The curriculum
Twelve modules, each ending in something the member has made rather than something they have watched. A module is 25 to 40 minutes of video plus a written version, and the deliverable is what gets reviewed. Below the course is the monthly live calendar, which is the part that actually keeps people paying.
The design rule
Nobody renews a video library. They renew a rhythm. So the course is built once, front-loaded into the first eight weeks of a member's life, and then the membership runs on a fixed monthly cycle that produces something every single month whether or not the member is busy. Build modules 1 to 4 before launch. Build 5 to 12 during the founding cohort, from their questions.
The twelve modules
| # | Module | What it teaches | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What press is actually for | What coverage does and does not do for a career. Why a five-star review does not sell tickets, and what does. The difference between profile, promotion and reputation, and which one an artist at this stage needs. The honest limits: nobody can guarantee coverage. | A one-page statement of what the member wants press to achieve in the next twelve months, in three sentences. Reviewed. |
| 2 | The media calendar | Lead times. Monthly magazines close eight to twelve weeks out, weeklies two to three, dailies and online same week. Seasonal rhythms in classical: season announcements, festival programmes, awards, the Proms cycle, the recording release calendar. Why almost every failed pitch failed on timing rather than content. | The member's own twelve-month calendar with every fixed date on it, working backwards from each to a pitch date. The highest-value forty minutes in the course. |
| 3 | The press release, properly | Structure for a classical release, which is not the structure of a rock press release. What goes in the first line and why the artist's name is usually not it. Facts, dates, availability. What a subeditor deletes. Length, format, attachments, and what to never send as a PDF. | A finished press release for the member's next real project. Reviewed against the rubric. |
| 4 | The bio at three lengths | Fifty words, 150 words, 400 words, each doing a different job. Removing the phrases every classical bio contains and no journalist reads. Writing about yourself in the third person without flinching. Updating it without rewriting it. | Three bios, all three lengths, plus a one-line description. Reviewed. |
| 5 | Who to pitch, and who not to | Reading the masthead. The difference between a reviewer, a features editor, a commissioning editor, a producer and a freelance contributor, and which of them can actually say yes. How to find the right desk without buying a database. How to tell when an outlet will never cover you and stop wasting the year on it. | A first pitch list of twenty named outlets and desks, drawn from the member's own goals and checked against the live media list. |
| 6 | The pitch email | Subject lines that get opened by people receiving forty a day. The three-sentence body. What to attach and what to link. The follow-up: when, how many, and the exact wording. What to do with silence, which is the normal response. | Three pitch emails written for three different outlet types, ready to send. Reviewed. |
| 7 | The assets journalists need | Photographs: what a picture desk will and will not print, resolution, credit, landscape versus portrait, why the moody black-and-white one never runs. Audio and video links that work without a download. The one-page fact sheet. Where to host it all so a journalist finds it in ten seconds. | A working online press kit at the member's own URL, complete and linked. |
| 8 | Recording releases | The release campaign from twelve weeks out to two weeks after. Working with a label press office rather than around it, and what to do when the label has none. Embargoes: what they are, how to set one, what breaking one costs. Streaming and physical, and why the reviewer still wants a physical copy or a proper stream link. | A dated twelve-week release plan for the member's next recording, or a template ready for when there is one. |
| 9 | Concerts, tours and festivals | Local, regional and national press for a date. Why the promoter's press officer is an ally and not a substitute. Listings, and how much of the job listings do for free. Festival press offices: what they will do for you and what they expect you to bring. | A pitch pack for the member's next three dates, sent to the promoter as well as the press. |
| 10 | Interviews | Preparing three stories you can tell. Answering the question you were asked. The things that get quoted, and the things that get you into trouble. Photo and broadcast: what changes. Reading back, correcting, and what you cannot ask for. | An interview prep sheet: three stories, five likely questions, three lines to avoid. Used before every interview thereafter. |
| 11 | Social, agents and the rest of the ecosystem | What social media actually does, which is corroborate a story rather than generate one. What a manager will and will not do about press, and how to ask. Working with a label, a promoter and a festival at once without three people sending the same email. When to hire a publicist, and what to hire them for. | A one-page map of who does what for the member's next project, with names. |
| 12 | The twelve-month plan | Putting modules 1 to 11 into one dated plan. What to announce when. What to do in the quiet months. Measuring without vanity: what counts, what does not, and the difference between coverage and a career. | The member's own annual campaign plan, one page, dated. Reviewed by Sam in the annual plan slot. |
The monthly live calendar
This is the membership. The course is the onboarding; this is the reason someone is still paying in month nine.
| When | What | Sam's time | Why it exists |
|---|---|---|---|
| First working day | The month's brief. A short written post: what is coming up in the classical calendar in the next eight to twelve weeks, which desks are commissioning, any notable journalist moves, and one thing to do this month. | 45 minutes | It is the visible proof that the media list is alive. It is also the single most forwardable thing Sam produces, so it doubles as marketing. |
| By the 5th | Review submissions close. One asset per member, uploaded to the platform with a one-line note on what it is for. | 0 | A deadline stops the queue arriving on the 28th. |
| 6th to 12th | The reviews go back. Written, against the fixed rubric, inside five working days. Never a call. | About 12 minutes per member. At 60 members, 12 hours. | This is the £299. Everything else could be bought elsewhere. |
| Third Tuesday, 90 minutes | The pitching clinic. Members bring a live pitch. Sam rewrites two or three on the call, out loud, explaining each change. Recorded and posted. | 1.5 hours plus 30 minutes prep | Everyone learns from everyone else's, which is why this scales to 60 and the 1:1 does not. The recording is also the best sales asset the product has. |
| Last week | The media list update. Moves, new desks, changed lead times, dead outlets removed. Published as a diff so members can see what changed. | About 3 hours | A list that visibly changes is a list worth paying a subscription for. A static list is a one-off purchase. |
| Once a quarter | A guest. A journalist, editor or producer, 45 minutes, questions submitted in advance. Recorded. | 1 hour plus the ask | The thing members tell other people about. It also costs Sam nothing but a favour, and she has the relationships to ask. |
| Once a year, on the member's join anniversary | The annual campaign plan. One page, dated, for their next twelve months. | About 45 minutes per member | A renewal event disguised as a deliverable. Schedule them one a day rather than in a block. |
The monthly total at 60 members: 12 hours of reviews, 3 hours of list maintenance, 2 hours of clinic, 45 minutes of brief, about 2 hours of moderation, and 3.75 hours of annual plans averaged out. About 23.5 hours a month, or roughly 5.5 hours a week, before selling anything. Add the Campaign Partner places at 1.5 hours a week each and the base case reaches 18 hours a week by month twelveS27, S28. That is the real constraint in this business and it is why Chapter 11 has hard capacity rules.
Production, cheaply
- Record modules on a phone or a laptop webcam with a decent microphone. A £100 USB microphone matters ten times more than the camera. Members are buying Sam's judgement, not her production values, and over-produced video makes a solo product look like a course mill.
- Write the module first, then record it. The written version is the deliverable for the half of members who will never watch a video, and it is also the transcript, the email sequence and three social posts.
- Record modules 1 to 4 in two days. Book the days. They will not happen otherwise.
- Never re-record for a small change. Post a correction note under the module. Perfectionism here is how a launch slips a quarter.
- Every clinic recording is a module. After a year there are twelve clinics in the library and they are better teaching than anything scripted.