Tag: Media Training

Blog posts tagged by Mangold Consultancy experts relating to Media Training, one of the key services offered by Mangold Consultancy.

Posted on

What my father taught me about media interview preparation

Tom Mangold & Abby Mangold

My Dad, Tom Mangold, always said, “When I sit down in the chair opposite the interviewee, I need to know even more than they do.”  That is something he did, and it’s the standard I bring to media interview preparation today.

He spent decades as an investigative journalist with BBC Panorama. Working on the kind of stories that took months, even years to produce.

I grew up watching him prepare. Files everywhere. Notes covering every surface. Questions written, rewritten, scenarios mapped out. He’d know the story better than the person who’d lived it.

It’s not about catching people out. It’s about knowing the facts.

When you know the subject as he did, the interview changes. You’re not fishing. You’re not guessing. You’re having a conversation with someone who can tell you’re not winging it.

The people I work with now, executives preparing for media interviews, spokespeople getting ready for a crisis often ask how much preparation is enough.

I tell them what I watched my father do for 40 years.

You prepare until you know it better than the journalist sitting opposite you.

Not to control the conversation. To be credible in it.

That’s the difference between someone who sounds like they’re following a script and someone who actually knows what they’re talking about.
Preparation isn’t about perfect answers.

It’s about understanding the story so well that you can have a real conversation about it.

My father knew that. It’s why journalists trusted him, and why the people he interviewed, even when the questions were difficult, respected the process.

The best interviews aren’t performances. They’re conversations between two people who’ve both done their homework.

If your spokespeople need to walk into an interview knowing the story better than the journalist does, that’s exactly what we help build. Get in touch to find out more about our media training and presentation skills sessions.

Join the discussion on LinkedIn »

 

Posted on

Understanding crisis communication from a journalist’s perspective

PR Week - Burson Marsteller appoints Watchdog producer for crisis comms

Year: 2012. When I made the jump from BBC to crisis communications.

15 years producing undercover investigations for programmes like Watchdog taught me how journalists think, how they work and what they’re looking for when they ask questions.

That’s the foundation of everything I do now. Training spokespeople isn’t about teaching them to dodge questions, it’s about understanding what’s coming and being prepared for it.

The best crisis communicators I work with think like journalists. They know what the story is before the reporter does. They anticipate the follow-up questions. They understand what will get used and what won’t.

That doesn’t come from reading a media training handbook. It comes from knowing how the other side operates.

I’ve now run Mangold Consultancy for over a decade, but this is still where it all started: understanding crisis communication from the journalist’s perspective first.

If you’d like your spokespeople to think the way journalists do, not just prepare for them, get in touch to find out how our media training works, or learn more about the team behind Mangold Consultancy.

Join the discussion on LinkedIn »

 

Posted on

6 things I wish I knew starting out in crisis communications

6 things I wish I knew starting out in crisis communications

If you’re starting out in crisis communications – welcome! Here are 6 things I wish someone had told me when I began.

I spent 15 years at the BBC before moving into crisis comms. These are the things that mattered most.

Journalists aren’t trying to trap you. They’re trying to file a story under deadline pressure.

The platform changes everything. What works on LinkedIn bombs on TikTok.
Crises don’t start where you think. They start in Reddit comments and Slack channels, days before the media calls.

Most media training still prepares you for TV/radio interviews. Short answers, tight messages, pivot back to your points. But podcasts are different – and most people don’t realise until they’re forty minutes in and still being asked follow-up questions.

Preparation matters more than the plan. The organisations that handle crises well have tested it with their people in a simulation.

Your job isn’t what you think. You’re not here to control the narrative. You’re here to be credible when everything else is chaos.

6 things I wish I knew starting out in crisis communications

6 things I wish I knew starting out in crisis communications

Whether you’re new to crisis communications or looking to sharpen your team’s approach, we can help you build the muscle memory that matters. Get in touch to find out more about our training and crisis planning services.

 

Join the discussion on LinkedIn »

 

Posted on

What 15 years at the BBC taught me about crisis communications

Abby Mangold Media Interview

I spent 15 years at the BBC making undercover programmes like Watchdog, before moving into crisis communications.

Programmes that required journalists and lawyers and Directors of Communications all wanting different things. All under deadline pressure. All wanting to protect something – the story, the legal position, the organisation.

That’s not so different from crisis communications. You’re just wearing different hats.

The undercover work taught me how to stay calm when things are moving fast. How to manage difficult conversations with people who are angry or scared. How to balance competing interests when there’s no perfect answer.

In a crisis, you need both sides. You need the journalist’s instinct to know what the real story is. And you need the comms person’s discipline to think about how it lands with your audience.

 

Curious about the team behind Mangold Consultancy and how that background shapes our approach to crisis work? Get in touch, or find out more about our crisis management services.

Join the discussion on LinkedIn »

 

Posted on

Why podcast training needs a different approach to TV

Abby Mangold Interview

What works in live TV interviews is probably not going to work in podcasts. Here’s what to do instead, and why podcast training needs to look different.

I’ve been watching this pattern for the past few years. Someone gets invited onto a podcast. They prepare the same way they would for a broadcast interview. Tight messages. Clear soundbites. Three key points to hit.

Then they sit down for ninety minutes with a host who wants to explore, not extract.

And it falls apart.

On TV, you have a few seconds. Maybe a minute or two if it’s a longer segment. The journalist asks a question, you give a disciplined answer, you pivot to your message. If you don’t want to answer something, you acknowledge and redirect.

The whole thing moves fast. You can deflect and the interview is over before anyone notices.

Podcasts don’t work like that.

You’re in a conversation, they want to hear you. The host isn’t rushing to the next segment. If you give a clipped answer, they’ll ask again. If you deflect, they’ll circle back twenty minutes later. If you keep pivoting to your message, you’ll sound like a politician and the audience will notice.

I’ve seen people show up with media training and try to stay “on message” for sixty minutes. It sounds robotic. The host gets frustrated. The conversation never finds a rhythm.

Or they do the opposite. They relax too much. They think it’s just a chat. And they say things they’d never say on camera.

Both are mistakes.

TV interviews are about control. You control your message, your time, your exposure. The format allows for that.

Podcasts are about depth. The audience is choosing to spend an hour with you. They’re not looking for soundbites. They’re looking for substance. For stories. For the parts of your thinking that don’t fit into a three-minute segment.

That requires different preparation.

You still need to know what you won’t talk about. You still need to be clear on your position. But you also need to be comfortable exploring ideas, telling longer stories, following the conversation where it goes.

Most people don’t prepare for that. They show up thinking it’s just a relaxed version of a TV interview.
It’s not.

We train people differently for podcasts. Less about message discipline, more about narrative discipline. Less about deflecting questions, more about knowing when to stop talking. Less about soundbites, more about building an argument over time.

The executives who do podcasts well, understand this. They’re not trying to control the conversation. They’re trying to have a real one whilst staying within boundaries they’ve set for themselves.

That’s harder than it sounds. Because for ninety minutes, you can’t hide behind a polished message. You have to actually think on your feet. You have to be interesting. You have to sound like a human, not a press release.
Podcast training is different.

And if you don’t adjust, the podcast will expose it.

If you’ve got a podcast appearance coming up and you’re preparing the way you would for TV, it’s worth a rethink. Get in touch to find out how our media training covers long-form formats, not just soundbites.

Join the discussion on LinkedIn »

 

 

 

Posted on

Why crisis communications orthodoxy no longer works

Abby Mangold at the Media Scoiety

I wrote an article for The Media Society on why crisis communications orthodoxy is no longer working.

The old rulebook assumes crises happen one at a time. That you’ll have time to establish facts, gather your team, and carefully plan your response. That internal comms will reach employees before they see it on X.

None of that is true anymore.

I’ve watched this pattern in dozens of simulations: organisations handle the first crisis competently. Then we introduce a second issue twenty minutes later: a regulatory inquiry whilst managing employee grievances, social media escalation coinciding with media pressure. The collapse happens predictably.

The problem isn’t the plan. It’s that we’ve prepped for an environment that no longer exists.

Crisis communications now happens in a permacrisis era where disparate crises interact, where misinformation spreads six times faster than truth, where one social media post can catapult you into immediate crisis mode.

Documents can’t think. They can’t adapt to unanticipated conditions. It’s people who manage a crisis, and they need to be ready.

What needs to change:

  • Practice with your people regularly
  • Use tech as your 24/7 team member for monitoring
  • Simplify – decision-making committees are the enemy in a crisis
  • Prepare spokespeople for difficult questions, not the ones they’d like to be asked
  • Own your social media spaces before the crisis hits

The full article is on The Media Society Substack.

If your crisis plan still assumes one issue at a time, it may be worth pressure testing it against something closer to reality. Get in touch to talk about crisis planning and preparation, or find out more about running a simulation with your team.

 

Join the discussion on LinkedIn »

Posted on

AI changed crisis communications, but not the playbook

AI changed crisis communications, but not the playbook

The crisis communications playbook hasn’t been rewritten. But the distribution model has. Here’s what changed in the last twelve months, and what it means for crisis communications in 2026.

 

If you’re not sure how your organisation would show up if someone asked ChatGPT or Perplexity about you mid-crisis, that’s worth finding out before you need to. Get in touch to talk through how prepared you are.

Join the discussion on LinkedIn »

Posted on

14 years in crisis communications: 6 lessons that matter

2012-2026: 14 years in crisis communications: 6 lessons that matter from Abby Mangold

 

I’ve spent 14 years in crisis communications. Here are the 6 things I think matter most.

1. People manage crises not plans

I’ve watched organisations with brilliant crisis protocols completely fall apart because the person who needed to use them had never opened the document.

The CEO freezes when asked a basic question. The spokesperson defaults to jargon. The plan was perfect. The people weren’t ready.

Documents can’t think. They can’t adapt when something unexpected happens. People manage crises. And if they haven’t practiced, the plan won’t save them.

2. Credibility beats control every time

You can’t control what gets posted about you. You can’t control how fast misinformation spreads. You definitely can’t control the narrative once it’s out there.

What you can control: whether people believe you when you finally respond.

And much of that is built before the crisis hits, not during it.

3. Spokespeople need muscle memory, not talking points

One media training session doesn’t work.

People need to practice answering the challenging questions repeatedly until the response is instinctive. Out loud. Under pressure. With someone pushing back on their answers.

That’s the only thing that holds up when a journalist asks “Are you saying the customer is wrong?” and you have two seconds to respond.

4. Speed matters more than legal perfection

I get it. Legal needs to review. But by the time your statement clears three rounds of edits, thousands of people have already formed opinions based on something false.

Sometimes fast and good enough beats slow and perfect.

Not always, but typically more often than most organisations realise.

5. Monitor where crises actually start

Not The Times. Not the BBC.

Reddit threads. Industry forums. Discord servers.

That’s where your crisis is building whilst you’re watching traditional media and thinking everything’s fine.

I’ve seen this pattern repeat: the issue’s been spreading on Reddit for three days before it crosses over to X, then journalists notice, then your CEO finds out.

By then, you’re not managing the crisis. You’re fighting misinformation.

6. Pattern recognition is the real skill

I’ve run many crisis simulations. The pattern is often the same.

Organisations handle the first issue competently. Decision-making works. Communications activate. Then we introduce a second issue twenty minutes later.

The collapse happens predictably.

The crisis team becomes a bottleneck. Spokespeople freeze. Internal comms fail because employees are getting contradictory information.

That’s what you need to prepare for. Not one crisis. But at least two happening simultaneously.

14 years between these photos. Still learning.

If your organisation hasn’t pressure-tested its crisis response, now is a good time to start. Get in touch to talk through how prepared your team really is, or find out more about our crisis management and media training services.

Join the discussion on LinkedIn »

Posted on

How to know if you and your team actually need media training

Mangold Consultancy Media Training

Someone asked me recently: “How do I know if we actually need media training?”

Fair question.

Because most organisations don’t think about media training until they need it urgently. Which is usually too late to prepare properly.

So here’s my answer.

You probably need media training if any of these sound familiar:

  • Your CEO is brilliant in the boardroom but has never been on camera.
  • You’ve got a big announcement coming up and nobody has rehearsed how to talk about it under pressure.
  • Your senior team keeps saying “we should probably do some training” but it never quite happens.
  • You’ve got spokespeople who are technically expert but go blank the moment a microphone appears.
  • Someone is about to do their first major interview and you’re crossing your fingers rather than feeling confident.
  • You’re preparing for something difficult – a restructure, an incident, a sensitive topic and you know the questions are going to be uncomfortable.

If any of these sound familiar, you’re already later than you should be.

Not catastrophically late. Just late enough that it’s worth sorting now rather than waiting until it becomes urgent.

Because the difference between a spokesperson who has practised under pressure and one who hasn’t is immediately obvious.

To them. To you. To everyone watching.

The work isn’t complicated.

We put people in front of a camera. We ask them difficult questions. We watch it back together. We fix what’s fixable.

By the end of the day, they’ve seen themselves do it. And that’s what builds confidence – not being told they’ll be fine, but watching themselves actually do it.

If you’re in that position where you know someone needs to be ready and you’re not entirely sure they are, that’s what we do.

Worth sorting before it becomes urgent.

The best time to prepare for a media interview is before the request arrives. If you want to ensure your leaders are confident and ready for the camera, find out more about our media training and presentation skills.

 

Posted on

How to handle difficult questions and avoid media traps

How to handle difficult questions

15 years at the BBC taught me something most spokespeople never learn: difficult questions are often only challenging because of how they are structured.

Journalists use the same question types over and over again. Once you recognise the pattern, you can see where they’re heading before they finish the sentence.

And that changes everything about how you prepare.

I’ve mapped out the 5 most common difficult questions, the ones that catch spokespeople out every single time.

Learn to spot these and you’ll stop walking into traps you didn’t see coming.

The five difficult questions

Recognising the pattern of a question is the first step toward a successful interview. If you want to practise handling the toughest enquiries in a safe environment, find out more about our media training sessions.

Posted on

Are our people ready? Why practical preparation is vital for spokespeople

Abby Mangold of Mangold Consultancy

I’ve been doing this work for over 25 years now, and the conversations I have with new clients almost always start with the same question: “Are our people ready?”

They ring because something is happening or about to happen that needs a spokesperson.

  • A product launch.
  • A difficult announcement.
  • An interview opportunity.
  • Sometimes a crisis that’s already started.

And the underlying question is always: “Are our people ready for this?”

Not “do they have the key messages.”

Are they ready? Can they handle the difficult questions without sounding evasive? Do they know where a journalist is heading before they get there? Can they sound like themselves under pressure not like a script?

If the answer to any of those is “I’m not sure,” that’s when we start working together.

Most of the work I do falls into three areas.

  • Media training preparing spokespeople to handle interviews, difficult questions and high-pressure moments without sounding robotic or exposed.
  • Crisis communications working alongside leadership teams when something has happened that needs managing carefully and quickly.
  • Executive profiling helping senior leaders find their voice, which holds up under scrutiny.

It’s not theoretical work.

Instead, it’s practical, it’s rehearsal, it’s watching yourself back and seeing exactly what needs fixing before the moment actually matters.

If you’re in that position, where you’ve got people who need to be ready and you’re not entirely sure they are, that’s the work we do.

And it’s worth getting it right.

If you have an upcoming announcement or a difficult conversation on the horizon, don’t leave your reputation to chance. Explore our corporate communications services to see how we can help your leaders find their voice.

Posted on

What changes during a media training session

Workshop with Mangold Consultancy

Before every training session, I send clients a short questionnaire to understand their specific goals and anxieties.

One question I always ask: “What are you most nervous about?”

The answers are remarkably consistent.

  • “I overcomplicate things when I’m under pressure.”
  • “I’m worried I won’t be able to answer a question.”
  • “I worry I’ll sound robotic if I stick to the key messages.”

What’s interesting is that by the end of the session, almost none of them are still worried about those things.

Not because we’ve eliminated the nerves.

But because they’ve seen themselves do it.

And that changes everything.

If you want to move past the nerves and find out what you are truly capable of in front of a camera, we can help. Discover how our tailored media training sessions can build your confidence and clarity.

Posted on

Why organisations must do more to prepare their leaders for the media

Abby Mangold of Mangold Consultancy

I had a conversation recently about how organisations prepare their leaders that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.

A very senior leader. Impressive organisation. Genuinely good communicator in the room.

I asked him: “If a journalist called you right now, what would you say?”

He smiled. “I’d refer them to our comms team.”

I pushed. “The comms team is unavailable. It’s you or no-one.”

The smile disappeared.

He had no answer.

And this is the thing that keeps me up at night about how organisations prepare their leaders.

We invest enormous amounts of time crafting the perfect statement.

The approved lines. The holding response. The Q&A document.

And then we hand it all to one person who has never once practised saying any of it out loud.

Under pressure.

With a camera on them.

Without the document in front of them.

A statement on paper and a spokesperson under pressure are two completely different things.

I’ve watched polished statements fall apart in thirty seconds because the person delivering them hadn’t rehearsed uncertainty.

Hadn’t practised the pause.

Hadn’t decided what they’d say when the journalist ignored the prepared answer and asked something else entirely.

Preparation isn’t the document.

Preparation is the person.

A prepared statement is only half the battle. If you want to ensure your team can handle the heat of a real interview, find out more about our media training and presentation skills sessions.

Posted on

Overcoming the fear of media interviews through training

Overcoming the fear of media interviews

She came into the session convinced she was terrible at media interviews.

Fifteen years of experience. A genuine expert in her field.

But the moment a camera appeared, everything she knew seemed to disappear.

“I overcomplicate everything,” she told me beforehand. “I try to get across five points when one would do.”

At least she knew it.

What she didn’t know was why it kept happening and that it was completely fixable.

By the end of the day and the final interview, she watched herself back on camera and said something I hear more often than you’d think.

“I felt so much better prepared, and you can see that when I’m answering – such a big difference from my first interview!”

And it was.

It took just a few hours to help her find her voice.

If you or your team feel hesitant about facing the camera, our media training can help you find your voice and speak in media interviews with confidence. Please get in touch to see how we can help you prepare for your next interview.

Posted on

Why spokesperson preparation is the most important part of a crisis response

The Spokesperson Brief

Most organisations spend hours perfecting a statement but overlook spokesperson preparation.

They then hand that statement to someone who has often not seen it before that morning, and wonder why the interview doesn’t land.

A statement is only as strong as the person delivering it. Which means spokesperson preparation isn’t optional, it’s the most important part of your entire crisis response.

Over the years, I’ve developed a pre-interview brief I give every spokesperson before they face a journalist.

Not a script. Not a list of things to avoid. Rather, a brief that means they walk into that interview knowing exactly where they stand.

This is it.

The spokesperson brief

A strong statement is only effective if the person delivering it is ready for the pressure of a journalist’s questions. If you need to ensure your leaders are fully prepared, find out more about our media training and preparation services.

Posted on

How I would build a crisis response team today

Abby Mangold Working with small team

This is how I would build a crisis response team today (in the age of AI and fake videos).

This is based on what I have seen work when scrutiny is high and the margin for error is small.

First, I look for judgement before speed.

Fast reactions feel competent, but poor decisions travel quickly and are hard to pull back.

Second, I want people who are comfortable saying “we do not know yet”.

Credibility is damaged far more by speculating than by honesty.

Third, strong writing under pressure matters more than ever. Clear sentences. Plain language. No internal jargon.

If your team cannot write well at speed, no tool will fix it – even AI.

Fourth, human insight cannot be automated.

AI can summarise information.

It cannot read fear, anger or uncertainty in an audience.

Fifth, senior leaders value people who are willing to challenge them.

The right advice can be unpopular.

The strongest crisis teams stop bad decisions early.

Sixth, understanding how the media actually work is non-negotiable.

Not how organisations wish it worked.

Headlines, timelines and silence all carry consequences.

Finally, rehearsal beats reaction every time.

The most effective crisis teams I have worked with have practised long before they needed to perform.

AI can support crisis communications BUT It will not replace judgement, preparation or leadership under pressure.

If you are reviewing your crisis readiness for the year ahead, this is the capability mix I would prioritise if  building a crisis response team today.

Get in touch to find out more how Mangold Consultancy can help with your crisis readiness

Posted on

Media training in Central London with a friend turned client

This is D, one of my oldest school friends.

When she approached me a few weeks ago to media train her I had to give it some thought.

Would I be able to separate our long friendship and deliver the training she needed as a business owner and expert? Would we end up wasting too much time gossiping and discussing our old raving days (please note the trainers)!

It was a no-brainer, as a successful Mum and business owner, just like me, I knew I owed it to her to treat her just like any other client.

She was the model participant, she listened, took the advice and feedback, handled some very nasty questions and came out the other end having massively improved AND with a smile on her face, as did I.

I love working at the ctn group studio in Central London, you could not find a more accommodating, welcoming, realistic and private location for media training.

 

Posted on

The one question that shapes every crisis communication strategy

There’s one question I’ve asked in dozens of boardrooms, training rooms and crisis management rooms over the years.

No matter the sector, the size of the organisation or the titles in the room – it always changes the energy.

I usually wait for the right moment. The conversation is flowing. People are confident. They think they’re prepared.

Then I ask it.

“What’s the one thing you’ve not told me that you hope no one ever finds out?”

It’s not about digging for secrets. It’s about surfacing risk. Because that’s usually where the real vulnerability lives and where the real comms work begins.

You cannot build a credible crisis comms strategy without being truly honest about what would do the real damage, if revealed.

That one question has shaped entire strategies. It has revealed gaps, rebuilt trust and prepared teams for headlines they never thought they’d face.

What’s the hardest question you’ve ever had to ask a client or a leader? I’d love to hear.

At Mangold Consultancy we help teams prepare for crisis situations through practical communication training. Get in touch to find out more

Posted on

Media training insights from senior leadership teams

What do you believe are your areas of weakness?

I’ve spent the morning preparing for a media training session.

Every person we train is asked to complete a pre-training questionnaire, which means that we create content that is focused solely on them – addressing what they believe are their strengths, weaknesses, hopes and fears.

It is a fascinating insight into the minds of CEOs and Senior Leadership Teams and arguably the most important part of the jigsaw puzzle to anticipate how the training session is going to run…

To the question ‘what do you believe are your areas of weakness?’
We tend to get a version of the following: not being able to answer all the questions, handling difficult questions, speaking too quickly etc

But today I’ve just read the answer ‘that I am a bit woo’

This is both a unique and brilliantly intriguing answer, and I am now seriously looking forward to the training!

Posted on

Why it matters to write human for spokespeople

A little plea for all those writing content for spokespeople…

(Also included the sounds of a panting dog and multiple birds!)

Just a little plea from me today to anybody writing statements that they want their spokespeople to use verbally.

Please write human.

I have lost count of the number of answers to challenging questions that have clearly just been written.

Nobody’s tried to say it.

It’s only when you try and say things, that you realise the language simply doesn’t work.

You are making your spokespeople sound like robots. You are making your spokespeople sound like they’re just reading from a script and it’s not convincing anyone.

So just a little plea from me. Please, if you’re giving someone something to say verbally, say it out loud first and please write human.