How to write PR campaigns journalists actually want to cover

Journalists are spread thin and busier than ever, the last thing they want is to receive a pitch and a PR campaign that just isn’t to their beat or relevant to them, their publication or the news cycle. They receive hundreds of pitches a week, but good campaigns do work, and they don’t even have to be loud to make noise and be impactful. 

A ‘creative’ campaign isn’t enough anymore because it needs to have editorial value. So, even the best ideas won’t land in 2026. Instea of ‘will this go viral’, PRs need to consider ‘who actually cares?’ in the first place, to put it bluntly, then consider why this matters now and why the journalist would actually be interested in it.

You can’t lead with brand messaging, anything too promotional feels bait and very off-putting to many journalists. Journalists are looking for real stories their audience will care about, and PR in 2026 is about adding value to that audience with stories that matter full stop, but also matter right now and will continue to matter. 

Adding value is offering new insights like surprising consumer behaviour, data or statistics that genuinely adds to the narrative (not just numbers thrown in for the sake of it), cultural trends, timely hooks in line with the news cycle, or expert commentary from a real, verified expert (don’t even think about using an AI expert!) 

When I first started my career in PR I was guilty of trying everything and crossing my fingers. You soon find out in the journalist / PR world that spray and pray is one of the quickest ways to guarantee zero coverage and even damage your relationships with journalists before you’ve even had a chance to build them. 

Now, I ask myself “who even cares, Emily?” before I even craft a PR campaign. There’s legs in most ideas, though, and a good PR can make pretty much any crazy (or not so crazy) idea really impactful by making it newsworthy and positioning it correctly. Campaigns need to have depth and really genuinely interesting and standout insight, this way, there’s many angles you can go down at the end of the road – the outreach stage. 

You need to lead with how newsworthy the campaign is, though, not make this an afterthought at the outreach stage. You’ve kind of got to work back to front with PR campaign planning. Reactive gives you the opportunity for those last-minute wins by joining conversations about topics that are already happening, but with planned, proactive campaigns, you need to create the buzz yourself. 

Proactive PR is a longer term process so journalists need to be convinced that it’s a conversation worth starting. The campaign doesn’t have to be loud and sensationalist either, or particularly groundbreaking, proactive PR works for all companies of any size or industry, it just needs to add something actually useful. 

Data 

I like to start with original data, the more interesting the better. Data helps validate a story and generate genuinely interesting ideas for a story. Some people find the story then add the data, but I like to start off with the data and build a story around it so it weaves together. 

I frequently request data from my clients – they WILL be hearing from me – whether it’s their internal sales data for e-commerce clients, website search data, trends they’ve identified, existing data they have from surveys or similar, or even polls they’ve executed on their website or social media. One thing to consider when gathering data is it shouldn’t just be a dataset to send across to journalists, they have access to data readily already. The data you’re offering should be with the purpose of adding value overall to the story and offering a fresh perspective and insight. 

As well as requesting data from clients, leaning on third party data can be equally useful, if not more as it provides additional context. Government data, statistics from public bodies and ONS offer accurate, credible data for campaigns that can be very useful if relevant and up to date.

YouGov and other channels also give you the option to conduct original commissioned surveys and gather customised public opinion on current events, which offers really interesting insight for journalists. 

Data gathering is also important before the point of writing a campaign to identify trends or changes in behaviour. I look at SEMrush for related terms to identify what’s trending to see if there’s any relevant search data or surprising trends related to my client for anything reactive, but it also comes in handy for proactive PR campaigns like a travel trends piece to determine what’s really a hot topic and worth spotlighting. Google trends is one of my favourite platforms to determine what we’re searching for, too. 

Journalists are so busy, sourcing data they wouldn’t have immediate access to or trends they may not have spotted in search data genuinely adds value to them, so long as there’s a purposeful, strong story attached to the data. 

Relevance 

It’s hard to cut through the noise, especially when the news cycle is so chaotic and volatile. We’d just recovered from a royal scandal, then the heatwave said ‘hello’, then it’s the World Cup. Truthfully, though, world events will always be saturating the news cycle in one way or another and your brands’ PR can’t be put on pause. 

Relevance doesn’t have to come from breaking news. Fresh perspectives that fit with relevance to the publication is first and foremost. The story needs to add something meaningful to the target audience and be in line with a journalist’s beat. 

The strongest campaigns usually tap into issues people are already talking about, and if not talking about yet, things that affect them enough to read about it. PR should be helpful and solve problems or add something, always, so identifying how consumer behaviours are changing, tapping into seasonal moments or providing fresh data or expert insights into ongoing conversations all add value. You need to think ‘who actually cares?’ and ‘why now?’

Consider the journalists and publications first

You could have a really strong campaign in that it aligns with your client totally and provides a perfectly on-brand message, but journalists and publications just aren’t interested in it. 

You need strong awareness of how publications differ in what they want to consider who would realistically publish it. For example, you can’t do brand PR for a regional award shortlist for a client hoping and promising it will land them in national press or lifestyle press, it’s not enough. Different press types and publications have different priorities, so managing expectations – your own and your clients – is really important before you proceed with the campaign. 

Consider who the campaign is aimed at. Of course, the strongest campaigns give you the opportunity to pitch with multiple angles to the press, like trade, regional, national and lifestyle, but not all of them. Some campaigns appeal to a specific niche, like industry-specific press, and that’s okay. 

Stop beating around the bush

Journalists don’t have time to be decoding a cryptic message just to find the crux of your story. The story needs to be totally clear with strong headlines that are hyper-relevant to their writing style and publication with clear narratives and an obvious story, else it’s set up for failure. 

Credible methodology and verified data, and verified experts are a great way to immediately signal value in a campaign. 

Campaigns need to be easy to understand even if your message is complex and in-depth. Think about ‘what am I actually trying to say here?’ and make it convincing. 

I have always loved persuasive writing, even since primary school, so in many ways I think I was destined to be a PR. You shouldn’t need to do the most for it to be persuasive as the story should be persuasive in itself, but you definitely need to believe it’s a strong enough story to be able to pitch it to journalists. 

Timing

Awareness days were one of my first introductions into the world of PR, and my first press release (ever!) landed my client in Forbes for World Password Day 12 days into my PR career – humble brag. But what I was going to say on this is: awareness days CAN be great for PR opportunities, but not if they’re forced. 

You can spot a forced awareness day from a mile off, and sometimes brands just make the mistake of looking performative and opportunistic – depending on the awareness day and campaign. If it’s relevant to your client (my favourite word in PR – relevant) then they can be a good way to place your client in the right place at the right time.

Seasonal hooks can be great, too. But again, only if it’s relevant. Some campaigns or outreach pitches just cannot be forced, it looks so blatant, but often seasonal hooks are a great opportunity to add value to the press. Our interiors client, for example, has seasonal campaigns for interior trends of the season, which land because readers are genuinely interested in what’s next in the interior world and how they can emulate it themselves. Not to mention, home and garden is such a hot topic and styles are always changing. 

Major news events must be on your radar if they’re planned so you’re not competing with them but actually joining them. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Look ahead months in advance for what’s upcoming and relevant for your client so you don’t miss the opportunity and the campaign lands at the right time. 

An example of perfect PR timing (if I do say so myself) recently was our gardening clients’ Flying Ant Day campaign, which I outreached way ahead of time so journalists had it in mind early. This campaign generated 127 pieces of coverage, 110 of which were links. 2 weeks later, we could’ve totally missed the boat, so timing really is crucial. 

Build genuinely strong relationships with journalists

You don’t need to take journalists for fancy, extravagant meals in 2026, in fact, many of them wouldn’t have time even if they wanted to. You can’t schmooze a journalist into thinking your client is worth featuring or your story is good enough to run, but you can nurture your relationships with journalists – and should! 

Even your favourite journalist you’re on nicknames and kisses terms with won’t pick up a rubbish story, so make sure your story is strong first and foremost. But having strong relationships with journalists built by consistently adding value to their stories, providing accurate data and expert commentary, and being genuinely personal gets you a long way in the PR/Journo world. Keep checking in on them, reading what they’re writing, engaging with what they’re doing and updating them on any relevant information they might need to know.

“And Emily… Yes. That’s All”

Marketers will get the reference.

Always consider how a campaign will add value to the public first and foremost. Don’t just consider how good this is for your client, but actually consider whether it will have genuine impact and add value. 

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