Coverage
Five desks, each holding the standing notes for one kind of communications work.
How organisations plan what they say to journalists, who says it, and what happens after a story runs.
Media relations is the part of communications work that deals directly with journalists and the outlets they write for. It covers the research that happens before anyone is approached, the material an organisation prepares, the approach itself, and the record kept afterwards.
What an incident communications plan contains, how a first statement is written, and what a review afterwards should look at.
Crisis communication is planning work that is occasionally used under pressure. Almost all of its value is created in advance, when there is time to decide who speaks, what can be said before the facts are settled, and how information will move inside the organisation while an incident is running.
The audiences inside an organisation, the channels that reach them, and why manager cascades succeed or fail.
Internal communication treats the people inside an organisation as an audience with its own needs rather than as a group that will absorb whatever is sent to customers. It is the desk most often given the least time and the one whose failures surface fastest.
How public affairs differs from press work, what a consultation response contains, and why transparency registers matter.
Public affairs is the part of communications concerned with government, regulators and the wider policy process. It shares research and writing craft with media relations but its audiences, timelines and disclosure obligations are different.
What a communications report is for, how objectives are framed so they can be tested, and how to report honestly when the result is mixed.
Measurement is the desk where communications work either becomes accountable or becomes decorative. Its purpose is to let an organisation decide what to do next, which means a report is written for the decision it is meant to inform rather than for the impression it makes.