It’s all about relationships and trust with Ben McGrail

My visitor today is from the part of the country where I was born - Somerset. Ben McGrail is an ITV journalist, with a role as Somerset correspondent for ITV News, West Country. 

A lot of our discussion is about working within a region, rather than being national. Its easy to think that the pinnacle of a career is to work on a national ‘title’ or for a national ‘programme’ yet it’s not always the case.  

We both agree about the benefits of working in a community that you know well, value and live within. Ben talks about how people often see it as a lack of ambition, not to be aiming for a career move into a national company.  

However, he thinks, rather than being a lack of ambition, wherever he is working, he wants to be the best journalist he can be, do the best job he can. He loves his job, where he lives and his passion is his home – Somerset. 

We talk about the variety of stories that you get working within a community, and in reality, with the web, everything is global anyway.  

Ben says the most important thing when working with someone like him is that it’s all about relationships and trust.  Locals come to recognise you and how you tell a story.  

Over time, they know what you do, and what you won’t do, and won’t say. He found this when revisiting people who had been badly flooded in 2014, and were in danger of being flooded again this year. They were happy to talk to him, because they knew and trusted him.  

He shares what a day in his life looks like, working in Somerset, to get a story in to the news on time. 

We also talk about Ben’s world and the relationship he has with PR companies, and his instinct for recognising people who have only emailed him directly , compared with the ones who send out a ‘catch-all email to several hundred journalists across the UK. 

To contact Ben: 

https://www.facebook.com/McGrailBen 

[email protected] 

If you would like to contact me email [email protected] or visit my website at scottmedia.uk. You can also join my Facebook group: Fiona Scott’s PR Tribe.