a programme that attracts 350,000 - 400,000 listeners described as "a high profile chunky audience" of City and commercial people. Business coverage continues with the Today programme's business news at 6.15 am and shorter business slots later in the programme and onto pm Drive Time on Radio 2.
Radio 5 Live's audience tends to be more consumer facing.
70% of the audience of the BBC News website's business pages is based in the UK and there is a large US audience.
BBC has changed news output in past three years - instead of getting 35 calls going in to lots of different contacts, everything is planned round a centralised diary (more below) and is much better integrated with the planning team always looking across opportunities for coming days. Should mean there will be just one contact for PR people on a story who will coordinate interest for you, no need to contact many different people.
"Business is boring" might have been the perception of some BBC editors but this has changed today and measurements of website use have proved that listeners find business topics interesting.
Unlike many organisations, the BBC does not copy and paste from agency reports, journalists always write their own copy and ensure they provide sufficient context to make their stories accessible to non-specialist listeners and readers.
Culling emails is a ruthless process - Tim gets 300 emails a day and is "an equal-opportunities deleter" of emails. He rarely clicks on links or attachments.
Tips for pitching stories
- Tim's bugbear - PR people with little or no knowledge of the website or programmes - a little research has great value!
- He's in the "news not olds" business.
- Long term planning - it is helpful to submit dates, details of events etc for the forward planning diary as these are shared across the media centre (so no need to contact more than one person at this stage); but it is also useful to follow-up on the day. The best way to get in touch is via bizplan@bbc.co.uk. Contact a programme directly only if the story is immediate and only contact Tim if it is a very big or very unusual story. There is no holding a story for the 10 O'Clock News on TV - they will go live across all platforms including text, audio and video clips when they have them.
- A good way to think about the different media is as follows: "Radio - like to plan ahead for stories. TV - tend to 'wrap-up' stories but....Online - this is 'now o'clock' and we will publish as quick as we can."
- Details of potential stories are cascaded through the departments.
- Surveys - these are treated with scepticism, generally a minimum sample of 1,000 respondents is required before they are perceived to have value (unless it is a survey of the FTSE 100!).
- The editors are always interested to hear if they can have access to someone not usually available for interview.
- Do not be precious about your client - make them available to 5 Live as well as Radio 4 Today programme. Tim doesn't like it when people say either they will / won't only do this show - e.g. Radio 2 is the most listened to station in Europe and far more likely to reach consumer audience.
- Radio 5 Live - you can't choose who will interview you but will be the business team (Andy Verity, Nick Cosgrove) so someone who understands business - and, if you stick to your point with them, you are likely to cut a good figure.
- Grab the opportunity for an interview - it is better for a senior executive or spokesperson to talk about your company than to leave it to a less well informed third party.
- Field the right spokesperson for the right topic - a global company should offer an international decision-maker rather than the UK MD if he or she does not have the experience or the wider picture.
- The Friday "Boss" slot on Radio 4's Today programme is a longer slot and is not results-related so is a chance for executives to put across wider issues. It offers good profile and the unit is always willing to have new people put forward.
Other points
- The global visibility of the BBC through BBC World Service with a reach of 230 million weekly shouldn't be ignored.
- Twitter - Tim twitters and recommends using it to gauge instant reaction to a problem, it flags up stories and may also flag up gossip about a client.
- "Market guest" slots give fund managers an opportunity to have a presence on air.
- 5 Live's move to Salford was mentioned, some interviews will still be in London.
- BBC News website hopes to relaunch at the end of May - it is hoped that it will be "stickier", keeping readers on the site for longer.
Good PR is important for journalists - we just need to avoid swamping journalists with irrelevant press releases.
Sally Carpenter is an experienced communicator with knowledge of the financial and corporate sectors. She focuses on brand building, product launches and organizing unusual events for clients and their prestigious guests. Sally has a special interest in food and farming.
Simon Sanders is Head of Digital, Lansons Communications.