By Sarah Newton
Here at Penguin PR HQ, we spent many years working as journalists before crossing over to the dark side and starting careers in public relations.
While plenty has changed in the media landscape since then, one thing remains the same: journalists are incredibly busy.
If you want to secure media coverage for your business, understanding how journalists think is one of the best places to start. As a PR agency founded by former journalists, we know what makes a story stand out, what gets press releases opened and, just as importantly, what causes them to be ignored.
With our former journalist hats firmly back on, here are 10 things every business should know about PR, press releases and working effectively with the media.
1. Your new website probably isn’t news
We’re currently in the process of launching a new website ourselves, so we know exactly how many months can go into planning, designing and perfecting it. You’ve likely agonised over fonts, photographs and whether the button should say “Contact Us” or “Get In Touch”.
It’s a big deal to your business.
Unfortunately, it’s probably not a big deal to anyone else.
One of the biggest challenges in public relations is separating what’s important to a business from what’s genuinely newsworthy. The two aren’t always the same thing.
A new website may represent significant investment and a major milestone for your company, but unless there’s a much bigger story behind it, journalists are unlikely to view it as news.
2. Why good photography matters in PR
There’s nothing more frustrating than securing interest in a brilliant story, lining up a great quote and finding the perfect publication, only to receive a photograph of four people standing against a wall from half a mile away.
Good photography isn’t an optional extra in PR. It can be the difference between a story being featured prominently, being reduced to a few paragraphs or not being used at all.
The days when every image had to come from a professional photographer are largely behind us. Most people carry excellent cameras in their pockets. However, following a few simple rules can dramatically improve your chances of securing media coverage.
Keep photographs well-lit, sharp, colourful and tightly framed. Make them visually interesting. Editors are far more likely to use images that help bring a story to life.
3. More information doesn’t make a better press release
Company history. Every service you offer. Your mission statement. A list of awards. Three pages of background information. Quotes from everyone in the senior leadership team.
None of these things automatically makes a journalist more likely to use your story.
In fact, the opposite is often true.
A press release isn’t a brochure or a sales document. Its purpose is to communicate a newsworthy story quickly, clearly and accurately. Journalists want the information they need without having to dig through unnecessary detail.
Trust us. If additional information is genuinely important, we’ll be calling to ask for it.
4. Why journalists sometimes don’t cover a story
This can be one of the most difficult parts of PR.
You can have a perfectly good story, send it to exactly the right journalist and hear absolutely nothing.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the story wasn’t good enough.
There may have been a major breaking news story that day. The journalist might have covered something similar recently. An editor may have changed the page plan. Another story may simply have been stronger.
Successful media relations require judgement, persistence and occasionally accepting that a story hasn’t landed as hoped.
It’s disappointing, but it’s also perfectly normal.
5. The best PR stories are about people
Businesses naturally want publicity for their businesses.
The challenge is that audiences generally don’t wake up desperate to read that a company has strengthened its market position through strategic growth.
What they do care about is people.
They care about the apprentice who overcame significant challenges. The founder who started a company from a kitchen table. The employee celebrating 50 years of service. The customer whose life was genuinely improved because of something your business did.
When people sit at the heart of a story, a company announcement suddenly becomes something readers can connect with.
The most successful PR campaigns understand that audiences engage with human stories first and business messages second.
6. AI is a tool, not a substitute for PR expertise
Running a press release through ChatGPT and coming back with 500 words explaining how it could be improved isn’t always as helpful as you think.
We like AI. We use it. It can be fantastic for research, brainstorming ideas, analysing copy and spotting things we might otherwise miss.
However, AI doesn’t automatically have better news judgement than someone who has spent years working in a newsroom deciding which stories make the cut.
Ask AI to improve a press release and it will almost always suggest changes. That’s because improving the content is the task you’ve given it.
It may recommend a new headline, additional context, a stronger quote, extra statistics, a call to action or several new paragraphs.
Some of those suggestions may be excellent.
Some may simply turn a concise 400-word press release into a bloated 700-word version.
AI is a powerful tool, but it isn’t an editor. Knowing which suggestions to ignore is becoming just as important as knowing which ones to accept.
7. Don’t remove personality from quotations
Real people rarely say:
“We are delighted to announce this exciting development, which represents another important milestone in our ongoing journey.”
Yet an astonishing number of press releases suggest exactly that.
A quote is one of the few opportunities within a press release to inject personality and authenticity. It can be funny, emotional, surprising, passionate or simply sound like something a real person would actually say.
Unfortunately, after passing through multiple rounds of approval, a quote that originally said:
“This is absolutely brilliant.”
Can somehow become:
“We are extremely pleased with this positive outcome.”
The first sounds human.
The second sounds like it was written by a committee.
Guess which one journalists are more likely to use.
8. Why the right audience matters more than the biggest audience
Of course we’d all love to see our clients featured on BBC Breakfast or on the front page of a national newspaper.
But bigger isn’t always better.
Sometimes coverage in a specialist trade publication read by 5,000 highly relevant decision-makers can generate far more business value than a national article seen by 500,000 people with no interest in your products or services.
Good PR isn’t simply about achieving the largest possible audience.
It’s about reaching the right audience.
That could be a national newspaper, a local publication or an industry title you’ve never heard of but your target customers read every week.
Media coverage only delivers value when it helps achieve your business objectives.
9. Journalists aren’t there to promote your business
This sounds obvious, but it’s a misconception we encounter surprisingly often.
A journalist’s job is to create content their audience wants to read, watch or listen to. Your business receiving publicity is, from their perspective, a by-product of publishing an interesting story.
Which is why “we’d like to raise our profile” isn’t a news story.
Give journalists something useful, interesting, surprising, entertaining or genuinely new and your chances of securing coverage improve significantly.
The best public relations campaigns create value for everyone involved.
The business gains exposure.
The journalist gets a strong story.
Most importantly, the audience gets something worth their time.
10. Sometimes the best PR advice is ‘don’t do it’
PR agencies are hired to help clients get noticed.
However, sometimes there simply isn’t a story there.
A good PR agency shouldn’t agree with every idea put forward. Part of the role is knowing when to push a story, when to reshape it and when to quietly put it back in the drawer.
Ultimately, successful PR isn’t about persuading journalists to publish stories they don’t find interesting.
It’s about understanding what makes a story newsworthy, identifying who will care about it and presenting it in a way that makes a busy journalist’s job easier.
And sometimes that means saying the words a client doesn’t really want to hear:
“That’s not really a news story.”
We promise we’re not being difficult. We’re just wearing our old journalist hats.
Need help creating stories journalists actually want to cover?
At Penguin PR, our team of former journalists helps businesses identify newsworthy stories, write effective press releases and secure media coverage in the publications that matter most to their audiences.
Whether you’re launching a new service, announcing growth, promoting an event or looking to raise your profile through strategic public relations, we’re here to help.