INDUSTRY PROFILES
Sarah Bristow - Media
Q.
Give us a snapshot of your career to date and an overview of your current role?
My background is reporting and producing in radio and television. In more recent years I've predominantly worked in morning television, devising the format and launching multi-platform shows The AM Show and Paul Henry. I've also worked in the highly competitive Australian market, producing both morning and late news shows.
Q.
What are you looking for from PRs – and what kind of pitch would get an immediate response?
Something that answers all my questions in one hit and doesn't take too long to read! We're looking for a point of difference - a story that will surprise, fascinate and inform our audience while providing a different perspective. If you can offer that - I'm interested.
Q.
Do you prefer email or phone pitches, and what is the best time of day/day of the week to catch you?
Email is always best - but a follow up text can be very useful because we get so many emails! Show producers often check out at midday on a Friday... so to be honest, Fridays are never really good.
Q.
During your career, what has your experience been like working with PRs?
I love working with people who are straight up and tell us whether we've got something to ourselves or alternatively, whether our competition has the interview first. Knowing where we stand in line matters a great deal and informs my decision making. It’s great when PRs are transparent about this, and disappointing when they’re not!
Q.
Do you attend many media events and if so, what kind?
I would love to, it's always good mingling and chatting with those we usually only deal with over email. However, the reality is that I am usually at home in the evenings wrangling my three children... but lunches are great ;)
Q.
What do you love about your job?
Truthfully, and I know it sounds cheesy but so much. There’s something so meaningful about reading feedback from audience members who've told us we have been company for them in tough times, challenged their thinking, educated them, made them smile, made them laugh and even made them angry. It means we're connecting with them. Our show is provoking emotion and making our audience engage with us - they are part of the conversation we're having every morning and that makes what we're doing seem worthwhile.
Q.
What's the downside?
That prepping a morning show for air means getting up in the dead of the night.
Q.
Describe a typical day:
My alarm goes off at 3:45am and I read the news straight away to see what's happened while I've been asleep - and make sure my team's jumped on anything worth chasing. I get to the office at 5am (I have a tiny sleep in these days) and make sure we've got the best possible line-up of news and interviews throughout the show. We constantly review the programme line-up, even while we’re live on air. I work with Duncan on his editorials and the Five Things You Need To Know segment, discuss chat points with presenters and producers and then I work my way through the show from beginning to end, subbing scripts and intros and making sure necessary production components are there. I'm in the control room with my team until about 8:30am and then I head to the newsroom to begin working on tomorrow's show. We discuss ideas at a post-show briefing and this doesn't stop until about 9:30pm when I head to bed.
Q.
Your Socials: (Email/Instagram/Twitter)