Behind the news with our Head of Press

This article first appeared in the Summer issue of My Countryside, the Countryside Alliance magazine.

Tight deadlines and combating fake news are all part of daily life at the hectic Countryside Alliance press office.

What is an average day in the press office?

We write stories; source quotes; provide the relevant evidence and publish for our own internal communications and for other news outlets to run - either in print or on social media - as well as representing our issues in TV and radio interviews. We scour the daily newspapers and online editions to spot five key countrysiderelated stories to include in our Morning Briefing email which goes out to members. We constantly liaise with colleagues on the various teams within the Alliance to see what messages we should be pushing that day. This can be fast-moving and change at any given time depending on events and any requests coming from the media.

What are the hours of the press office?

We live in a 24/7 news cycle, so we function full-time - day and night - wherever possible to ensure the Alliance features as consistently as it does within news items pertaining to countryside coverage. Saturday and Sunday are crucial days for the print press, so we remain in constant contact with journalists writing stories and reacting to any breaking news.

That must be hectic?

It is vital we are available - often at very short notice or out of hours - when dealing with our core campaigning issues, many of which are particularly newsworthy in the eyes of the press and when working to tight deadlines. We are on constant alert scouring parliamentary updates and other news sources as well as social media, but thanks to technology we can do pretty much all of it wherever we are via smartphone. It's not uncommon for the team to be dealing with journalists on their mobile while out and about, perhaps shopping, or most likely in the countryside whether that be hunting, shooting or taking part in other rural pursuits. If a story that the Alliance has spearheaded has broken during the night, evening plans get put on hold to ensure other news sources receive the information they need to pick up and run.

Who contacts the press office?

Mainly journalists, but we frequently liaise with organisations looking for assistance, or students conducting research. We offer advice to our members as well as various governing bodies on press-related matters and assist those who may feel uncomfortable dealing with the media. As well as being spokespersons on TV and radio, we often have to source other suitable candidates to represent our issues so having a wide network of contacts is critical.

Do you have to deal with fake news?

Journalists often find themselves covering stories with little background knowledge on our issues but most care deeply about covering the facts. We have a good working relationship with contacts at virtually every paper and with many online news outlets. Sometimes we have disagreements and because of the relationships built, we can get a good hearing for balance. Sadly though, there are occasions when we must combat stories which can just be utterly false. For example, one story that went viral about Brits flying to Iceland to shoot puffins to import back, was just blatantly untrue. We provided the facts and most papers pulled the story. This happens regularly and we are usually successful in correcting the original article.