The most important thing of press conference is the news that is going to be delivered. Based on the value of the content, a PR professional decides whether he/she has to conduct a press release, press conference or an exclusive interview.
Here are 6 things one has to keep in mind before conducting a press conference:
Day of conference:
Press conferences are usually held on any day between Tuesday and Friday. Monday is usually avoided because it is hectic day for journalists. Saturday and Sunday are not advisable because most of the journals and magazines don’t publish important news on the weekends.
Time of conference:
The time of press conference is very important. Most of the press conferences are conducted between 12 pm to 3 pm. It is not advisable to conduct a press conference after 4pm, since most of the newspapers decide the headlines and news content for the next day’s paper by this time.
Venue of the conference:
Press conferences are usually conducted in media centers in and around a single locality. This makes it easy for the journalist to travel from one conference to another.
Example: In Chennai, Tamil Nadu most of the press conferences are held in and around T-Nagar locality. Mostly in a group of selected Star Hotels.
External Situation Study:
It is important to study the external situation before conducting a press conference. The chances of news outreach become low if there is any other activity such Sports events and Political problems going on during the time of the press conference.
Train the speaker:
Speaker is the main attraction of a press conference, he/she must be well trained. The Dress code of the speaker must be formal and elegant. It is advisable to keep the content crisp and clean, this avoids long and dull press conferences.
Example: If the medium of content is PowerPoint Presentation, try to fit all the information in 10-15 slides.
Choose a Target Medium:
This is one of the most important jobs of PR professionals, he/she must study the content thoroughly. They must decide its genre and understand the mentality of its target audience. They must decide which form of media will provide maximum exposure for the news.
