Absolutely not! This has been a discussion all week and I am here to just give a summary. Here are my pointers:
📌Facilitation: Established media houses have production budgets. This covers the production cost of doing particular shows. If you are being interviewed during unsociable hours like early mornings or late nights, the media can facilitate your travel and meal arrangements. These things are discussed way before the interview dates and times are agreed upon. That’s okay. Not all shows have budgets though.
📌Where the media must pay you: If the media house has an audience which has paid entrance fees to be in the show, it means they are directly making moneyn. That’s why you need management to find out all these things beforehand. For instance, if people wanted to charge Churchill for interviewing them at the Carnivore, they would have easily done that. The show was charging the audience gate
fees. Unless you can prove that the audience has been charged to attend your live interview, then you can’t charge the media house for an interview. They can only facilitate your presence, and this is all planned in advance.
📌The media does not necessarily need you: If you thought because you have millions of views and followers the media house will shut down because they haven’t interviewed you, think again.
Technology has changed the game, yes. Most media houses have both traditional and new methods of dealing with the changes, no one is completely stuck in the past, even the good old KBC.
A lot of people do things online, but there are others who are still consuming media in traditional platforms, even in the West.
New tech changes comes with risks too. You can lose your millions of views in just a click of a button and go back to ground zero. You will need the media to perhaps help you buildup again. Oh but you charged them for interviews…are you willing to pay for help?
And if you don’t show up for the interview because you want to be paid, the media will look for someone else to interview. Trust me, they can push South Sudanese music into the Kenyan market easily.
Most corporate bodies watch very closely which musicians are becoming a PR headache and they stay away from them.
Ask Nameless, he once worked at Scan Group and learnt one or two things about PR. That’s why he is still relevant over 20 years later.
Don’t make ‘stupid’ mistakes.
JOHN MOSH MUCHIRI
