Communication Matters and our people

Directed by Jane Wilton, Communication Matters combines the talents and  skills of experienced consultants and dynamic trainers.  We specialise in helping organisations and their key people to develop communication skills that really make a difference.  Developing key corporate messages, communicating those messages to diverse audiences, working with us to maximise your ability to communicate well at all levels will help you to be successful in your business and your business to be successful in the marketplace.

We tailor each course to meet the specific needs of our clients and the advanced media skills training is always run by a communications tutor and an experienced print and broadcast journalist.  Our expertise comes from our professional background and from years of experience in communication training.

Once training modules are completed, we can be on hand to offer a telephone advisory service should trainees find themselves faced with a particularly daunting presentation, public consultation or media interview

Jane Wilton

Jane is a professional trainer with many years experience in the field of communication skills. As a former studio manager and reporter for the BBC she has first-hand knowledge of the media.

Jane began her career in drama, learning the performance skills that she now uses to coach clients in the development of their communication skills.  She joined the BBC after a short spell working in the theatre and worked in radio for several years. After leaving the BBC she worked first at Homerton College, Cambridge lecturing on Drama and then became Head of Drama at a large comprehensive school. She then worked in the voluntary sector helping voluntary organisations develop their messages to raise their profile and attract funding.

She formed Communication Matters in 1996 and she now specialises in media, presentation and communication skills coaching for senior staff in both the public and private sector.

Jane Cohen

Janet Cohen was a broadcaster and journalist for more than 30 years with BBC news and current affairs. Most recently she was senior reporter and occasional presenter for BBC Radio 4’s influential nightly current affairs programme, The World Tonight.

She started her career at BBC Radio Brighton and worked over the years on Today, Newsbeat, and the PM programme, interviewing many leading public figures and developing special interests in health, education and cultural issues. She has received a prestigious Sony Bronze Award for her reporting.

Janet now specialises in media and communication training.

Kati Whitaker – Journalist

After training as a lawyer she began her career working as a current affairs producer at BBC World Service before rapidly moving on to present the BBC Radio 4 disabilities programme Does He take Sugar for nearly 10 years, report for BBC Breakfast and BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme.

Kati has covered many overseas assignments including Aids in Uganda; multicultural education in Kosovo; disability in Armenia; landmines in Angola; youth gangs in Guatemala; the return of child solders in Northern Uganda and just recently the influx of Iraqi refugees to Jordan.

She has won several awards for her programme-making and journalism including the Medical Journalist Association award for a programme about gene therapy; a One World Award and a Sony nomination for a programme about Rwandan Widows; the Sandford St Martins Award for a BBC Radio 4 programme on spirituality and mental health, and the 2006 Educational Journalist of the Year award.

Alison Sargent – Journalist

Alison is a former BBC journalist, manager and news editor, with experience spanning local, regional and network radio and television, the print media and public relations. She joined BBC TV’s flagship network “Nationwide” programme in 1972, moving two years later to BBC TV in Norwich as a presenter/reporter.
For ten years she worked as a freelance reporter, scriptwriter and producer, variously for BBC TV East, BBC 2 Network Documentaries, BBC Radio 4 Today programme, BBC World Service and BBS (independent) Productions in Bristol.

Since leaving the BBC in March 1997, Alison has worked as a media and PR consultant and trainer. She has contributed to assorted media textbooks including: Broadcast Journalism (Heinemann), What is News? (ELM Publications), How to Handle Media Interviews (Mercury), and Handling Publicity the Right Way (Elliot ‘Right Way; Publications).

Michael Dodd – journalist and media trainer

Michael Dodd’s expertise as a media trainer is founded on his work as a London-based media commentator and freelance foreign correspondent. He is best known amongst British audiences for his weekly live paper reviews on Sky News. He also comments on national and international issues on BBC television and radio networks. He files TV, radio and internet reports for foreign broadcasters such as the ABC in his native Australia.

Michael been Berlin Correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and has covered stories in most major European countries and in the United States. He covered Eastern Europe before during and after the 1989 anti-communist revolutions for the ABC and the BBC World Service.

He has worked as a political correspondent in the Australian capital, Canberra.