“But how can we attract your attention?”
The question was asked, with slight frustration, to a panel of journalists presenting at the most recent BlueSky Media Connect conference, held in Brussels in June.
The conference, hosted by the BlueSky team, brings together the public relations and communications professionals working at some of the world’s leading business schools, higher education providers, research bodies and think tanks, to meet with the journalists, editors and broadcasters responsible for driving the news agenda at the publications such institutes aspire to be featured in.
Over two days, panels of journalists shared their perspectives on the media landscape and the topics they wanted to write about. In a highly digital world it provided an all-too-rare opportunity to meet and speak with media face to face.
But there was good reason for the frustration. The writers who had joined us had spent the previous 15 minutes talking about the scale of their workload, the increasingly fast-paced nature of the modern newsroom, and how working within the “Brussels bubble” had further increased the tempo on everything they did.
For PR professionals seeking to cut through this noise, the journalists presented an increasingly difficult reality.
“Journalists here have 27+ nationalities to consider – who are the most important people to contact? Who is best to represent? We try to be broad and cover as much as possible,” shared Bloomberg’s Jorge Valero. “But it’s a real challenge.”
And whilst Brussels might present its own unique media landscape to navigate, that sense of journalist overwhelm and intense pressure is felt far more broadly.
Newsrooms are shrinking. The same technology that allows us to be digitally present even in the furthest flung regions of the world is also cutting back on the need for human interaction. According to Cision’s latest State of the Media Report, job cuts have risen by 18% in newsrooms across the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany and the APAC region. Much of this is due to dwindling budgets and AI tools that can seemingly provide the man-power needed to keep pace with an accelerated news cycle at a significantly cheaper rate.
For those human writers still on the front line, in order to find the story there is an ever-increasing barrage of emails to sort though, hundreds of DMs across socials, not to mention an ever-increasing pressure to break it first and swiftly move on to the next. The job of the journalist these days is often more focused on keeping pace rather than spending time digging deeper. As a result, the opportunities for proper storytelling are becoming increasingly thin on the ground.
And opportunities to join the discussion on those stories that are published? Increasingly limited. It’s a bleak reality for the PR teams fighting to gain a sliver of the spotlight for their institutions.
This is the challenge facing all higher education institutions who seemingly have the world at their fingertips (digitally at least) and yet their reach and their audience can often remain as local as it did when first dialling up to access the Information Superhighway.
Okay, I might be exaggerating slightly, but there’s a kernel of truth to it. Whilst it’s never been easier to share ourselves to the world, in an increasingly noisy arena, it’s somehow never been harder to capture attention.
Creating websites, filling them with information on your expertise, offerings and accolades is all well and good, but to see the benefit you need to encourage audiences to find you.
Similarly, posting regular content on social media provides a fantastic resource for those that know you’re there, but unless something manages to find the elusive spark that causes something to go viral you’ll likely only gain modest growth in new circles.
Is the answer to lean into AI to optimise pitches, and tweak comments, to streamline SEO-friendly texts and identify and contact a longer list of writers? Is it to send out press releases at an even greater volume in the hope that they’ll stand out in journalist inboxes?
Well, perhaps (though I’d caution heavily against using any AI support at all when it comes to submitting comments or articles – if journalists wanted a synthetic response they’d open up ChatGPT themselves). There is a lot to be said for using tech tools to ease the pressure and make smarter use of your time.
But be mindful that for all the tech you employ to make the job easier, the same tactics are also being used by your competitors – not to mention by every other organisation working in the sectors and geographies your target media operate in.
And, for the journalists on the receiving end of such advancements, that makes for a very busy inbox.
In creating an actual connection, the real answer is perhaps the most obvious, and the one that most often gets overlooked.
“Take us for coffee,” suggests Kait Bolongaro, Managing Editor Europe of MLEX. Jorge swiftly agrees. “Face to face interaction matters,” he nods.
Sometimes, a break from typical practice can provide a welcome change, especially for writers suffocated by their inboxes and keen for a screen break.
In sharing what makes a good PR-journalist relationship work, Fortune writer Orianna Rose Royle shared in a recent LinkedIn post. “They treat me like a human, not a content-making machine.”
Journalists are, after all, communicators. Presenting the opportunity for a conversation, not just a push for coverage, can create multiple benefits.
“People buy people,” shares writer Jane Hamilton in another post. Remembering that writers have personalities and preferences may sound obvious, but is often not considered in typical day-to-day PR practice. There is much to be gained by keeping such simple sentiments front of mind.
“The best PRs I work with have a real relationship with me—they know there's an actual person behind the bylines, one who already works long hours and doesn't need chasing on Instagram at 8am on a Saturday to see if a pitch landed,” Orianna’s LinkedIn post continues.
Jane’s sentiments are similar. “Build it like a friendship,” she says of developing a journo-PR bond. “Don’t have a story to pitch but have seen something your target journo may like? Send it as a helpful snippet or message. I’ve built some great relationships with PRs this way, as it shows they get me and my ‘beat’. The best PRs are the ones which take time to truly understand who they are ‘marketing’ to.”
For those that can’t step away from the desk, a zoom call can be an effective alternative – providing you have something to say.
“Ask for ‘coffee calls,” continues Jane. “We’re all under pressure and when there’s not even time for an IRL coffee, jump on a video call with coffee in hand. It’s lovely to put the names to faces,” she continues – but does so with a dose of realism, “but make sure you have a story or idea to offer so your meet gets prioritised.”
And there’s even much to be gained from dusting off the old desk phone and going old-school in your outreach.
“I prefer a call and a direct quote,” shared Joanna Gill, a freelance tech writer speaking at BlueSky Media Connect. PRs controlling the narrative by acting as an intermediary can often mean that a messages are sanitised or watered down (not to mention can be slow in reaching her). Speaking to the source may not be as convenient, but makes for a better story.
It’s a sentiment freelancer Hannah Fearn agrees with. “I still carry out almost all my interviews by phone (or, if the interviewee insists, Zoom; I personally find the old school phone call more intimate and useful),” she shared on LinkedIn late last year.
“Yes, it is easier to send questions or prompts by email and wait for a response, but the result is often boring, loaded with jargon and dances around the heart of the issue. Most importantly, you miss the tone of voice which can completely change how you interpret the words being spoken. If you can't interrupt mid-flow, you can't follow up a throwaway line or interject with another idea.”
By losing the humanity in our communications, we may be missing out on telling a better story.
There is a danger, for journalists, that by veering too far into the virtual they risk hindering their own professional selling point.
Zoe Kleinman, tech and AI editor for the BBC, highlighted this issue on LinkedIn when exploring how intuitive AI can be in creating news-styled video content.
Visually, she noted, the tech is quite convincing. The AI reporter she’d generated certainly looked human (had the right amount of fingers!) seemed to speak and move naturally with a fairly realistic city street backdrop (aside of the taxi driving backwards) behind her. But what about what she was saying?
The AI might be getting cleverer, but there is still a gap between artificial and human content. And this impacts upon connection.
“I have tried, throughout my career, to tell stories simply, accurately and engagingly, using my experience, my expertise and my personality. Human to human,” she shares. “You have to bring your A-game when you're talking to millions of people, every day”.
In many ways, keeping your comms strategy strictly digital is like joining a congested motorway rather than opting to travel by the more rural route.
Is it a little slower? Yes. Are there more obstacles to navigate – traffic lights, narrow bridges, roundabouts and crossings? Sure. But just as tackling these make you a more attentive driver, taking the time to navigate your press relations in a less direct, mainstream manner also gives you chance to pause, consider your routes, and pay better attention to ensure you can get to where you’re going.
Also, it’s a much better view. The scenic route provides more inspiration for storytelling.
So before you click “send” on your next mass mail, or open Claude to create an eye-catching email for your target writer, perhaps pause to consider who may be on the receiving end of your efforts.
Sending another email might be the quicker way to do it, but you’re likely adding to the traffic rather than finding an empty lane to slip down.
Picking up the phone, sending a DM to suggest a coffee, even getting away from your own desk to join events like the BlueSky Media Connect conference (our next is in London in October) provides the opportunity for a real connection, a wider discussion and the potential for even better returns.
Kerry is the Strategic Communications and Editorial Lead at BlueSky Education and a former BBC journalist. Recognised in the graduate management education arena as a leading authority on communications for the industry, Kerry has more than a decade of experience in the media and public relations.