Do you need media training? Spoiler, the answer is yes
If I had a dollar for every time an executive pushed back on media training, I’d be retired, on a beach in Hawaii, instead of writing this post.
The pushback is typically one of two scenarios:
“I know I should do it, but let’s keep it in mind for later down the road when things slow down.”
“I can’t dedicate 90 minutes to that training right now. I have bigger priorities right now.”
Look, I get it. But here’s my response every time (a little tip of the trade I’ve held onto ever since learning it): Each Andreessen Horowitz partner gets media trained every. single. quarter. These are some of the most high-profile people in technology and business. They take it seriously as a life-long practice. So why can’t you?
Media training — and public speaking more broadly — is not something you check off once and move on from. It’s a skill that is refined and honed over time.
Who Actually Needs to be Media Trained?
Anyone speaking publicly on behalf of your company should have at least a baseline understanding of media principles.
Not just the CEO. Not just your “external-facing” folks. The whole C-suite should have these skills — even your CFO, and yes, even if they’re not actively doing press.
Because the truth is media moments don’t just happen on CNBC. They happen in DMs. In hallways at conferences. On stage at a panel that suddenly gets picked up by a blog. At industry happy hours.
If you’re in a position to get quoted in any capacity, you should be trained.
For startups (think Seed through Series B), I usually recommend media training for the CEO and 2–3 subject matter experts. And in the kindest way possible: your technical leaders probably need it most. They’re not thinking about narrative. They’re thinking in facts, speeds and feeds, and accuracy. Which is great for product — and less great for press.
Why it Matters
The media is high risk, but also high reward.
If you nail the interview, it becomes third-party validation. A quote you can use in decks, on your website, for social media, the list goes on.
If you perform poorly — such as sharing something non-yet-announced, inaccurate, or bashing your competition — it becomes the thing people remember.
What I always tell my clients is that there’s no such thing as “off the record.” Anything you say can and will be tweeted against you. You could be making a casual comment to someone at a bar after a panel, and that could end up as the lead in a story.
Reporters aren’t trying to trick you. But they are doing their job. They’re looking for a story. It’s your job to understand how that story gets shaped.
The Ideal Public Speaker Is Not About Becoming a Robot
A lot of people assume media training is about becoming hyper-scripted and overly polished. It’s not.
It’s about clarity. About learning to answer questions directly while staying on message and avoiding obvious traps.
The example I always share is politicians during a debate or interview. How many times have you gotten annoyed when they get asked a question and instead of answering it directly, they dance around the response? We’ve all seen it, and we all know how unsatisfying it feels.
This isn’t the goal. It’s the opposite, actually.
The goal is to sound like yourself — but the version that knows what not to say and how to make your point land.
What Does Media Training Actually Entail?
Media training sessions vary based on the company’s needs, but here’s the basic structure I usually run:
A group session to go over media fundamentals:
Who’s who (reporter vs. editor vs. producer)
What journalists care about and how they work
How publications get paid and why that matters
Why headlines are often misleading and how to navigate
What makes a quote usable vs. unusable
Learn how to prepare for media interactions
1:1 sessions with an executive where we:
Identify your key messaging lanes
Practice answering real questions
Conduct mock interviews and offer feedback in real-time.
The practice and feedback are what offers the most value. Most of the time, it’s just about awareness. Your pacing, your filler words, your facial expressions — 60% of it is just seeing yourself and learning how to adjust.
As with anything you practice over time, the more you do it, the better you get.
“Okay, But Do I Really Need This Now?”
When you skip media training, you have a much higher risk of representing your company poorly and/or inaccurately.
I always think about the agents at an airport gate. When a flight’s delayed and passengers are pissed, that agent is now the face of the airline. If they’re rude, frazzled, or dismissive, that’s how you remember the brand.
It’s the same with the press. When you’re speaking with a reporter, you are the company. If you speak vaguely, or misrepresent your product, or go negative on the competition, it reflects on the brand. And it’s not easy to walk that back.
What Should You Expect to Pay for Media Training?
Media training is almost always out of scope from a normal comms retainer because it’s simply too in-depth. It requires a lot of my time to prepare for training each executive, based on their role, area of responsibility, and what type of questions the media will ask them.
For a virtual group session followed by individual 1:1s, expect to start around $5K+, depending on how many people are getting trained.
If you’re prepping for broadcast, that’s a deeper lift. You will work on how you sit, your body language, how you come across on camera. That can easily run $10K or more, especially if you're working with a specialist focused on on-camera presence.
There are plenty of great trainers out there — some are former journalists, others come from executive coaching — but not all of them will understand your business or your audience. They might help with posture, tone, or delivery, but not with shaping what you’re actually trying to say.
I’ve been in the room during these sessions — watching execs get strong delivery coaching but completely miss the mark on what they should be saying for their specific brand. That’s where I’d step in and reframe it.
Eventually, it made sense to build media training into the work I was already doing. Because great delivery only works if the story makes sense in the first place.
Media Training Isn’t Optional. It’s Essential.
This isn’t about looking polished for the sake of it. It’s about showing up with intention. Knowing what you want to say, how to say it, and what to avoid saying altogether.
Media moments — whether it’s a formal interview or a five-minute hallway chat — are always going to be high-leverage opportunities. You don’t get that many of them. And when they come, you need to be ready.