Imagine a journalist calls looking for comment on new AI regulation.
Your organisation has a professor who leads a major AI institute, a researcher who works directly on AI policy and a senior executive who regularly speaks about technology. Who gets the opportunity? There is no automatic answer.
“Relevant expert” is often too broad
Many organisations have spokesperson databases that work perfectly well as directories: name, title, department, general expertise. They become less useful when the media question is specific and the deadline is close. A journalist rarely wants “someone who knows about AI”. They may need somebody who can explain the regulatory implications of a particular decision, in plain English, before a 4pm deadline.
That is a much narrower requirement. The best choice may therefore be the less senior researcher with the precise expertise rather than the most visible person on the spokesperson list.
Seniority is only part of the equation
There are obvious occasions when a chief executive or senior leader is the right choice. But authority comes in different forms. Technical depth, first-hand experience, original research or the ability to explain a complicated subject clearly may be more useful to a journalist than organisational rank.
Availability affects the decision too. The perfect expert tomorrow morning may be less useful than an excellent expert who can speak in 20 minutes. Good media teams already make these trade-offs instinctively. The challenge is making the information behind those decisions easier to access. That means knowing more than job titles: specific areas of expertise, media strengths, likely availability, approval constraints and previous interactions.
Think about the journalist as well
Two journalists covering the same story may need different people. A specialist technology reporter may want technical depth. A business correspondent may be more interested in commercial implications. A broadcaster may need somebody who can explain the issue clearly and quickly. Spokesperson selection works best when the story and the journalist are considered together.
It does not need to become complicated.