Spotlight On...Joe Paxton
(23 June 2017)
Joe Paxton, News and Media Relations Officer
As the News and Media Relations Officer for Humanities, what advice would you give to academics who are looking to enhance their media presence?
The main thing is to not be afraid of approaching the media yourself, even if it’s just with an idea for an article or a quote about current affairs relevant to your area of expertise. Journalists really like establishing relationships with academics who they can speak to quickly and directly, so direct approaches (ideally through Twitter – they all love it) are really effective. Don’t think you need some new ground-breaking research or a press release – that’s not the case at all.
However, if you do have some new research and you think it will be of interest to a wide audience, please do let me know – the channels at my disposal, as well as those of other communications people at the university, will give your work a much wider audience and raise your profile – which can of course lead to more funding in the future.
What’s the most challenging aspect of working with the media on a day to day basis?
The toughest aspect is developing solid relationships with key journalists. As well as being hugely busy and beholden to the news agenda and the whims of their editors, they receive scores of press releases, pitches and requests every day, so breaking through that to get their attention can be difficult. I have to try to ensure I really target what I share with them, so they don’t send my messages straight into their spam folders, as well as being inventive with the way I pitch things – press releases can be seen as a little old fashioned, so if there is another method of promoting something using video content or social media, I always try to use that.
What’s the piece of work that you’re most proud of completing?
Since starting at the University last year, I am most proud of successfully getting our stories out on new channels like AJ+ videos and Huffington Post blogs - shareable content like this is the future of media, and gives the University great exposure.
My career highlight so far is the complete relaunch of the brand and digital presence for a previous employer, which was widely praised across the NHS and won several awards. It fills me with pride to visit Wythenshawe & Withington Hospitals today and see the legacy of that work still in evidence.
Outside work, it is the completion of my Postgraduate Diploma, which was the most intensive thing I have ever had to do – it gave me an enormous amount of respect for academics!
If you could go anywhere in the world for two weeks, where would you go and why?
If I had two weeks (and a lot of money), I’d fly to Helsinki, get a train to Lappeenranta, rent a luxury boat and sail around the beautiful Finnish lakelands for a fortnight. It looks stunningly beautiful, and is one of those rare places where the only noises you’ll hear are wildlife, wind and water. I’ll do it one day!