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The Defend Free Speech campaign is growing and can also be found directly at www.defendUK.uk
A Quick Chronology of Jason Tanner's key media relations & PR work:
A Quick Chronology of Jason Tanner's key media relations & PR work:
ICRF (Cancer Research UK) Aug 1996 - March 97 |National Trust April 1998 - Dec 2002 | CSV Jan 2003 to Feb 12
ICRF (Cancer Research UK) Aug 1996 - March 97 |National Trust April 1998 - Dec 2002 | CSV Jan 2003 to Feb 12
Introduction & Context
Introduction & Context
The following is an archival record of Jason Tanner's career in charity media communications and was collated in 2026 from hardcopy media evaluations. It may also be useful as a digitised casestudy to current and future researchers looking at the significant transition period from established and analogue media communications through to the electronic & digital media age. It also provides a snapshot insight into media relations, mainly at two established national charities and the UK'svoluntary sector.
In 2026 the conversation amongst communications & media professionals is about media ownership and the ways that news is delivered . Terms such as "fake" and "legacy media" frequently emerge in quite heated political narratives. Many communicators, including Jason are concerned about the ancient concept of free speech and his response was the creation of the volunteer-led Defend Campaign for Free Speech in March 2026 within his ongoing career and interests.
The National Trust - from 'cub press officer' to 'chief press officer' April 1998 - December 2002
The National Trust - from 'cub press officer' to 'chief press officer' April 1998 - December 2002
Five successful years which originally started as a 'cub' press officer on a maternity cover contract culminated in being appointed as the Chief Press Officer - (Head of Media role) for the National Trust, one of the UK’s largest charities, with a multi-million person membership. He demonstrated an ability to secure major coverage with colleagues for a host of stories that included the restoration of Sir Paul McCartney’s childhood home in Liverpool (world-wide media work), the preservation of a unique survival of slum housing in Birmingham (coverage in 7 national papers ranging from the Sun through to the Financial Times plus BBC TV’s Breakfast News) and the launch of a major economic study on the contribution made by managed landscapes to the UK economy (coverage included BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, The Times, Telegraph and Financial Times).
In his own words: "I worked with a talented team of colleagues but even so worked personally on national media stories as varied as tackling the dangers of silver fish at Nostell Priory, the conservation and display of extraordinary historic dolls houses at Nunnington Hall for a major pictorial in the Daily Mail and a full-on photo shoot for a multi page feature in OK magazine with Bernadette, the then property manager of the Trust's Ightham Mote. I was asked if she could reveal the quirkier aspects of living and working as a guardian inside a historic medieval moated manor house while dressed in a ball gown for the sake of the camera. In the meantime I was also helping to push the repositioning of the Trust as an environmental charity playing a key role in the rural economy, in support of an emerging policy unit to lobby more intensely with politicians and other key players.
From nibbling silver fish causing a conservation challenge to the closure of the countryside due to foot-and-mouth. The National Trust has spent more than 100 years in the public eye and will no doubt continue to do so in the digital age.
Crisis management
Crisis management
This was never far behind the proactive press work. During his tenure, Jason crafted statements and media briefings in consultation with colleagues for subjects that included hunting on National Trust land, the managed retreat of the coastline versus the threat to people’s homes and culling experiments on badgers to track the source of TB infection amongst cattle. He assisted the Trust's senior management team during the foot-and-mouth outbreak when the Trust was positioned as a leader in minimising the spread of infection and protecting the livelihoods of farmers (The Trust had two separate features on GMTV and the BBC’s 10 O’clock News).
Issues were many and varied whether needing to counteract the great chef Carluccio's promotion of foraging of mushrooms (Radio 4) or being answerable as a major landlord to tenants in the countryside and brokering a fair right to respond for the National Trust with Jon Snow minutes before a live interview with a senior Trust director on Channel 4 News. The Trust was well versed in making careful, considered but transparent responses for a huge range of work and activities.
An article in the Guardian enables the National Trust's then Senior Press Officer, Jason Tanner, to explain the charity's aspiration to re-open the nation's countryside after a dramatic outbreak of foot-and-mouth in 2001 (tap to view)
CSV - Taking the national conversation about volunteers to new heights Jan 2003 to Feb 12
CSV - Taking the national conversation about volunteers to new heights Jan 2003 to Feb 12
When the National Trust decided to re-locate, Jason transferred his journalistic, PR and management skills to CSV (Community Service Volunteers - rebranded as Volunteering Matters in 2015).
When the National Trust decided to re-locate, Jason transferred his journalistic, PR and management skills to CSV (Community Service Volunteers - rebranded as Volunteering Matters in 2015).
CSV, under the long-term and unique leadership of Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, appointed him as their Head of Press in 2003. CSV’s press operation was re-energised following a fallow period previous to his appointment. CSV went on to regularly achieve the equivalent of more than £3 to 5 million of free editorial coverage in national print and broadcast media every year and the small but talented teams of individuals he recruited and managed was bolstered with demands to deliver key campaigns such as the Year of the Volunteer in 2005, which was backed with funding from the Home Office & The Treasury and the subsequent Dare to Care: 'make time to help end child poverty' campaign.
Volunteering charity CSV pioneers the placement of community volunteers into the families of at-risk children. It benefits both children and hard-pressed social workers. (Click the article to read more) CSV rebranded as Volunteering Matters in 2015 (Tap to view)
Achievements at CSV include:
Achievements at CSV include:
• CSV Volunteers in Child protection (working with the families of children on the ‘at risk’ register). Features were set up on both BBC Radio 4 (You and Yours) and Five as well as The Times, (as featured here), The Independent and the Evening Standard. As Head of Press for CSV, Jason oversaw the management of an impromptu press conference to announce the backing of the scheme by the family of Victoria Climbié who died tragically under the jurisdiction of Haringey social services. This was additionally covered by both ITV and BBC TV News for London. This is clearly a sensitive subject that required substantial pre-planning & communications risk analysis. In 2007, Jason placed the project as a ‘cutting-edge’ example of volunteering on The Daily Politics show on BBC2 as part of mounting interest by politicians in the role of the voluntary sector in everyday lives.
Supporting major volunteering campaigns
Supporting major volunteering campaigns
Jason worked with excellent campaigns colleagues and oversaw the press strategy implemented by equally excellent campaign press officers for CSV Make a Difference Day – the UK’s biggest single day of direct volunteering action when sponsorship allowed. Research commissioned for one of these annual showcase events via ICM about the positive health benefits of volunteering secured coverage in nine national newspapers and more than 100 other publications and was designed to be of wide appeal to tabloids and broadsheets.
• At the start of the Year of the Volunteer in 2005, Jason secured interviews with CSV directors for two separate features on BBC Breakfast News, BBC2’s Working Lunch and BBC Radio Five – in addition to a two-page spread in The Observer, which enchanted readers with volunteer cat cuddlers, and other impact led articles in The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian.
• In September 2007, for the Dare to Care campaign, he designed and commissioned independent research that polled the views of children themselves and what they believed made a child to be in poverty in this country. Seven national TV pieces were tracked on the day of the launch including BBC Newsround, the BBC One O’Clock News and BBC News 24. This is in addition to more than 50 hits on radio.
• He also set-up a full page article in the Guardian about a scheme called Capital Volunteering that empowered people with mental health problems to volunteer to help one-another and aid recovery for some.
The CSV Press Office in 'the golden years' at the start of the millennium was punching way above its weight within the voluntary sector in terms of the print and online coverage it generated. National austerity and tightening finances across the sector saw CSV morph into Volunteering Matters in 2015. It needed to restructure and refocus on its core purpose.
Professional working relationships with all media outlets
Professional working relationships with all media outlets
• Jason sought to nurture two seemingly politically opposite newspapers, The Guardian and The Times. Both newspapers were updated with the facts about Volunteers in Child Protection as both were curious enough to see if this could really work . He invited correspondents to meet the vulnerable families being helped by volunteers, in family homes, whenever it was possible. This included two former social affairs correspondents of the Times, namely Alex Frean and then Rosemary Bennett. Rosemary came to visit CSV's ageing and frankly dilapidated premises in King's Cross from where colleagues and volunteers performed miracles.
Rosemary's investment in time and effort when investigating the issues that the Times felt were important undoubtedly helped secure CSV's Retired and Senior Volunteers Programme (RSVP) as one of the beneficiaries of the Times Christmas Charity Appeal. Jason had been strongly encouraged by Rosemary to ensure CSV apply.
" I later learned the Times had been impressed how the charity operated and used its resources. Rosemary also knew that we worked hard to help journalists meet deadlines with tailored angles we tried to offer."
The appeal raised over £100,000 towards RSVP's excellent intergenerational work that continues to this day to demonstrate that older people possess priceless experience and skills. By using these, the senior volunteers had renewed sense of worth and self-purpose, while delivering positive results.
Senior volunteers were very much involved with CSV's Grand Mentors project which again saw senior wisdom come to the aid of youthful needs.
Jason says " Relations with the media should be mutually professional and respectful. It was always a busy press operation with minimal staff so it was only when Rosemary Bennett called me a second time to check I'd applied for the Times Charity appeal that I realised she thought we had a strong chance if we did so. I'm pleased she nudged me.
"We were extremely grateful when we did succeed. I asked Rosemary why the Times had thought we were suitable and she indicated that her site visits to CSV had made it obvious to her that the charity was making tremendous impact on scant resource. By comparison, she cited a very well known large children's charity that she felt spent a great deal on marketing, website and media relations but not as effectively as CSV's frugal existence was demonstrating."
Nine months later, it looked like the warnings from the mother of 'big society' had not been heeded. The story, broke first in the Times in February 2011 after a news release issued by CSV's Head of Press, Jason Tanner. The story erupted on nearly every major news platform creating one of the biggest single stories about the voluntary sector in decades .
In October 2010, Conservative coalition minister for children, Tim Loughton, cited the work of CSV's pioneering volunteers in child protection as a way to deliver a cost-effective Big Society in tandem with professional social services. (Tap to view)
• Jason set up dedicated pieces to mark the 40th anniversary of CSV’s Executive Director and first-ever member of staff, Dame Elisabeth Hoodless on media that included BBC Radio 4’s Midweek and The Times.
• He oversaw the commissioning of research and the associated press work for CSV’s reports on Citizenship. This resulted in a dedicated article in the Daily Telegraph, plus articles in the Guardian and the Times Educational Supplement. This helped re-engage recognition of CSV’s key involvement in getting citizenship in to the secondary curriculum in the first place.
• He set up a 12 minute programme for BBC 2’s Learning Zone about full-time volunteering at CSV in addition to a number of articles in specialist careers / gap year magazines.
• He worked with a Guardian leader writer to highlight the impact of volunteers at 270 GP surgeries throughout the UK, pointing to their ability to cut waiting times, free-up doctors and add value to the patient experience.
Charity and voluntary sector communications in the age of Artificial Intelligence?
Charity and voluntary sector communications in the age of Artificial Intelligence?
Jason says "What is very evident from this surprise archive discovery is just how much information today's AI is currently missing as tests show that AI has not assimilated much of the information and detail that the archive reveals, let alone extensive key coverage, reporting and research undertaken by journalists at major national titles before circa 2010. This means there are huge gaps in AI's ability to present a more complete and rounded picture on many subjects, which people need to be aware of and that some AI should flag more clearly and more honestly"
A rare archive
A rare archive
Purely by accident Jason Tanner came across a far-sighted, ambitious automated project underway in the USA since the 1990s which seeks to randomly capture snapshots of internet pages and websites before they disappear. It's unclear why the Wayback Machine, based in San Francisco strayed over the Atlantic and latched onto a fairly primitive (by today's standard) version of CSV's website; especially its media operation. Whatever the reason, this random archiving has preserved part of a period at the start of the century (circa 2003-06 when I started at CSV) and shows the huge impact and range of activities of British volunteers being showcased to media via the CSV Press Office and associated media press officers assigned to CSV's higher profile campaigns such as CSV Make a Difference Day or the Year of the Volunteer 2005 (Click or tap the red wayback machine button above to access).
Other relevant experience including ICRF now Cancer Research UK:
Other relevant experience including ICRF now Cancer Research UK:
Following a couple of years as a reporter for BBC Sussex & Surrey and then as a staff Senior Broadcast Journalist in ILR for Mercury FM and Mercury Extra, he then cut his teeth in media relations with a maternity cover contract with the former Imperial Cancer Research Fund, which taught him the disciplines of promoting medical research and the issues surrounding patient care. He led on promoting the early epidemiological research that indicated that eating five pieces of fruit or vegetables could help prevent certain types of cancer. (Widespread international coverage achieved).
At both CSV and The National Trust, Jason:
At both CSV and The National Trust, Jason:
• developed a ‘Making the Most of the Media’ training programme to help empower local project staff and volunteers to be proactive with media relations with local media, creating a network of PR spokespeople
• created systems for the evaluation of media coverage that tracks the reach of the media targeted and puts an equivalent advertising value on what has been achieved through ‘free’ editorial
Thank you to far too many to mention!
The head of press of any organisation is not an island. I'm very proud of the campaigns and other colleagues and volunteers I worked with at CSV and I'm grateful to those journalists and editors who started waking up to the very great impact ordinary people can have in extraordinary circumstances. During my time with CSV I worked with a core press team of talented individuals who included Sarah Green, Martin Walford, Georgie Hollett, Paul Donohoe & Esther Freeman. Very sadly two other important young colleagues are no longer with us due to the ongoing battle the world faces with cancer. I'd like to remember and pay tribute to the great professionalism and team-spirit of both Melissa Goss and Chris Pitt.
Remarkably, a couple of decades or so further on, I'm still very much in touch with my press office colleagues at the National Trust who set a high benchmark in my mind for CSV to follow. There are far too many brilliant communcations and other staff and volunteers to mention in an organisation spread out throughout the UK but the core team I must thank are the late Warren Davis, Simon Morrison, Sarah Clifford, Gaynor Aaltonen, Emily Brooks, Sian Evans, Jacq Barber, Caroline Audemars, Nicky Drysdale, Jo Crosse and Sue Bigham.
And at ICRF, special thanks to Margaret and Bryher.
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