Jack Simpson

‘Original data is so crucial to what we do’: Media interview with Jack Simpson, money reporter at The Times

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

The announcement of the Budget is always an important date in the diary for anybody working in media and communications, especially with a Chancellor that is under increasing pressure and a Labour Government that continues to struggle in the polls.

But what is the day like to cover as a journalist? We caught up with The Times’ money reporter Jack Simpson to talk about exactly that, as well as how PRs can help most effectively on the day, and what else can be done to make the relationship between the two smoother in the future.

What’s it like to cover the Budget announcement as a money reporter?

It’s quite interesting, because ahead of the day there’s so much planning and organisation that goes into it. Weeks out, reporters are being asked to try and find budget case studies that you can line up, get people pictured and have ready to go. On the day of the budget, you have people at your fingertips who can speak on different issues and respond to it, which is something people might not know. The day itself is also why you’re in journalism and is really exhilarating because you’re responding to all the announcements.

This year there was a lot of policy kite-flying from the Government, so we knew a lot of the policies that were coming in advance. We also got the OBR report before the budget was actually released, which helped in terms of lining stories up. But the hard work starts after the speech takes place. You write the quick, snap news stories, but then you’re looking at angles to take stories on. So, on the Thursday, for example, I was tasked with trying to find a case study of someone who was hit by the mansion tax, who had bought their property for a really low price many decades ago, but now it’s worth well over two million. That involved me trudging around Notting Hill, knocking on doors and trying to find someone, and I found this lovely 88-year-old woman called Eimear Murphy, who bought a house in 1970 for £4,000, and now it’s worth around £4 million. She’d be hit by it, but she didn’t have much income. That hopefully shows what it’s like.

Did anything come up in the Budget that you weren’t expecting and then had to report on?

I was focusing mainly on mansion tax but I suppose that inheritance tax for the infected blood scandal, we weren’t expecting and it came out. Also there was an increase in income tax on profits made by landlords of 2%. We’d heard that there might be something with landlords, but that it would more relate to the National Insurance contribution. That was a little bit of a surprise, but on Budget day, you’ve got your role and you’re almost blinkered to that. It’s not until later in the day, when you kind of take it all in, that you kind of see the other things that have been announced, and pick the details out of that.

When covering major stories like the Budget or the cost-of-living crisis, what is the most helpful information from PRs during this time?

I think data is so important in personal finance journalism. If you can come up with an interesting angle, or be able to crunch the numbers to show that the impact of X policy will be this on a certain demographic or person, that sort of thing is what we’re really looking for. In the fallout from the Budget, we want to know how much this tax will cost, for example, a mid-earner over the next three years. That sort of data and original data is so crucial to what we do.

The other thing that I see journalists post about on social media is getting 600 emails on Budget day and getting loads of the same quotes. PRs have these experts at their fingertips, and I think it’s worth speaking to them and trying to find novel and interesting new angles from them, because that’s what the journalists want. After the initial wave of writing the pieces about the Budget, they’re looking for the next angle on what has been announced or an interesting new angle or outcome of certain policy. So I’d always recommend a chat with your experts and seeing if there’s new things that you can come up with, because that’s what really grabs our attention.

You’ve previously covered business and transport at The Guardian and The Telegraph respectively – what do PRs need to know about the work of a reporter with a specific patch to cover?

The best PRs are the ones I can speak to openly and honestly about what I need. I know I can pick up the phone and they will tell me straight away that they can either provide me with what I want or that they can’t. A lot of PRs just pitch blindly and send press releases and that’s not helpful to me.

Quality definitely overtakes quantity in terms of what you’re sending through to a journalist. I would say really think about that journalist, who they are, who they’re working for, what kind of stories they’ve covered before, and then really try and tailor stuff to them. Too often you get absolutely swamped with information and therefore it’s much more effective if you tailor the email. Then once you get one successful interaction, you start building that relationship and then more stories will come from it.

What would make the PR/journalists relationships smoother and more beneficial for both sides, in your opinion?

I’ve always thought that an open and honest relationship with PRs makes it really worthwhile. Nothing’s ever personal – if you write a bad story about a company or a negative story, it’s usually based on facts. I think that they’re the most helpful and beneficial relationships when you can just be open and honest with the PR and I think that works both ways. Other than that, from the point of view of the PR, it’s just taking a bit more time to think about who you’re aiming your pitches at and whether they will land, and maybe take a bit more time to think about it.

For extra help with your pitching to the media, check out the Vuelio Media Database. and ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service.

The Best PR campaigns of 2025

Cyber scares, out of this world spokespeople, but nothing is beating a Jet2 holiday: The best comms campaigns of 2025

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

In the year when AI promised to super-charge the creative side of comms (and did so with rather mixed results *ahem* Coca-Cola and McDonald’s), PR teams continued to hit it out of the park with inventive, groundbreaking, shocking, and cute campaigns and content, both with and without AI.

We asked PRs across the industry for their favourite comms campaigns of 2025 – hat tips go to Jet2, Marks & Spencer, Medichecks, and even Peppa Pig…

Want pointers on creating your own top campaigns for the year ahead? Check out these 14 PR and comms trends coming up in 2026.

Buses that were right on time from MAC & Co.

Ronke Lawal, PR Consultant, Ariatu Public Relations

‘It’s always difficult to pick just one. I rave about Bemi Orojuogun aka the Bus Aunty who though doesn’t represent just one PR campaign has been used in integrated campaigns – I really loved the work that Iman Leila Bokolo, Acting Senior Communications & PR Manager at MAC Cosmetics, did on the MAC bus campaign. Seamless execution and perfectly timed.’

Much love for ‘Love, Actually’

Matt Brown, CEO, W Communications

‘I loved campaigns that rejected over-engineered gimmicks and instead tapped directly into culture, whether that was using experiential stunts that earned genuine social momentum, or targeted pitches that made it into the right publications and then surfaced again via GEO. The best work this year proved that if the story is strong, the execution doesn’t need to be complicated.

‘A great example is Stanley Tucci’s recent work for San Pelligrino – a wonderful campaign! And a festive favourite is Google Pixel’s new ‘Love, Actually’ spoof.

Natalie Trice, Author, Media Commentator, PR & Brand Expert, Natalie Trice Publicity

‘I absolutely adore this year’s Waitrose Christmas campaign! We have the nostalgia of ‘Love Actually’, bringing in the supermarket’s scrumptious food as an act of care and bringing caring and connection back to life. There is nothing like a good love story and this is first class nostalgia with modern day elements. Five stars to the chef!’

Big congratulations to Mummy Pig

Dominique Daly, Director, Hope&Glory

‘I could sit here and extol the wonderful campaigns from H&G, because there’s been many (from launching IKEA Oxford Street to surprising and delighting cabbies in The Fare Game for Carlsberg through to the stunning ringing of the Bells at St Paul’s for GOSH) but let’s not do that (like what I did there?!).

‘Across PR Land, a personal favourite that gave me the “ugh, I wish I’d got to work on that” moment was the UnDropped Kit by ASICS. An insight close to my heart with a well-thought-through delivery. Now I just hope there’s a way schools can actually get hold of it.

‘And no wrap-up of the year can be complete without a shout-out to the meticulously phased pregnancy of Mummy Pig. From social to print to online to broadcast, it got everyone chatting. Again and again and again. A fantastic creative idea, beautifully executed.’

Amber Steventon, MD & Founder, Azaria

‘One standout for me was the arrival of a new baby in the Peppa Pig household. In my 30-year career, it’s one of the rare occasions where a children’s TV animation not only captured public imagination but also made it onto mainstream media and even national news channels. It was a brilliant reminder that thoughtful storytelling, even for young audiences, can create huge cultural impact.’

Nothing beat the Jet2 holiday memes

David Sykes, Head of PR, Carrington

‘We all know that “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday” – and I loved the social media trend that appeared completely organically, cementing the lines from the unrelentingly cheerful adverts into our minds this summer. It’s hard to describe this as a PR campaign per se, because the actual company had very little to do with it, other than making the original adverts which social media users took the audio from. It may have started with people overlaying the audio and music over the top of horrifying scenes of nightmare holidays, but it became ubiquitous – with Jess Glynne concerts becoming viral moments, Americans being amazed at how joyful British adverts are and the voice actor, Zoe Lister, giving her reaction to it on news platforms around the world.

‘This trend proved that PR and marketing has a weirdly strong influence over our national culture, because it turns out almost everyone in Britain can recite more of the Jet2 adverts than we ever would have thought possible.’

Surf was up in Scotland

Sarah Owen, Founder and CEO, Pumpkin PR

‘My favourite PR campaign of this year caught my eye because I am an old surfer. The Lost Shore Surf Resort in Scotland is a disused quarry which was turned into an inland surfing destination and it launched a fully integrated campaign combining experiential events, influencer activations and media outreach. The result was nearly 300 media features, strong public engagement and tangible bookings. It was a perfect example of how creative, experience-led campaigns can generate both buzz and real business outcomes.

Medichecks made some noise

Charlotte Dovey, Founder, Quince Creative Communications

‘One of my favourite campaigns this year was Medichecks’ Don’t Shh Me initiative, which directly challenged how often women feel dismissed by the healthcare system. It stood out because it wasn’t just about brand awareness – it created a movement that encouraged women to speak up, seek answers and feel validated in their health journeys.

‘I admire campaigns focused on normalising conversations around health and mental wellbeing, particularly those making complex or stigmatised issues more accessible without sensationalising them. These campaigns demonstrate how PR can be used not just to sell, but to support, educate and empower.’

AI scare awareness from Virgin Media

Kerry Parkin, founder, The Remarkables and The Mark

‘One of my standout campaigns this year was Virgin Media’s AI scam-prevention initiative. It struck exactly the right balance of public education, creative storytelling, with technological relevance, too. By using AI to demonstrate how easily scammers can clone voices and manipulate personal data, the campaign made an abstract threat feel immediate and human. It was smart and socially responsible; it landed at a moment when public understanding of AI risk needed a step-change.

‘I also loved that the work showed PR at its best; it blended insight and creativity. Additionally, the purpose is to drive genuine behaviour change. It’s the kind of campaign that reminds our industry of its power when we combine sharp ideas with cultural need.

A strong comeback from crisis

Emma Streets, Associate Director, Tigerbond

‘Not a campaign as such, but one of the strongest pieces of overall communications has got to be Marks & Spencer, which has undergone a transformative year.

‘Despite the impact and discussion of its cyber incident in spring stretching into most of the year, the brand’s trust levels with the public and reputation have remained unaffected, and it’s committed to major growth plans, with its food and retail sales figures hitting their highest performance in a decade.’

Finally, a fuller football kit from Modibodi

Plamedie Poto-Poto, Senior Account Executive, CI Group

‘Modibodi x West Ham Womens FC: The lingerie healthcare brand announced that they are partnering with the women’s football team to become the first period underwear brand to feature on kit. The partnership is vital as it brings a spotlight to athletic women who face different issues performing whilst they’re menstruating but don’t feel comfortable to speak about it and like they just have to continue about their day feeling self-conscious. It’s a reminder that dealing with the different things that make you a woman doesn’t stop during a performance, game or match but with the right support you can still do your best.’

Made-up with make-up comms

Patrizia Galeota, PR Specialist & Podcast Host, PR LIKE A BOSS!

‘e.l.f. Beauty: “Give an e.l.f.” campaign: This 2025 global campaign paired the brand with social causes (LGBTQ+, empowerment, advocacy) and real-life activism. By combining bold visuals, genuine purpose, and inclusive representation, it made beauty brand PR about values and community, not just products.

‘Doja Cat x MAC Cosmetics at the 2025 VMAs: The lipstick-eating stunt (the lipstick was chocolate) was provocative, playful and perfectly timed, not just a “celebrity endorsement,” but an attention-grabbing, conversation-starting moment that commanded media and social coverage. It shows how PR in beauty can still shock and delight when done with creativity.’

An astronomically smart spokesperson choice

Gary Jenkins, MD, No Brainer

‘It feels like there’s been more creativity than ever in 2025 – and whether that’s been helped or hindered by AI is up for debate – however, a couple of campaigns stood out in 2025 and for very different reasons.

‘Firstly, Astronomer’s ‘temporary spokesperson’ moment with Gwyneth Paltrow turned a ‘company misstep’ into a world-class response by leaning into humour and owning the narrative before others did.

‘And WWF Denmark’s coffee-and-habitat investigation showed the power of substance – strong on-the-ground reporting, striking visuals and a clear human impact that pushed a complex supply-chain issue into mainstream coverage and real pressure for change.’

Mauro Battellini, Co-Founder, Black Unicorn PR

‘Coming from the startup tech side, and not household brand names, it’s less about campaigns that the public will know about. But one tech startup did make the rounds. Astronomer faced a disaster when their CEO’s affair was discovered at a Coldplay concert after trying to hide from the ‘kiss cam’. The scene went viral and thousands of memes started spreading. They made it into mainstream media and every person’s WhatsApp groups suddenly had memes of it. Their PR team cleverly used the timeliness and attention to hire Gwyneth Paltrow as spokesperson. In a video, she went through the scandal and used the opportunity to spread some of Astronomer’s key messages. It went viral and showed Astronomer confident in their future, leveraging humour to downplay the scandal. And of course, it went almost as viral as the kiss cam itself. It could have just ended with the scandal, but they did something more with it.’

Patagonia demanded more

Pamela Badham, Founder and CEO, Four Marketing Agency

‘Patagonia’s “Buy Less, Demand More” Movement. This campaign prioritised real human emotion, real-world action, and genuine transparency over high-gloss production or generative content, proving that the human element is the ultimate differentiator in modern PR.’

Llama dance party

Marco Fiori, Managing Director, Bamboo

‘Monday.com’s llama. The company has made project management software fun, funky and fresh.’

The mascot massacre at Duolingo

Claire Crompton, Co-Founder, TAL Agency

‘Who didn’t love this one? This campaign was a brilliant exercise in narrative disruption on digital. By “killing off” its own mascot, then teasing a resurrection tied to community engagement, it turned a routine app update into a viral moment. The layered storytelling – cryptic posts, user speculation, a “Bring Back Duo” interactive landing page – triggered a massive buzz on social media, with millions of views and a huge amount of user‑generated content as both people and brands jumped on board with their own versions.’

Ready for what 2026 will bring? Check out these 14 trends for PR and comms coming next year.

How to get press coverage this month

Fitness, wellness, money issues and trends: How to get UK press coverage in December

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

What do journalists need from PRs as we enter the final few weeks of the year? While the media industry never takes a break from reporting on the news, this is generally a quieter time for journalism. However, many will be looking to get ahead with features and articles for 2026 and as you will see from the main topics performing well in November on the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service, there are still lots of opportunities to take advantage of.

Staying on trend

Throughout November and December, journalists look ahead at getting pieces started for the new year and these are quite often trend articles. Last month, 5% of all enquiries were looking for ‘trends’. The majority were looking for trends for next year and that meant ‘2026’ appeared in just under 8% of the total requests, too. Some were also looking to reflect on the year just gone and what trends we had seen.

These sorts of requests can cover a huge variety of topics and last month we had enquiries for trending fitness classes, 2026 travel trends and hot destinations, retail trends, emerging kitchen trends, and AI trends in business.

What are journalists asking for in December 2025?

Going forward? We expect to see the most ‘trends’ requests this month, as in December 2024 we had 18% of the total requests containing this keyword. The topic area can vary greatly but should present lots of chances to get experts featured in titles such as The Independent, The Telegraph, Ideal Home, The Daily Mail, Women’s Health, and HR Grapevine – who all sent requests with this keyword in November.

Feeling fit and well

‘Fitness’ and ‘wellness’ are two keywords that perform well throughout the year but especially so in the final few months. In November, ‘fitness’ appeared in 3% of all enquiries and ‘wellness’ was in 4%.

Journalists from Women’s Fitness, The Times, PA Media, Stylist, and Marie Claire all sent enquiries in November. The requests included looking for wellness getaways out of London, fitness watches, wellness gifts for him, and moving in style where fitness meets fashion.

Which journalists are sending enquiries in 2025?

Going forward? Fitness and wellness are always buzzwords in the new year, with events like Dry January and Veganuary, journalists will increasingly look to experts and to get case studies to cover these topics. In December last year, ‘fitness’ requests jumped up to 8% of all enquiries and ‘wellness’ increased to 6%. There will be plenty of opportunities to secure media coverage on these topics.

Money worries at Christmas

Money becomes more of an issue at Christmas for many, and is one that journalists regularly look to cover. Last month, 4% of all enquiries contained the keyword ‘money’ and with the Budget coming out in November too, this also appeared regularly in enquiries with 5% of the total featuring ‘budget’.

Requests varied from looking to speak to a money/personal finance expert on how Brits can host Christmas on a budget, to advice on how to make your ‘treat’ money go further. Enquiries came from journalists writing for The Sun, My Weekly, The i paper, Money Marketing, The Guardian, and The Financial Mail on Sunday.

Going forward? Journalists tend to look for money or personal finance experts when it comes to covering these topics so have comments ready to supply to the press. Last year in December, 10% of the total requests for the month contained ‘money’ and we are likely to see a similar high volume again this year as it continues to be a hot topic to cover.

Other opportunities for PRs in December and beyond

Travel is a category that performs well all year and November was no exception with 6% of the total requests containing the keyword. Journalists are normally looking for Winter sun or possibly for the travel trends and top destinations for the new year. It’s a topic that stays popular into January as back in the first month of 2025, 5% of enquiries included travel in them.

While it’s a bit further down the road, December is when we start to see our first Valentine’s Day requests. Its popularity will then grow as we go into the new year, and in January 2025, 6% of all enquiries were looking for ‘Valentine’s’ related information or date ideas, so have these prepared early to potentially get covered in national press or a big consumer media title.

Want to get the most out of the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service? Find out how here.

14 PR and comms trends for 2026

14 PR and comms trends for 2026

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , /by

2025 was a year of constant upheaval for all of the creative industries, as comms teams battled with the possibilities and realities of AI adoption; the media was irrevocably changed by the impact of LLMs and democratised content generation; and many communities across the world became increasingly siloed.

What will 2026 bring for PR and communications? Here are predictions from 24 PR industry experts already preparing for what’s ahead – take note of these PR trends for 2026…

1) Uncertainty

‘The signals for 2026 are unusually coherent.

‘Geopolitical volatility is no longer an externality; it is a daily operating condition for communication leaders. AI, meanwhile, is accelerating faster than organisational capability, widening the adoption gap and exposing the limits of shallow governance. Add to this a generational divergence in values, media behaviour and workplace expectations, and the pressure on leadership becomes structural, not cultural.

‘Traditional models such as PESO, demographic segmentation, and hierarchical messaging are breaking under the weight of distributed influence and AI-mediated discovery. High performance will depend on disciplined listening, foresight, intergenerational literacy, and a shift from output craft to organisational intelligence.’

– Stephen Waddington, co-director of Wadds Inc. and co-founder of Socially Mobile

‘For me, the biggest trend will be how PR responds to uncertainty. I suspect it will stop being treated as an exception and become the normal operating environment. Political instability, economic pressure and rapid technological change mean teams will spend less time “managing crises” and more time navigating constant change. As a result, judgement, leadership and clear communication will matter more than speed alone.’

– Andrew McLachlan, Head of Strategic Communications, Mediazoo

2) Further fragmentation of the media

‘The biggest challenge for our industry in 2026 will be working within a shrinking, more fragmented media landscape – fewer journalists, more niche outlets. It means those trusted relationships and highly targeted placements will be more valuable than ever.’

– Sarah Owen, Founder and CEO, Pumpkin PR

‘It’s already happened, but podcasts are reaching more people than ever – understanding how to promote and use the content on different platforms is savvy, economical and helps keeps organisations stay on message.’

– Gorki Duhra, PR Manager, RNIB

‘The days of relying on one or two social channels are over. With algorithms constantly changing and new platforms emerging, diversification will be key. Rather than chasing every trend, 2026 will be about choosing the right mix for your audience, from established spaces like Instagram and TikTok to the community-led platforms like Facebook or gardening forums. By broadening their digital footprint, garden brands can reach audiences where they already spend time, while reducing dependence on any single platform.’

– Holly Daulby, Managing Director, Honest Communications

‘I foresee a rise in “professional influencers”. More PR and comms pros will use digital platforms like TikTok and LinkedIn to share their insights to the wider world – not simply speaking to the industry but to the general population about key PR and comms issues. I also see the power of our algorithmic influence being something that really gains traction – how PR and Comms has the power to drive algorithmic narratives across multiple strands is an exciting thing to consider and study.’

– Ronke Lawal, PR Consultant, Ariatu Public Relations

3) Going niche

‘Sub communities of sub communities are where conversation is at its richest. With Reddit and online communities having increasing power on both AI and social chatter, PR campaigns that go super-niche and speak directly to those groups are going to fly and build a really engaged fan-base at the same time.’

– Dominique Daly, Director, Hope&Glory

4) Increased scrutiny and skepticism

‘I think agencies are going to come under scrutiny from clients about how they are using AI – clients will think they can do it themselves if you’re regularly using large language models as a starting point for content.’

– Joanne Gill, Director, Cyber Crisis Readiness & Response

‘With generative AI so widely used, all content – generated and genuine – will be viewed with caution because people are increasingly assuming that AI is behind most of what they see. A jaw-dropping photo? No way. A beautifully written poem? Probably AI. Fake products, fake reviews, fake images and videos are only going to be more common and harder to distinguish, so trust at all levels is going to be harder and harder to earn.

‘Brands need to counter this by making their products and messages more authentic in whatever ways they can. This could mean less polished promotional imagery, more behind-the-scenes realness, more personal connections and social media collaboration to give audiences more reason to trust what they have to offer. Hopefully, people will also trust the mainstream media more as a result, but they need to pull their socks up too.’

– David Sykes, Head of PR, Carrington

5) Imperfection as a mark of authenticity

‘A sharper focus and value on human authenticity. Human-created content, with its quirks, humour, and even minor flaws, is what marketing and PR are all about – because it feels relatable and real. That is what clients trust us to deliver. This deliberate embrace of “imperfect” storytelling is what will support agencies to stand out and brave this new AI era. Over adoption of AI will see client disconnect, leading to poor results and ultimately a negative impact on business for both parties.’

– Pamela Badham, Founder and CEO, Four Marketing Agency

‘PR teams who help brands to make an emotional connection with their consumers will contribute to their growth, even in tough economic conditions. Consumers don’t need polished messaging and perfect imagery, meaning PR can be low on cost providing you’re telling the right story. Whether you’re husband-and-wife distillers who have sunk all your savings into rescuing a historic water mill (Dunnet Bay Distillers) or an 85 year old dairy farmer who has embraced TikTok and become an influencer (Graham’s The Family Dairy), it’s these real, raw stories of human endeavour that connect with audiences in a sea of heavily curated content.’

– Eleanor Bradford, Director of Corporate Communications, Muckle Media Group

6) Real-time reputation recovery

‘Stakeholders will expect more real-time responses. Brands are shifting investment into scenario planning, faster cross-team alignment, and proactive issue-spotting.’

– Ruth Jones, CEO and Founder, 3THINKRS

‘We’ll also see reputation management evolve into a real-time discipline. Misinformation, rapid-cycle crises and deepfakes will require faster monitoring, shorter approval chains, and scenario planning that’s actually used – not just a ‘nice to have’ that’s filed away gathering dust.’

– Claire Crompton, Co-Founder, TAL Agency

7) The rise of GEO

‘2026 will be the year GEO, generative engine optimisation, will stop being a buzzword and become a core part of every comms strategy. As AI-driven search reshapes how people discover news, products, and brands, earned media will surge in importance again. If you aren’t landing high-quality coverage in trusted outlets, you simply won’t show up.’

– Matt Brown, CEO, W Communications

8) A clamour for case studies

‘PR professionals need to support the media by ensuring that pitches and content are highly targeted, relevant and human. More journalists are asking to interview spokespeople directly rather than relying on written responses, and there is a growing emphasis on proving the real expertise and credentials of those spokespeople.

‘The positive news is that PR teams are well placed to guide clients through this shifting landscape. It all comes back to building trust, developing clear and meaningful messaging, and demonstrating expertise across media and owned channels.’

– Claire Gamble, Managing Director, Unhooked Communications

9) Honesty

‘There’s debate in PR about whether being a “friend” to your client helps or harms growth. For us, it’s not about being a yes-person; it’s about honest counsel and integrity that runs at every level in the agency. That shared trust allows for frank conversations and leads to better outcomes.

‘Growth for me isn’t about being everywhere; it’s about being indispensable to the right people – and always keeping a step ahead on insights and opportunities.’

– Jane Pavia, Managing Director, Vista PR

10) Getting personal

‘2026 will be shaped by consumers seeking calm, comfort and control.

‘For all the excitement around AI, consumers ultimately want something profoundly human: brands that respect their time, reduce stress and help them make better choices. The mantra for 2026? Do less that is fast, do more that is meaningful – and let authentic intelligence guide you.’

– Anthony Tattum, CMO, Leopard Co

‘With so much content being created by AI and fake case studies and news filling up journalists’ inboxes, PRs will have to get even more personal and creative in landing their stories. Journalists will actively seek out those PRs they can trust to give them legit news, which means building relationships will matter more than ever. If any organisation thinks they will be able to produce content with AI, think again. 2026 will be all about authentic and interesting stories – anything and everything to put us further away from typical AI cliches. Yes, it will be challenging, but the challenges will help differentiate between magic and artibots.’

– Dinara Omarova, director, Peach Perfect PR

‘Smarter-than-ever targeting, continuing to focus on building strong relationships, tighter angles offering exclusivity and hyper-focused on the platform, and adding genuine value in the form of useful assets, data, access, or experts for example tailored to the platform – they will win in 2026 and beyond. The days of spray and pray media ‘targeting’ are gone and relationship-first now beats volume every time.’

– Gary Jenkins, MD, No Brainer

11) Flexibility

‘In 2026, the PR and communications industry will need to become far more value-driven, agile and purpose-led. Clients are increasingly questioning what they’re actually paying for, and are no longer willing to overlook hefty agency fees that largely cover overheads such as office space and infrastructure rather than talent, strategy or delivery.

‘There’s already been a clear shift towards smaller, more agile agencies winning major briefs – not because they’re cheaper, but because they’re proving they can deliver the same (or better) results with sharp thinking and leaner operations.

‘We’ll see a move away from traditional, rigid agency structures and towards flexible agency models that unite specialist talent networks, rather than expecting in-house or agency teams to be “jacks of all trades.” By bringing in the right experts for each project instead of relying on one-size-fits-all roles, agencies can deliver higher-quality work, remain more agile, and focus on results and impact rather than office presence or hierarchy.

‘It also has a bigger impact on the industry as a whole. This shift enables more experienced professionals – particularly parents, carers, and those navigating health or life challenges – to stay in the workforce and continue contributing their expertise without being forced out by outdated agency expectations.’

– Charlotte Dovey, Founder, Quince Creative Communications

12) Press releases (yes, really)… but with a twist

‘PR teams have always built stories for human audiences. In 2026, they’ll build them with the understanding that AI is becoming an early interpreter of every brand, business, and organisation. This is where the press release will step back into the spotlight. Journalists rely on it as a verified source of truth, and AI is beginning to treat it the same way. When teams don’t supply clear, authoritative information, models generate their own version, which travels fast and shapes perception long before anyone sees a headline. The industry needs to be ready for that shift.’

– Lizi Sprargue, Co-Founder, Songue PR

‘My biggest prediction is that the press release will no longer be the centrepiece of communications – but rather a supporting document in a much larger ecosystem of storytelling, cultural engagement, and credibility-building. Successful PR will shift from announcement to storytelling. And what will define PR in 2026 is speed, narrative, and trust.’

– Sheridan Okey, Head of PR, Tribera

13) Virtual immersion

‘Immersive, hybrid (phygital) storytelling & experiences. The divide between “digital campaign” and “real-world activation” will shrink further. More brands will explore virtual press events, AR/VR product experiences, interactive storytelling, delivering beauty not just through words or visuals, but through experiential, sensory engagement.
‘For beauty brands especially, this opens doors to try-at-home virtual make-up filters, immersive product launches, experiential retail + digital storytelling combos, and more.’

– Patrizia Galeota, PR Specialist & Podcast Host of PR LIKE A BOSS!

14) And AI, of course… but with ethics

‘We won’t be able to escape the impact of AI and how it can help our work. I just don’t want to see any PR disasters caused by its misuse! Reputation really does include AI ethics.’

– Stephanie Mullins-Wiles, Strategic Communications, Marketing and PR, BlueSky Education

For more on navigating the media ecosystem in 2026 and beyond, check out our Vuelio report ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’. 

Lumina featured image

Introducing Lumina: The AI Suite built from the ground up for PR & Comms

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

The media moves faster than ever, influence shifts in seconds, and today’s leaders are expected to understand every angle instantly. To navigate this, public relations professionals don’t need generic tools—they need technology that speaks their language.

That is why we’re unveiling Lumina, a new intelligent suite of AI tools from Vuelio. Trained specifically on the workflows and realities of modern PR & communications, Lumina helps you surface critical insights faster — and use your time, skills and judgement where they bring most value.

Lumina - Stories & Perspectives

‘The PR, Comms and Public Affairs sectors have been experimenting with AI, but most tools have not been built with their real challenges in mind,’ said Joanna Arnold, CEO of Pulsar Group (Vuelio’s parent organisation).

‘Lumina is different; it is the first intelligence suite designed around how narratives actually form today, combining human credibility signals with machine-level analysis. It helps teams understand how stories evolve, filter out noise and respond with context and confidence to crises and opportunities.’

A new standard for PR intelligence

Lumina is about empowering, not replacing, the human element of communications. The suite of AI tools is designed to help PR, comms and public affairs pros improve productivity, enhance clarity, and spot risks early.

  • Understand & Interpret: Move beyond simple alerts to map how stories spread.
  • Focus & Personalise: Gain the clarity to act before the moment moves on.
  • Execute & Monitor: Rapidly action strategy rooted in insight.

Available now: Stories & Perspectives

We are kicking off the launch of Lumina by immediately releasing our first module: Stories & Perspectives.

Lumina - How can I help you today?

In the current fragmented media environment, a list of clips and alerts is no longer enough to give you the full picture. You need to know not just what is being said, but how it is being perceived.

Stories & Perspectives organises mentions into a clustered set of stories, reflecting different media, audience, and stakeholder angles. It allows you to:

  • Rise above the noise: See at a glance which topics are gaining traction or fading.
  • Zoom in on the details: Uncover the voices and communities shaping the narrative.
  • Catch the pivot point: Identify the exact moment a story shifts from an opportunity to a reputation risk, or when a new voice begins guiding the conversation.

‘Media isn’t a stream of mentions,’ said Kyle Lindsay, Head of Product at Pulsar Group. ‘But rather a living system of stories shaped by competing perspectives. When you can see those structures clearly, you gain the ability to understand issues as they form, anticipate how they’ll evolve, and act with precision. That’s what we mean when we talk about AI built for communicators, and that’s what an off-the-shelf LLM can’t give you.’

The road ahead: a full suite of AI tools designed for PR & comms

Stories & Perspectives is just the beginning. Over the coming months, we will be rolling out the full Lumina roadmap, introducing a comprehensive set of tools designed to handle every aspect of the communications lifecycle.

Here is what you can expect to see joining the suite soon:

  • Curated media summaries: AI summaries customised to leadership priorities, highlighting the stories that matter most each day.
  • Reputation analysis: measurement of how themes like ethics, innovation, and leadership are shaping your perception.
  • Press release & media relations assistant: tools to create focused pitches that reach the right contacts, faster.
  • Predictive intelligence layer: technology to track story momentum and anticipate change before the window of opportunity closes.
  • Intelligent agents: background agents scanning continuously for key spokespeople and emerging risks.
  • Enhanced audio, broadcast & crisis detection: complete oversight of what is being said across every channel, allowing you to build context fast and deliver the best response.

Get in touch to register your interest.


Comms in the chaos

Communicating in the chaos: How to map out today’s multi-channel media space

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

PR professionals are operating in a media environment that looks nothing like it did even a decade ago. With no clear map ahead for sharing your message and gaining the attention of your desired audience, how should comms teams proceed with their campaign planning and media outreach?

Vuelio’s latest webinar ‘Mapping the media: How do stories travel today’s fragmented landscape?’ delved into the issue with the help of industry experts Sean Allen-Moy, Head of Media Relations Strategy at Burson UK and Jacob Granger, Community Editor for JournalismUK.

Missed it? Watch the full webinar here.

Read on for trends explored during the session to help with your strategic comms…

The decline of ‘traditional’ media: Is it all bad for PRs?

The emergence of digital platforms has fundamentally changed how audiences consume content. The numbers from the 2025 Reuters Institute Digital News Report give a stark reminder of this reality: UK consumption of print is down to 12% and television news to 48%.

‘I don’t think this will come as a surprise to anyone,’ says Sean, who leads Burson’s engagement and innovation within the earned media space, from corporate to consumer, and served over a decade as a broadcast journalist for outlets including Sky and the BBC.

‘If you were on the tube this morning, I doubt you saw many people reading broadsheet newspapers. Everyone would have been staring at their screens and scrolling.’

Online-first, mobile-led formats like TikTok are stepping in to take up the slack, offering digestible news and entertainment in vertical video formats, catering to shorter attention spans and more niche interests. The traditional, top-down approach of old, pushing out a press release and awaiting coverage, simply doesn’t work across all modern channels.

Adding to this challenge is the trend of news avoidance and media distrust. Interest in news has dropped significantly in the UK, from 70% in 2015 to just 38% last year, something more pronounced among women, young people, and those without a university degree. But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are many ways to reach audiences now, already being grasped by publishers, and ready to be capitalised on by the comms industry with stories to share.

‘What makes this less depressing is if you think about general content,’ advised Sean.

‘Yes, people aren’t consuming as much news, but they are still consuming information and content, and that’s what the media provides.

‘The average length that people can pay attention to screens is 43 seconds, and that’s what we’ve got to work with now. We might not be seeking coverage on a linear television channel, but 60% of people watch their TV news coverage on Instagram and TikTok, so they are still going to new organisations to find that content; they’re just finding it in other places.

‘It’s thinking about newspapers no longer being the number 1 target – actually think about where your audience is. Rather than aiming for the front page of The Times (which would be fantastic), try The Times’ podcast, Times Radio, the subscriber newsletters – that’s where we need to go.

‘It’s up to us as comms people to go where our audiences are, rather than where we think they are, or where they were traditionally.’

Nichification: The power of the highly-engaged stakeholder

While securing a national front-page splash remains a highly valuable get for any comms team (as long as the story is positive, and wanted by your organisation, of course…), it shouldn’t be the ultimate aim for every campaign. Fragmented media creates pockets of highly valuable, deeply engaged audiences well worth tapping into.

Vuelio’s latest report ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’ tracked five public interest stories to highlight the different ways narratives can spread across today’s media ecosystem. Analysis of the journey of reporting around ‘AI for Heart Health’ highlights the power of reaching a highly-engaged audience first versus blasting out a message to the general public and hoping for the best.

This story’s spread was rooted in science-led articles and organic, community-driven conversation on forums like Reddit before moving to mainstream online news outlets.

Which stories find a home on which platforms?

In this landscape, volume alone does not tell the whole story. Reaching a small, highly-engaged audience of experts, academics, or policymakers can be far more valuable than a fleeting mention in a national publication. This same logic applies to format: while radio coverage might offer higher volume, a mention on a relevant podcast can be a more strategic win, reaching an audience that has actively chosen to download and engage with the content.

Jacob, who reports on the digital news industry for JournalismUK, explained the parallel pivot to an increased focus on audience within the media:

‘It’s just harder and harder to get people’s attention nowadays, and the only solution to that problem, as far as I’m concerned, is a greater emphasis on relevance, and really understanding exactly what it is that people care about. Making sure that is your focal point, and that you’re addressing that every day in your coverage.

‘I’d say for the last ten years or so the news industry has been grappling with this problem, and creating more audience-centric strategies to be more relevant to our users.

‘There’s more to this publishing model of today than just what’s breaking and what’s just happened – the “who, what, where, when, why” that Sean and I were trained on as journalists.

‘The only answer is a greater emphasis on relevance and understanding who your audiences are, what they care about, what their pain points are, and making sure those are addressed.’

The rise of community and audience interaction

The drive to reach ‘top of funnel’ traffic for the media as well as PR teams has been made incredibly difficult, and even redundant in many cases, with the rise of LLMs like Gemini and ChatGPT ‘middlemanning’ between the public and publishers.

‘Direct traffic isn’t what it once was,’ said Jacob.

‘Search and social is increasingly competitive, and news is losing the fight there.’

Where the media can bring audiences back into the fold to engage with their content directly is in the ‘mid-funnel’ space – online forums, app brand extensions, LinkedIn groups, and community features like comment sections and Q&As.

Established brands, like The Times, are actively investing in their apps and community features to retain audiences. By encouraging interaction in the comments section and making readers feel heard, they are centring community building and audience retention.

The part of PR here is to recognise that outreach is a two-way street. Once a story is shared, platforms and forums can prolong it, kill it, or even warp it beyond recognition. This makes monitoring and engagement critical. Find where your stakeholders and audiences are, and engage with them there, advises Sean:

‘We all exist on social now, and from our perspective, it’s “social everywhere, and social always”. Yes, we are consuming video from the BBC, but we tend to be consuming it on social media.’

Sean Allen-Moy quote on media fragmentation

Escaping a media silo by identifying key connectors

Despite the interconnectedness of modern platforms, a single topic can still spread in distinct ways that never intersect, resulting in severely siloed stories. Which is great if you have a crisis you don’t want to hit the aforementioned front pages of national newspapers… but not so wonderful if your story isn’t something you want to keep quiet.

Comms teams can overcome a story staying siloed by identifying and leveraging connectors.

For the story of ‘Surge Pricing’ – which took two very different directions in the UK broadsheets and the tabloids – connectors included specific interest publications (sport-centred outlets like LADBible and SkySports) and influencers and experts (finance expert Martin Lewis, who can project a story across otherwise distinct groups).

Identifying these connectors is a vital part of a modern media relations strategy, offering opportunities to break a story out of a single, self-reinforcing narrative or echo chamber. If you want to do that, of course…

‘That relates to how we plan our campaigns now, how we plan our outreach,’ said Sean.

‘We no longer just ask, how do we target print journalists? What channels do we need to look at? How do we look at social? What we now try to do is look at the ecosystem. Who are the voices that are influencing our target consumer and our target audience? Is it brands? Is it particular journalists? Is it influencers? Is it Gemini and ChatGPT? Is the audience consuming them via broadcast? Are they consuming them on their mobile phone, in real life?

‘Look at the platforms they’re on, and then create the content that reaches them on those platforms. Are they consuming content on Instagram, on TikTok? Are they watching the content on YouTube? Are they mostly steering towards audio on Spotify?

‘At the heart of this is getting rid of the way we have traditionally done things.’

No story’s journey is predictable, so make flexibility part of your plan

This fragmented media landscape is not something to fear. Filled with opportunity for new voices to break through, and ways to reach previously uncatered-to audiences, the media and comms industries must be ready to adapt.

For the comms side, this means being flexible when working with the media, too:

‘Newsrooms know their readers best, and you need to trust them to do their jobs, trust them to know the right angles, to know the right treatments for the stories,’ said Jacob.

‘If they’re saying this is a story for social, that’s going to look different than if they were to run it on the front page of their newspaper. There might be a completely different set of values and treatments and approaches to telling that story. But it might also be that a journalist comes back and says, look, there’s an entirely different angle here that we should explore.

‘Be open to that, because it is in news organisations’ best interest to perfect this, because they live or die by how relevant they are to their audience.’

For Sean on the PR side, it’s about ‘moving from thinking to knowing’:

‘My colleague Allison Spray, our Chief Data Intelligence Officer for EMEA always talks about moving from thinking to knowing. And that has to be the goal, really, in anything we do, and what we do for our clients.

‘Earned media tends to be more influential, but it involves more risk. The answer is to find out where your audiences are. We can’t guess now.’

Mapping out the media space now? Forge a path of audience-centric strategies that are as fluid as the modern media ecosystem itself.

For more on what media fragmentation means for your comms strategy, read the Vuelio report ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’.

Not for profit media fragmentation

Advocacy in the media ecosystem: Today’s PR playbook for the charity sector

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , /by

The third sector is built on driving change, raising awareness, and giving voice to the voiceless, and today’s media landscape has a plethora of platforms offering access to wider audiences. But with these platforms so fragmented, how can Not-For-Profit organisations connect with audiences spread across online forums, social media, national press, broadcast, and more?

Vuelio’s latest report ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’ tracks a number of major public interest and politically-driven news stories from the first half of 2025 to provide a map for comms teams in need of coverage for their campaigns.

Here are key insights for comms teams in the third sector:

1. Niche reach outlets are just as valuable as mass media

National news coverage might be impressive to the board, but a crucial lesson for health charities, research bodies, and policy-focused organisations is that tabloid coverage shouldn’t be the ultimate aim for every campaign.

Reaching a small, engaged group of clinicians, academics, or policymakers with a write-up in a specialist journal can be infinitely more impactful for your mission than a fleeting, 10-second mention on breakfast TV.

Have a story that would work for very distinct audiences? Try a two-track comms plan: one for your specialist stakeholders and one for your mainstream fundraising, without risking a generic multipurpose approach that is unlikely to be picked up by the press at all.

2. Politics adds unpredictability

For any charity involved in advocacy, the impact of politics in amplifying, or silencing, a campaign will be very familiar.

Kelly Scott, VP at Vuelio, describes the journey of public interest stories as a ‘pinball machine’ – either pinging to unexpected places from political realms, or quickly falling out of play.

If your issue gets politicised, picked up for party gain, or distorted, motivating third party stakeholders to speak on your behalf can be the most credible asset for the third sector.

Service users, your volunteers, and your academic partners can add credibility and balance to the public discourse.

3. Echo chambers can stop a story in its tracks

The UK media landscape is severely siloed, with one example from our latest report being coverage of surge pricing in the UK. Reporting on this issue was split, with audiences largely staying in their own echo chambers, experiencing further reinforcement of their own existing takes and opinions.

For the Charity sector, breaking through this is a critical challenge. A campaign on the cost-of-living crisis could be framed as a human-interest tragedy in one silo, and a complex economic policy failure in another.

The job of the comms team is to find the ‘connectors’ that break through these siloes – identifying and building relationships with figures and platforms that cut across barriers and build public trust.

4. Your advocacy is the story

Some of the most powerful stories that pick up speed in the press are public interest, and these often start life on social media. But also important are case studies – connecting the media with real people, who have real stories to tell.

This happens to be a superpower for the charity sector. Your work is built on personal experiences and advocacy for communities – amplifying voices, and engaging with people across platforms, can be the engine of an entire media strategy.

5. Adapting to mission-driven comms

This fragmented world requires a new strategy, one built on agility and insight. As Amy Chappell, Head of Insights at Vuelio, advises, comms professionals must ’embed adaptability into comms strategy’.

This means having spokespeople and expert commentators ready to engage. In this landscape, the most credible and authoritative voices will retain a degree of control.

Ultimately, your strategy must shift:

From Endpoint to Ecosystem: Stop treating a press release or a media hit as the “finish line”. Instead, anticipate how your story will evolve as it’s passed between different platforms and audiences.

From Counting to Navigation: Monitoring is no longer about counting clippings. It’s about understanding how narratives are reframed along the way, so you know exactly when to step in, clarify, or amplify.

This new environment is complex, but for charities, it’s a playing field filled with opportunity. Authentic stories can find their audiences in a myriad of ways.

For more on how stories move through the modern media landscape, read the full Vuelio white paper here. 

Navigating the modern media maze for brands

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , /by

In 2025, the idea of a story travelling directly from the PR team, to the newsroom, straight to the right audience is long gone. Today, stories scatter, ricochet, and sometimes completely transform as they pass through an ecosystem of platforms.

For in-house comms teams at big UK brands tasked with securing significant attention for their campaigns, this fragmented environment can feel chaotic and difficult to circumnavigate. But it’s also full of opportunity – here is what brand comms teams need to know for connecting with audiences now…

From broadcast to broadband: the shape of today’s media

According to the latest Reuters Institute Digital News Report, UK audiences have shifted away from print and TV (down to just 12% and 48% respectively) towards an online-first, mobile-led media landscape.

Statistics from Reuters Institute

For PRs, this means the traditional ‘top-down’ model of securing coverage and waiting for amplification no longer applies. Every story now takes a unique, often unpredictable route through the media ecosystem.

This doesn’t mean that ‘traditional’ media isn’t important – long-trusted media brands have simply branched out into a number of new formats, and audiences can be found spread among them.

Stories take unexpected turns

Vuelio’s latest report ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’ tracked specific stories across the first half of 2025 – from the AI for Heart Health innovation to the Zero Hour Contract Ban. The findings reveal just how differently narratives can evolve:

AI for Heart Health stayed niche and technical, thriving in academic journals and specialist sites before making a surprise leap to tabloids when an AI pyjamas invention caught the press imagination.

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods moved from hyper-local activism on Reddit and X into national election talking points.

Surge Pricing split the nation’s media in two: broadsheets debated regulation and market fairness, while tabloids raged about pint and gig prices.

Zero Hour Contracts began as social storytelling – people sharing experiences online – before policy debate brought it into mainstream broadcasting.

Stories showcasing media fragmentation

These examples highlight a key lesson: media coverage is no longer linear, but lateral. Stories can leap between siloes, or split into parallel versions depending on who picks them up.

The new rules of engagement

As Vuelio’s VP of Government & Stakeholder Kelly Scott notes, ‘The journey of public interest stories can be like a pinball machine — hitting political buffers that change their course’.

Brands are particularly subject to regulation and therefore political interest. Managing reputation in this landscape means engaging quickly, across both media and political spheres.

Correcting misinformation, activating credible third-party voices, and keeping stakeholder networks mobilised are now essentials, not extras.

Amy Chappell, Vuelio’s Head of Insights, adds:

Amy Chappell quote on media fragmentation

‘Each platform, each audience, leaves its imprint. A story isn’t a fixed communication anymore – it’s a fluid journey shaped by who picks it up and how it’s retold.’

How brands can adapt

For in-house comms leaders, this fragmentation requires a mindset shift:

Think ecosystem, not endpoint. A press release isn’t the end of your campaign — it’s the start of a story’s evolution. Map where it might travel next.

Monitor for meaning, not mentions. Media monitoring should track how narratives are reframed across outlets and audiences, not just tally coverage.

Plan for pivots. Build adaptability into campaign design. Prep spokespeople and experts to engage at pace when narratives shift.

Bridge your siloes. Media, comms, and public affairs teams can’t operate separately anymore – their worlds now overlap daily.

Opportunity in the fragmentation

Fragmentation isn’t just a challenge – it’s fertile ground for smarter strategy. With the right insight, the right relationships, and the right timing, stories can thrive in unexpected places.

As Burson’s Head of Media Relations Strategy Sean Allen-Moy puts it:

Sean Allen-Moy quote on media fragmentation

‘To succeed, brands must know precisely where their audience consumes content and meet them there.’

For UK comms professionals, the task is to treat this new landscape not as a maze to get lost in, but as a map full of alternative routes. Because in 2025, the story doesn’t stop at publication – it starts there.

Want more on navigating this new media landscape? Check out the full story in Vuelio’s latest report ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’.

Beyond the front page

Beyond the front page: A playbook for agency PR in a fragmented media world

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , , , , /by

For agency professionals in public relations, communications, and public affairs, the old PR playbook is officially out, with the traditional, top-down method of disseminating information – pitching your press release to a national, getting a front-page splash, and watching your story spread – a thing of the past. Today, comms operates on a fragmented map with no clearly marked course forward.

This multi-platform media environment, defined by complex and unpredictable story journeys, is a fresh field of opportunity for comms professionals who understand its new rules. For agencies, it’s a time to update strategies, redefine what success means for clients, and integrate public affairs and media relations efforts more closely than ever before.

To help, here are key pointers for agencies:

1. Redefine ‘Success’: Niche is the new national

Despite the huge variety of platforms out there, plenty of clients continue to put pressure on agencies for a front-page splash. But a story doesn’t have to hit the front page of a national newspaper to reach a significant audience.

Analysing a specific story’s journey highlights the different routes available to agencies and their brands. Tracking coverage and conversation around the topic of ‘AI for Heart Health’, for example, shows that tabloid coverage shouldn’t be the ultimate aim for every campaign.

This story’s spread was rooted in organic, community-driven conversation, starting on forums, and moving to academic papers, journals, and websites, successfully reaching very specific, and highly valuable, stakeholder audiences.

A crucial distinction for agency client management – volume alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Reaching a small but highly-engaged audience of experts, academics, or policymakers can be far more valuable than a fleeting mention on a national broadcast.

This also applies to formats. While radio coverage volume might dwarf that of podcasts, for example, the latter has a dedicated audience of downloaders, much more likely to be engaged with the content. For our clients, landing that perfect niche podcast could be a more strategic win than a dozen scattered radio clips.

Which stories find a home on which platforms?

2. Manage the ‘pinball machine’ of politics

Public affairs and politics are now almost inseparable from PR, and should be considered as part of any campaign.

Vuelio’s Kelly Scott describes public interest stories as potential ‘pinballs’, that can ‘hit a political buffer, bouncing around further, racking up more coverage… potentially distorting the story if it becomes politicised for party gain.

Kelly Scott quote

‘If your media team and public affairs team are following stories separately, and using a siloed engagement plan… you are missing a huge opportunity,’ she warns.

Political and regulatory attention – like CMA investigations – can prolong a narrative’s lifecycle significantly, and land them in unexpected sectors. Reporting around the RAAC crisis, for example, received more coverage in Regional outlets than in the expected Construction & Property sector. The story of surge pricing received surprisingly little coverage in law-focused outlets, despite questions from online audiences about its legality.

How stories spread across media channels

For agencies, mapping stakeholders is a solid starting point, but so too is being prepared for a story to be picked up by actors with their own agendas.

When a story becomes politicised, agencies must be ready to:

– Correct misinformation at pace and offer good data.
– Engage directly with the media and political influencers involved.
– Motivate third-party stakeholder voices to add credibility and balance.

3. Find the connectors to break through the echo chamber

Despite all the interconnected platforms that make up the modern media landscape, it can still become severely siloed.

Coverage of surge pricing provides a clear example of this – broadsheets focused on issues around labour and fairness, alongside regulatory and market implications, while tabloids centred instead on drawbacks for the general public, with the price of concert tickets a recurring element.

Audiences for each largely stayed in their own echo chambers and weren’t exposed to diverse and different takes on the issue.

The value agencies can bring is bridging such silos by identifying the connectors. For the story of surge pricing, these are national broadcasters (which provide a shared space), specific interest publications (like LADBible or Sky Sports, that reach audiences across class lines), and influencers/experts (projecting a story across very different groups – Martin Lewis is just one example).

These connectors are a vital part of a modern media relations strategy, providing opportunities to break a story out of a single, self-reinforcing narrative.

4. Master the Two-Track Story

One of the curious parts of media fragmentation is how a single topic can spread in distinct ways that never intersect. AI for Heart Health coverage from the first half of 2025 did exactly this:

Track 1: The technical, medical story. This lived in academic or medical publications, and among niche communities and forums online. It reached a limited, but highly engaged, group of professionals, academics, and autodidacts.

Track 2: The mainstream story. When a specific angle of ‘smart pyjamas’ crossed over, it appeared in outlets including Daily Mail and The Mirror, but skipped spaces that ordinarily play host to more technical discussions.

Monitoring niche publications and social spaces to understand which stories have the capacity to break through into the mainstream is vital for agencies working with a variety of clients.

5. Ditch ‘Social First’

Still pitching ‘social first’ strategies? You could already be falling behind.

As Sean Allen-Moy, Head of Media Relations Strategy at Burson, puts it:

Sean Allen-Moy quote on media fragmentation

‘The concept of a ‘social first’ strategy is outdated. The reality is “social everywhere, always”.’

Tracking coverage of the zero hour contract ban in the UK bears this out. While the story was driven by personal experiences and work advocacy shared on social platforms, this fueled broadcast segments and column inches, which are always in need of case studies. Forget traditional media at your peril.

Monitoring and understanding the interplay between traditional coverage, social sharing, and forum-based discussion is a must – agencies must identify where audiences consume content and meet them there.

Andre Labadie quote

‘It’s endlessly fascinating how stories evolve, but it presents a real challenge for brands to fuel the fire – or put it out in some cases – across so many, constantly changing platforms and algorithms,’ says Brands2Life Exec Chair, Business & Technology André Labadie.

‘Using (increasingly AI-enhanced) listening and analytics tools to identify emerging trends through social is key so you can influence the narrative in its infancy. This is really changing how brands can take control of issues early and predict how they’re likely to evolve.

‘What definitely hasn’t changed is the need to add something new to the story, stay close to the media to develop new angles at the right time, and then use all the relevant platforms to amplify it.’

6. Follow the new PR playbook

This fragmented landscape demands a fluid strategy. As Amy Chappell, Head of Insights at Vuelio, puts it, a story is ‘no longer a fixed communication, but a fluid journey shaped by who picks it up and how it is retold’.

The agency playbook must be built on adaptability:

Think Ecosystem, Not Endpoint: Stop treating media coverage as the finish line. Instead, build responsive strategies that anticipate how stories will evolve across platforms.

Reframe Monitoring as Navigation: Tracking coverage isn’t about counting clips. It’s about understanding how narratives are reframed to know exactly when to step in, clarify, or amplify.

Embed Adaptability: Build flexibility into campaigns. This means having spokespeople and expert commentators ready to engage quickly to retain a degree of control in unpredictable times.

For agencies willing to embrace this complexity, the opportunities are immense. Moving from linear pitching to dynamic navigation can prove the indispensable value of agency support to clients and prospects.

Want more on navigating this new landscape? Check out the full story in Vuelio’s latest report ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’.

Agency resilience in the age of AI

How to build agency resilience in the age of AI

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

With the challenges of lower budgets, smaller teams, and extra crunches on clients, AI has been embraced by many across the PR industry as a potential cure-all. But with the very welcome efficiencies and shortcuts has come new challenges. What becomes of PR when content can be generated, and outreach and measurement automated?

Its vital function as moral guide; educator; builder and protector of reputation and knowledge. Read on for advice and insight on centring strategy and thought leadership while making the most of what AI brings to the table.

Steer AI in the right direction…

‘We need to remember that AI is a new tool that still requires human operation to be used successfully, creatively and ethically, so focusing on developing this expertise is key for PR teams moving forward,’ says Sheridan Okey, head of PR at Tribera.

‘PR teams should double down on deep storytelling and reputation management – areas where nuance, empathy, and emotional intelligence matter most. AI can generate words, but it cannot replicate the instinct to sense when a message will resonate or when it will backfire. This is where the industry’s energy should be concentrated: blending the efficiency of AI with the irreplaceable judgement of experienced professionals.’

Add value for journalists

The media is also battling with the pros and cons of artificial intelligence. What they don’t want? Servings of slop, says James Brockbank, managing director and founder at Digitaloft:

‘With AI, anyone can create content on anything they know nothing about, in seconds. And this means that, all of a sudden, too many journalists are finding themselves bombarded with ‘consensus’ comments from PRs who wrote them using AI.

‘That’s not adding value. A journalist could go and do that themselves if they wanted.

‘It’s more important than ever to focus on speaking with subject matter experts (who have genuine experience and expertise in the topic) to offer journalists value-adding comments, insights, and information to take their articles to the next level.

‘It sounds simple, but in a world where too many jump straight to ChatGPT, we’re losing the fact that genuine experts must be at the heart of everything we do.’

Colin Hallmark, founder and lead consultant at 3:nine Communications, also advocates for original case studies and expert comment:

‘There’s already a narrative emerging in the media around the proliferation of bland, generic soundbites via AI. Look no further than the recent controversy in the House of Commons, where MPs were criticised for using it in their speeches.

‘Journalists want credible, authentic voices and original commentary around busy news cycles – the growth of Substack and newsletters is proof of that . In media terms, it feels like we’re entering the age of the specialist. As more people use them as search engines, LLMs themselves are starting to rely heavily on contextual trust and authority drawn from a variety of third-party content, particularly in specialist and industry titles.

‘There’s a big role for PR professionals to work closely with clients to think creatively about how they can bring their expertise and frontline experience to these audiences.’

Continue to connect with people

‘AI will quickly become a delivery service to many brands and businesses,’ acknowledges Georgie Upton, managing director, Wild Card Public Relations.

‘But for us, AI is not the answer to people and brands living life in full colour; it lacks the deep understanding of human beings, the subtlety of connections, and nuances of knowing people – that quick glance, that inner-thought. Business thrives through people connections.

‘It is using AI in a combined approach that allows the survival of human-to-human businesses.’

Sarah Lloyd, podcaster and founder of ISPR, agrees with the importance of face-to-face, in-person, interactions:

‘The industry itself should focus on the human connection. Actually meeting with real people, and creating real relationships through sharing stories. In the age of automation and bringing it all online, we have lost the skill set that had us all working in PR in the first place.

‘AI can complement it – but can never replace it.

‘The value that individuals bring to the table for clients is relationship. Relationship with them, with the press and with agency staff. PR agencies are hired on results AND ALSO chemistry. Results and process is possible via AI, but chemistry is the soft skills that humans require so they can trust the team and agency who is representing them. People buy people at the end of the day.’

Add empathy back into the equation

‘The ability to connect with empathy, is what sets us apart,’ believes Anthony Cooper, company director, Clarient Global Limited.

‘Humans respond emotionally to ideas and events, and it is this ability that allows PR professionals to deliver maximum impact. Large language models can generate content, but they cannot recognise or interpret emotional currents in the way people can. To deliver lasting value, agencies should lean into their biggest assets, which are their people, while embracing AI as a tool that frees us to focus on what we do best.’

Step into the strategist role

‘If your relationship with clients is transactional and more reporting and press office-based, it will be diluted by AI,’ warns Laura Lear, managing director, AMBITIOUS.

‘PR teams will therefore need to be laser-focused on value and strategic consultancy. Our value lies in strategy and clarity, cutting through noise and challenging inaccuracies, and shaping insights and guidance that is tailored for each client.’

Natalie Sutton, tech comms board advisor, agrees:

‘We need to shift from being content factories to being strategic architects. The future belongs to agencies that can navigate complex stakeholder dynamics, predict reputational ripples, and craft nuanced positioning that resonates with human emotion, not just algorithms.

‘Stop competing with machines on their turf. Double down on what makes us irreplaceably human: cultural intuition, ethical judgement, and the ability to build genuine trust. AI can write a press release, but it can’t look a CEO in the eye and tell them their strategy is fundamentally flawed.’

Ask the questions LLMs won’t

‘Right now, we need to demonstrate our value and our worth,’ says Amy Dawson, owner of Gatekeeper Communications.

‘We are the ones who can respectfully challenge and push back, being the voice to remind our clients, “Is this the right thing to do?” or “What could be the fallout from this?” or “How can we change this conversation?” or “Could this quick win impact our long-term reputation?” An AI tool will only ever do what the prompt is asking it to do, so our value has to show that we are taking the right steps to build trust and authority, and that we are contributing towards positive behaviours.’

Echo chambers can be an unfortunate consequence of an over-reliance on LLMs, warns Marco Fiori, MD of Bamboo PR:

‘Fewer companies are looking over the horizon and considering the future impact of their public communication now. This risk is intensified by AI.

‘PRs already play a critical role in setting nuanced positioning, which will become even more sought-after in the coming years.’

Become brand guardians

‘If PR teams aren’t helping brands stand out if they lean on AI simply to churn out content,’ says David Clare, Head of Fusion, Fire on the Hill.

‘PR professionals need to reframe their perspective on AI. It isn’t just a productivity tool; it’s an ecosystem PR can actively influence to help brands tell their story.

‘Generative AI Engine Optimisation (GEO) is ripe for the picking for PRs. LLMs cite coverage, analyst reports, and community content – all areas our industry excels in. But to marry our traditional expertise with the new world of AI demands rigour, digital literacy, and ongoing analysis.

‘PR has always promised to build authority and trust. Today, delivering on that promise means moving beyond clever branding to evidence-based results that genuinely shift visibility and credibility for clients. The AI opportunity is not a productivity boost, it is our ability to create meaningful content that influences AI and sees LLMs do the brand storytelling for us.’

Rebuild your team’s skillset

Karen Idorn, digital PR director at SEOMG!, sees a need for some serious upskilling across the industry to make the most of these new opportunities opened up by the adoption of AI:

‘PR has always been about more than coverage. It’s about guiding organisations through complex, often sensitive conversations. As society becomes more polarised and every brand decision is scrutinised, our role as trusted advisors is more valuable than ever.

‘To really embrace this, PR teams need to invest in deeper industry knowledge, ethical training, and the confidence to challenge clients when necessary. It’s about moving from being just storytellers to being strategic partners who help organisations do the right thing, not just say the right thing.’

Be the voice of reason

How can agencies remain resilient in the age of AI?

‘The role of PR professionals will remain in the capacity of appreciated advisors, says Stephanie Mullins-Wiles, COO of BlueSky Education.

‘Provide moral guidance and be a voice of reason in a world increasingly impacted by AI.’

For Chris Norton, founder and managing director at Prohibition PR, PR remains vital – and should be at the top of the table:

‘The real opportunity for PR is to be seen as a trusted advisor at board level. We should be helping clients make not just communications decisions, but reputational ones: what they stand for, how they act, even where they draw the line ethically. Then, we devise a plan for how that is communicated to the world.

‘That’s a big responsibility, but it’s also what makes the role so valuable. To get there, agencies need to invest in their people – teaching younger professionals to think critically, speak with confidence, and not just ‘do PR’ but advise with authority to ultimately become consultants.

‘It’s this shift that will make our industry more resilient, ensure we’re adapting alongside AI, and that will future-proof the value of agencies.’

For how Vuelio can help agencies with their work, check out our Media Database, Media Monitoring, and Insights solutions.

Jacob Granger

‘AI has made it so that anyone can pose as an expert’ – Media interview with Jacob Granger, community editor at Journalism.co.uk

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

What sort of relationship do journalists want with PRs now? In an ever-changing media landscape, it can be difficult to know the best ways to make connections and understand what publishers want and need from you. Someone that is seeing these changes take place first-hand is Jacob Granger, who works as community editor at Journalism.co.uk.

Below, he shares some of the ways that the relationship between journalists and PRs can be improved, explains how the industry has changed during his nearly ten years covering it, and discusses the impact that AI has had for both sides.

What are some of the main changes that you have seen during your time covering the media industry, and do you think these have been positive or negative developments?

The buzzword at the moment is the ‘user needs model’. This was developed by a journalist called Dmitry Shishkin when he was at the BBC, and it’s since been expanded from six user needs up to eight. I think this has been transformative for our industry, because it has confirmed something for journalists and editors – people want more from the news than just an update. Maybe they want help connecting, or they want help being distracted, or they want to be illuminated by something. There’s more to the news experience than just updates.

The traditional model has long peddled this view that the metrics of success for journalism is measured by page views and eyeballs and scoops and scandals and the rest of it. This is still valid, but I think something else has emerged. An important metric for success now is value and habitual use and loyalty, and the user need model complements this so much, because it takes away the incentive of visibility. It says, what do the analysis articles do for our publication model? What do lists of ‘top ten experts to follow’ do for our business model? What’s emerged from this is the realisation that we’ve over-commissioned on one type of story.

The penny has dropped for a lot of publishers and they have realised what’s missing in our model. Many publishers have run with it, including The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, The Conversation, Vogue, Berlingske Media in Denmark. There’s so many great adopters of this strategy now, and it’s really feeding directly into newer business models that maybe have different KPIs around subscriptions or memberships. That’s the big change. I’m really enthusiastic about it, and it’s been a really wonderful framework for our industry.

In terms of negatives, we’ve seen a lot of job layoffs in recent years in the news industry. When you talk to young journalists, this is a really big concern for them. Is there a place in the industry for me now? The jobs are so fiercely competitive, but also so fragile in terms of their job security. I worry about this being a really big deterrent for young journalists coming through the industry. We can’t just keep cutting jobs to cost save. We have to figure this out and get our business models in order.

Why is the relationship between journalists and PRs such a key one in the media industry? And how do you think it can be improved further (from both sides)?

I think it’s always good for journalists to have new story leads that they wouldn’t otherwise have considered. It’s always good for them to be introduced to sources that may not otherwise come into their world. The problem with this is that PRs tend to come to journalists and newsrooms with ulterior motives. They’re wanting publicity or wanting something in exchange.

Some of the best PRs I’ve worked with, you go back to them and say, this isn’t a story for now, but let’s come back in three to six months when we’ve got some results to show. They say, okay cool, let’s schedule a call in that space of time. At that point, I’m saying that there is a story we could publish, but who does it serve beyond just your publicity? Our job as a journalist is not to give publicity to PRs, it’s to serve our audience. Where there is that clear value exchange, and they’ve thought about the audience, and there’s some exclusive data or access to an expert, that’s legitimate and fine as far as I’m concerned. But there has to be that negotiation between both sides, and there has to be some way of meeting in the middle.

I’ve met some PRs who are very insistent on their marketing lines, and they sit in on interviews, and they interject, and they do all the things that journalists hate. You just end up canceling the interview. My advice is to go into these interviews with some curiosity and be open to the possibilities from the interview. Don’t be afraid to try and change the angle. I’ve got an interview to do tomorrow and this is the second time I’ve spoken to them. It came to me through a PR agency, but the main angle that they approached me with when I had a scoping call with them, I could see it doesn’t really do much beyond trumpet your own cause. I’ve gone back and said there’s a better angle to this conversation. This is one that I think will serve our audience. How do you feel about this? And I’ve got a green light. I think that’s the way to handle these things.

AI and its use in the media has been a hot topic for the last year or two now, what are the main ways that journalists and publishers are using it? And what impact does this have on the PR industry?

I think it’s useful for doing the things that journalists either can’t do or they spend too long doing. I’ve sat there, like any journalist, and transcribed an interview manually. It’s awful and it’s a waste of time. Put it through an AI and it will give you a good transcription. You can also use AI to crawl through a data set to try and find some meaningful data points and statistics. It would take you, as the journalist, ages to do that. There’s no need to waste so much time doing that if you can reliably use a trustworthy AI and corroborate the findings afterwards.

If you’re lazily using it to turn out AI slop, then it is probably not the best idea in the world. I think you could train an AI model to write quite closely for your publication. Train it on a user needs model and your own previous writing, and get it to emulate that fairly closely. You have a first draft, and then you can go in and work from that sort of standpoint and that’s all right in my view. Plus, it’s good for translation, particularly for very niche languages. You know, we did a piece last year about a publisher who was using it to transcribe Greenlandic. You might be able to get some translators, but if you’ve got a reliable AI to do this, then it will save you a lot of hard work in the long run.

In terms of the PR side, the arrival of AI has made it so that anyone can pose as an expert. I think journalists now, with a lot of the scandals that have emerged from journalists being hoodwinked and deceived by sources that are just using AI, probably have their guards up. If you’re a PR, just be aware of this. There would probably be extra credentials needed to prove that you’ve got a legitimate source to speak to, so be prepared to show your credentials and the qualifications of your expert. That’s one impact I think AI has had on the PR world.

Journalism.co.uk offers courses and training not just for journalists but also for people in comms and PR. What are the main skills that a media professional needs nowadays when communicating with the press?

The main skill is to be digitally literate and realise that not all journalists want to have a text interview. Perhaps they want to do a podcast or maybe they want to do a live video, or just do something a little bit outside of the realms of possibility. If you’re a little bit more digital savvy, you can clip it up for social afterwards. It’s good to have those production values in mind about what’s going to look good visually and what’s going to sound good. That’s another thing, get yourself a good mic. A lot of times I’ve been set up with interviews and they’re using iPhone microphones or whatever and that just doesn’t do the business. So being aware of the production values and the different platforms that journalists want to be across, is a very good skill set to have.

I would also be remiss not to give my colleague, Ophelia Birch, a huge shout out for the work she’s doing on revamping our training across the board. I saw one the other day that I thought was really cool, which was about interviewing advice for panel podcasts and about how to do an interview for different scenarios. It’s good to be upskilled in that area I’d say as well.

For more on the modern media landscape and how it’s changing, download our Vuelio report ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media landscape‘.

Media fragmentation featured image

How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment ​

/in , , , /by

The journey of a news story is no longer a straight line. The traditional, top-down method of disseminating information has been replaced by a complex, unpredictable, and multi-platform media environment.

For PR, communications, and public affairs professionals, this ecosystem presents a fragmented map with no clearly marked course, creating both significant risk and incredible opportunity.

How does a story find its audience today? How can you anticipate the unexpected directions a narrative might take, and what determines whether a story is shared widely or becomes trapped in a silo?

Media fragmentation graph

Our latest report ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’ provides a playbook for navigating the modern media maze. By tracking five distinct UK news stories from the first half of 2025 using Vuelio Media and Political Monitoring, we deconstruct their lifecycles to offer insights for professionals across the comms industry.

Inside the report, you’ll discover:

– How to anticipate the potential journey a story or campaign will take through today’s media landscape.
– Which strategies work for cutting through the noise of the 24/7 news cycle.
– Why stakeholder mapping is more important than ever for finding and communicating with the right audiences.

Why comms can't ignore politics

The impact of regulation on reputation: Why comms teams can’t ignore politics

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , /by

The Online Safety Bill, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, upcoming HFSS legislation changes, and Net Zero targets – did you factor these legislation updates into comms strategies for your business, and clients?

As made clear by the impacts of these regulations on the UK business landscape, staying out of politics is not a viable option for comms teams. Being aware of what’s happening in Westminster isn’t just a bonus skill – it’s a core competency that’s essential for risk management, opportunity spotting, and strategic counsel.

For practical advice for staying ahead in these politically-charged times, check out this round-up of advice from those in the industry successfully weaving political know-how into their brand and client strategies.

How politics permeates PR

Politics influences and intersects with every aspect of our daily lives, and this is no different for organisations.

Kerry Parkin, founder of the Remarkables, believes the issue is two-fold for comms:

‘1) Politics drives the agenda. The geopolitical world is moving faster than ever, often dictating the speed and direction of media and stakeholder conversations. Take tariffs as an example: a major political decision, well signposted in advance, can suddenly make or break something as straightforward as a tequila launch. If your product, business or brand is touched by political or geopolitical events, it must be factored into your mindset, planned for, and executed around, even through, the disruption.

2) Timing is everything. If you are pitching stories on the very day a budget lands, you can kiss goodbye to any meaningful coverage. Without political awareness, teams risk wasting opportunities and undermining credibility by being out of sync with the national conversation.’

In fact, a lack of political know-how can be poison for public relations, as Anton Greindl, director, public affairs, at the Tilton Consultancy explains:

‘Without a working grasp of the political agenda, agencies can drift away from their clients’ real priorities. If you don’t track policy and regulation, you mistime launches, miss stakeholder expectations, and risk using messages that are about to become politically toxic or legally constrained.

‘You also lose earned opportunities, such as select committee calls for evidence, regulator consultations, media windows, because you’re reacting after the fact. Policy literacy is the difference between PR being a noticeboard and PR being a strategic lever for revenue, risk, and reputation.’

Reputation could be the first casualty of a lack of awareness:

‘Without political awareness of the now and what’s upcoming, PR teams risk aligning their clients with narratives that are outdated, or even damaging,’ says Claire Crompton, commercial director at TAL Agency.

‘Politically and socially, society evolves daily – the political sphere is continuously shifting. Managing a brand must be timely in the wider context of society, without anticipating what’s ahead, PR teams are essentially navigating blindfolded.’

The role of political monitoring

While it’s impossible to be present for every PMQs, there are tools to help you keep on top of what’s happening in politics.

Laura Moss, managing partner, Parisi explains what political monitoring can do:

‘A good example of monitoring in practice came when we picked up on emerging Home Office policy proposals to ban critical national infrastructure (CNI) owners and operators from making ransomware payments.

‘We immediately flagged this to a client, the cybersecurity specialist team at a global law firm, and worked with them to provide rapid legal and policy analysis. Within hours, we were able to take their expert commentary to targeted media outlets, ensuring they were among the first voices shaping the debate. This not only positioned the client as a go-to authority on ransomware policy but also strengthened their relationships with journalists covering cyber and national security.’

Monitoring can provide the warning signs for potential crises on the horizon, believes Kerry:

‘It allows PR teams to anticipate rather than react. I saw this first-hand during my time at Costa, when Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall launched his campaign against paper cups. At the time, we treated it as purely a media issue. What we did not realise was that the subject had been raised at Prime Minister’s Questions a month earlier.

‘Political monitoring would have flagged that in advance and given us the chance to prepare the business and the narrative more effectively.’

Another example with huge ramifications for comms and wider industries – the uncertainty around TikTok’s continuing availability in the United States earlier this year:
‘In one fell swoop, this would have disenfranchised millions of young Americans from a channel that they could identify with, and would have cost the platform and its advertising partners, and brands that rely on it, millions in revenue,’ explains Yasper founder Julian Pearce.

‘Businesses from all corners need to be aware of the threats, and the potential fragility of their relationships.’

Political awareness is needed globally, nationally, but also locally, adds Katie Nelson, director and head of construction at Cartwright:

‘Recent months and years demonstrate this perfectly with a power change in Number 10, new housing targets and national infrastructure strategies, and changing cabinets. By being tapped into that political space, we’re able to work with clients on how best to navigate changes from a communications perspective – which as PR pros, we know the role comms has to play.’

Moving from passive observation to proactive strategy

What comms teams do with the information is what makes the difference – reacting to what’s happening in the political sphere, but also taking a proactive stance:

‘On its own, data is useful,’ says Laura. ‘But the real value comes from PR consultants interpreting it and adding their knowledge and insights on the potential business impact, then advising clients on how they may or may not wish to respond. By turning monitoring into actionable insight, PR teams can help clients shape communications strategies and identify opportunities for engagement with policymakers or industry bodies.’

Anton agrees:

‘Too many consultancies follow the same pre-packaged newsletters from a narrow set of public affairs – specific outlets, which limits scope and insight. While these are extremely useful in our day to day, every practitioner should skim the key national and international papers each morning, plus at least one business title, one sector trade and the relevant regulator feeds. Go to the source, such as government portals, consultations, committees and statistical releases, rather than relying solely on pre-focused summaries. And I believe we should close the loop weekly with a short, internal, client-specific briefing that covers what changed, why it matters, and the recommended actions.’

In summary, ignore what’s happening in Parliament at your peril…

Your stakeholders will care, so should you, says Jan Christoph Bohnerth, CEO of Life Size.

‘Communications teams can and should go beyond simply tracking when a new bill or regulation is introduced. It’s now also about anticipating how different stakeholders are likely to move, and communications has an important role to play in influencing and shaping public discourse. Done well, this gives PR teams the intelligence to stay ahead, guide strategy and achieve the best possible outcomes for their clients or organisations.’

‘Those that fall short tend to be the ones cutting back in political and communications engagement,’ warns Kerry.

‘In today’s environment, that is short sighted. Now is the time to be investing in these capabilities, not retreating from them, because the political and media landscape is only becoming more complex and uncertain.’

‘The takeaway for PR is simple,’ adds Anton. ‘When politics moves, lead with substance, consistency and implementation detail.

‘Treat policy milestones like a content calendar, make your spokespeople useful to the debate, and ensure every message is anchored to actions the organisation is taking next.’

Tap into what’s happening in politics with Vuelio Political Monitoring and our Political Database. Want help with stakeholder management? Check out Vuelio Stakeholder Relationship Management. 

Getting media coverage in October 2025

Gift guides, keeping warm & half-term holidays: How to get UK press coverage in October

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

Deciding how to get coverage in the media in October? Halloween may be the immediate focus but there are plenty of other trending topics and issues that you can tie campaigns and experts into. Find out below what has been popular in September on the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service and what this will mean for the rest of this month.

Gift guides in demand

Christmas is approaching quickly and journalists have been keen to get their gift guide features compiled in the last month. Over 7% of the total requests in September contained the words ‘gift guide’. This has resulted in some big increases for some of our more consumer-related categories with Men’s Interest rising by 60% compared to August, a 44% increase for Women’s Interest & Beauty and a massive 88% increase for Children & Teenagers.

Journalists at The Sun, Cosmopolitan, Health & Wellbeing, The Guardian, Saga, and GLAMOUR have all sent gift guide-related enquiries in the last month. These have been ‘for him’ and ‘for her’, as well for children, for pets, food & drink products, beauty items, wellness and much more.

Going forward? Gift guide requests will remain frequent throughout October and November as we build up to Christmas. In October 2024, nearly 10% of the total requests was for ‘gift guides’ so expect an increase in journalists from national press and major consumer magazines asking for product samples to test and feature in their reviews.

Staying warm is hot stuff

October marks the beginning of the colder months of the year and journalists have been keen to find out ways that people can stay warm during the Autumn and Winter. ‘Heat’ has appeared as a keyword in just over 1% of all requests in September and ‘warm’ in just under 2%. This also ties into the topical issue of concerns over energy bills and how this might impact people’s personal finance and budgets – with ‘budget’ also appearing as a keyword in nearly 3% of enquiries.

Requests have included looking for expert insights on how UK households are staying warm and cutting energy costs; a heating expert to share expertise on the best time of the day to put the heating on and the best electric blankets to help keep warm this Winter.

Going forward? With temperatures set to drop in October, then there will be more requests around ways that people can stay warm for less. This will increasingly link into the finance side of things as ‘budget’ appeared in over 4% of requests last October. Get heating and finance experts ready and you could be featured in outlets such as GB News, Ideal Home, or Homebuilding & Renovating.

Travel back in fashion

June and July are usually peak season for both the Travel category and ‘travel’ as a keyword but September has seen its popularity rise again. ‘Travel’ cropped up in over 6% of all enquiries last month and the Travel category as a whole increased by 35% compared to August.

This is in part due to journalists looking to get recommendations on where families can head to for the October half-term. However, there have been other topics too with requests for unusual travel experiences, staycations with a twist and trade-friendly tour operators that specialise in adventure travel. These have been sent by outlets such as PA Media, Selling Travel, National Geographic Traveller, and The Wall Street Journal.

Going forward? There will be requests for last-minute travel packages for the school break plus journalists will be looking further ahead with other Autumnal getaway destinations and information on Winter holidays, too. Be prepared with information on different escapes and travel experts to offer comment and there is potential for coverage in a national press title.

Other opportunities for PRs in October and beyond

While we aren’t that far into Autumn, ‘Winter’ becomes more popular on the Journalist Enquiry Service from this point onwards. Last year it appeared in over 4% of requests during October and we would expect to see a similar level of interest this year. This can vary in topic from gardening jobs to do during this period to looking to get information on the fashion and beauty trends for the Wintertime.

It doesn’t receive masses of requests but journalists spend this month gathering information on the best places to see firework displays to celebrate Bonfire Night. Around 1% of all enquiries in October 2024 were centred around this topic, so if you’ve got information on different locations putting on events to celebrate this occasion then have them ready if you want to get press coverage.

Want to get the most out of the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service? Find out how here.

Future of Media Technology Conference 2025

How the UK media are making use of technology to bring audiences back

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , /by

The evolution of AI has forced the comms industry to completely rethink its role in the media ecosystem, and journalism is facing the same conundrum.

For the challenges being faced in the media industry now, check out insight shared at this year’s Future of Media Technology Conference from Press Gazette, featuring speakers from PA Media, the Daily Mail, The Times, PinkNews, Bauer Media, and more…

A big problem for brands: AI’s impact on GEO and SEO

Many speakers throughout the conference referred to the devastating impact of LLMs on traffic previously picked up from Google Search. And Google was the focus of much consternation:

‘I’ve worked on the publisher side for about 20 years, before joining PA Media, and during that time, it was mostly seen that Google were the “good guys” among the frenemies that were out there, in the sense that our objectives were aligned,’ said Martin Ashplant, product development and operations director for PA Media.

‘Publishers wanted to get really good quality content out there. Google wanted really good quality content on the web, so that people came to the open web and didn’t go into closed systems. That’s clearly changed, and I think that’s been clearer and clearer over the last few years. And this isn’t just about AI. This is about how the Google interface has changed, and there is no longer that ability to rely on getting the click.’

Carly Steven, director of SEO and editorial e-commerce for the Daily Mail, explained the impact being seen at the brand:

‘There is obviously a huge period of disruption right now, massive changes related to AI overviews rolling out. Like a lot of publishers, we’re seeing the impact of that.

‘The reality is that when there are AI overviews for our keywords, the click-through rate goes down. I think we all know that nobody really clicks when there’s an AI overview present, and that impacts on traffic.

‘But, by the time an AI overview appears, that story has moved on and our readers aren’t searching for it anymore – its impacts are negligible. That doesn’t mean to say that it doesn’t matter. It absolutely does. But our brand is in a very fortunate position in that a significant portion of our traffic is direct, from branded searches. That makes us quite resilient in the face of these changes.’

Anna Sbuttoni, deputy head of digital for The Times and The Sunday Times, believes the early upheaval is finally settling down for publishers:

‘We have seen that Google Search referrals were fluctuating, but it is relatively steady right now.’

In fact, the benefits of SEO and GEO have been in flux for a while already, as Bauer Media’s Stuart Forrest, global audience director, explained:

‘Zero Click Search has been an issue for publishers for a long time. There was a website years ago called Celebrityheights.com, for example, that would tell you that Tom Cruise is five foot six. That site went out of business because you didn’t need to go there once Google would provide the answer. AI is just the next step of that.’

Caroline Fenner, chief revenue officer for PinkNews, agreed that this is just the latest step in a long-standing issue:

‘Everyone’s been reluctant to rely heavily on Google Search for a very long time now, because of the algorithm changes and how unreliable it’s been.

‘PinkNews is fortunate in that we get a lot of our traffic via socials. But, speaking to other publishers, it is a concern, and you need to look at other ways to generate traffic now. “Google zero” seems to be the new phrase being used. In case that happens, we’re constantly looking at new ways to drive traffic to our website. Likes, comments, shares, all sorts of stuff on social, the comments, dwell time, repeat users – we’re looking at ways to keep people within our ecosystem. That lends itself to WhatsApp groups, Facebook communities, and subreddits – it’s making sure there’s a safe space for the community to feel like they belong.’

Helping audiences find their community are platforms like Reddit:

‘Forums feed the algorithm in terms of SEO and AI results as well,’ said Tom Rolfe, director of publisher development at OpenWeb. ‘It’s going to be a great place for UGC [user generated content], but it’s not going to touch your content on site. It will be its own thing, almost like a subdomain for publishers. We’re really happy that forums like Reddit are being favored by Google and AI, because it’s providing an opportunity.’

For what else Google is ‘favouring’ these days, Daily Mail’s Carly asked for more transparency:

‘I think the biggest plea that we have to Google as publishers is to be able to see the data. We can’t track it properly, and we don’t get that information in our analytics tools. If we did, we could properly attribute the impact of AI on traffic. But right now that’s very, very difficult to see.’

Where in the ‘funnel’ can audiences be found now?

Where ‘top of funnel’ traffic – referrals from Google Search – has reduced drastically for many smaller publishers that won’t rack up ‘branded searches’ from audiences searching for the title or brand in question, Tom advocated a pivot to ‘mid-funnel’-focused strategies:

‘For a long time, publishers were very focused on “top of funnel” traffic – what we’d call ‘free traffic’. It’s a bit like a drug, you know, all this coming from nowhere. Now we’re having to shift that publisher mindset to ‘mid-funnel’ engagement. When the user hits the site, it’s figuring out what’s the value exchange for them? That’s something you can offer with community features – commenting, reaction tools, really focusing on keeping them there for as long as possible.’

The Times’ Anna spoke about their equivalent of the ‘mid-funnel’ – The Times app:

‘Commenting on our site is very much a subscriber privilege, and it’s being part of The Times’ community.’

Her fellow panelists admitted to reading the comments before the article when consuming news – a rising trend among wider audiences, too. In the same way PinkNews encourages community, The Times has grown this via their app – where commentary and feedback from readers is encouraged to continue engagement.

What can’t be replicated by AI?

Publishers are faced with the reality that much of their content can now be produced by AI, and potential readers are being directed to AI summaries instead of the content they’ve been trained on. Panelists spoke of the need to rethink priorities, and what journalists can do that AI can’t:

‘The Times has a 240-year history, and it’s something that we need to protect – the legacy and the authority that we have,’ said Anna.

‘It’s something that we talk about and enforce in the newsroom every day. When we’re talking about live coverage or story packages, we’re always thinking, what’s the exclusive? What have we got that’s original, that’s distinctively The Times that no one else has? How can we contribute to this conversation? How can people read, watch, or listen and understand what’s going on?

‘The next step for us is really putting our reporters at the core of what we do. How can we show our workings more, show that it is humans creating the content, and the hours, months, or years that can go into an investigation?

‘That’s something we’re exploring. Showing what we do as a way to bring people back, keep people in. For them to know that they can come to us’.

Martin at PA Media believes original content must in incentivised, for the good of publishers and LLMs: :

‘The worst case end point is we get to a place where there is no value in creating original content, because everything is being summarised. My call would be to invest in producing high quality journalism, original content, going out there and getting the stuff that isn’t yet there to be scraped. Because if you lose that, you lose the reason for people to go out and be creative.’

How the media is making use of data and metrics

Sheena Peirse, chief customer officer at Mediahuis Ireland, was firm on the importance of continual testing and improvement for publishers in the current landscape:

‘‘What you really see across the board – my team, the customer, subscriptions, the marketing team – is development, iterating. Test, learn, iterate. Use your data. Find out what works. Make it work. Move on.”

But which metrics can actually be trusted? David Goddard, SVP of business development, measurement and publisher solutions for DoubleVerify, highlighted the inherent issues with data-led strategies:

‘The problem with any metric is that they can be gamed. Thinking about attention, for example – is it engaged attention? Is it just a video playing at the corner of the screen? Is it somebody who’s actually watching the content? It’s really difficult to say for sure.’

Maintaining brand safety

Should alignment with ‘hard’ news be a big no-no for brands? No necessarily, believes Imogen Fox, global chief advertising officer for The Guardian:

‘We know that 96% of people read their news online in some form. So why on earth would you not want to put your brand near them? If you are – and I hate using this word – brave, you advertise next to the news. You do see good results.

‘People used to think that The Guardian is more famous for the advertising we don’t take than the advertising we do. It’s been our job as an ads team to say, actually, what we’re really good at is connecting brands with culture.’

But is the term ‘brand safety’ itself a blocker? David at DoubleVerify defined the issue in a different way:

‘I think the terms “brand safety” and “brand suitability” can be confused and intertwined. We can say in this room, news is 100% brand safe. There’s no brand safety issues with news. There are sensitivities to particular content, and publishers need to utilise tools to ensure that advertisers are avoiding the sensitive parts of news. There will be particular news subject matter that some brands will insist on avoiding. The rest of the news can be highly performant for advertisers.’

Should AI bots be blocked to ‘protect’ publishing?

Dan Rua, CEO of Admiral, The Visitor Relationship Management Company, believes AI bots should be blocked from training on content from publishers. He shared a clear message that the media industry should work together, using his experiences at Napster as an example:

‘AI is a scary disruption. But if navigated well, there’s opportunity. Copyright sets the guardrails of what is okay and what is not okay. Figuring out the value exchange that works for users is key. In the case of music copyright, there was an industry solidarity – music labels were on the same page of what needed to happen. They weren’t really bickering with each other about how to tackle it – ultimately, they got together and made a difference.

‘I think step one here is blocking the bots. Doesn’t mean in the future you might not find more creative ways to work in the whole ecosystem.’

Carly disagreed – referring to the Daily Mail’s collaboration with AI companies, and other publishers’ deals to allow AI training:

‘I don’t think it’s helpful to malign the bots, because if you do, that leads to a kind of arms race of evasion and detection, where publishers are constantly spending on protection, bots are constantly spending to improve evasion, and actually, the only people who win that scenario are the tech companies.’

Martin at PA Media was also open to the possibilities AI could provide to publishing and big brands:

‘Despite the kind of negativity that we’ve been talking about today, I’m actually really bullish about AI – I think it presents a real opportunity.

‘We will start to see a premium placed on human-generated content as it becomes harder and harder to wade through “AI slop”. Having humans involved will become the big point of difference.’

Director of FT Strategies Adriana Whiteley offered practical advice to all content creators seeking audiences now:

‘Focus on niche content that directly meets your user needs, and do that while you have an audience. After you’ve lost your audience, it’s going to be much harder to take it back. We have a window of opportunity to work on those areas and understand what people want. Create a specific product. Make the products richer – increase that stickiness in what you offer.’

For more on how the media industry is connecting with audiences now, check out insight shared during our Seeking Audiences: Journalism in the Platform Era event with speakers from BBC News, ITV, LSE, and more.

How to get press coverage in September 2025

Christmas content, money issues and fitness fanatics: How to get UK press coverage in September

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

Wondering how you can get expert comment into the press in September? With the kids heading back to school and a new season beginning, there is plenty of new topics and issues for journalists to cover. Find out below what they have been looking for in August from requests sent via the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service and how this will impact what they are looking for this month and beyond.

Holidays are coming

Whether you’re a fan of Christmas or not, journalists are already looking to get ahead with their gift guides. In July, ‘Christmas’ appeared in just over 2% of enquiries and this figure more than doubled to just under 7% of requests in August.

What are journalists writing about in September?

It’s not all been gift guide requests, though. There have been enquiries for festive/winter feature ideas and celeb interviews, historic houses decorated for Christmas, and winter books. Journalists at The Telegraph, The Independent, House Beautiful, and Bella all sent requests in August.

Going forward? September is likely to see the amount of Christmas requests double again. Last year, 14% of enquiries in September were for Christmas, with about 9% for gift guide products and 4% for advent calendars. Be prepared with samples to send out for review, and you could be featured in the national press.

Money issues a concern again

Both energy bills and food prices are set to rise over Autumn and Winter meaning that money concerns are once again high on the news agenda. This was seen on the Journalist Enquiry Service in August, with just over 3% of the total requests featuring ‘money’.

Outlets such as Raconteur, Sifted, Saga Money, Money Marketing, and The Sunday Times all sent enquiries around this topic last month. Many of these were looking for case studies, with asks for single people to chat about managing finances, a business owner who is worried about business rates, and for someone who has inherited a decent amount of cash because of IHT reasons.

Which journalists are using ResponseSource for their Sept 2025 features?

Going forward? Journalists are likely to be writing advice pieces over the coming weeks and months about how people can save money during Autumn/Winter. We will see a lot of requests for money and personal finance experts. Plus, the Autumn Budget isn’t too far away, so journalists will need experts to explain any changes that will affect household budgets, and possibly case studies of people that will be impacted.

Fitness in fashion

The peak time for fitness is usually in early January, which we saw earlier this year with nearly 4% of requests containing the word ‘fitness’. However, we have seen another spike in August, with 2.5% of enquiries looking to cover this topic.

Outlets such as Men’s Fitness, Fabulous, The London Standard, and Cosmopolitan all sent requests last month. The majority were looking for fitness experts to share their advice and opinions but we also had enquiries looking for fitness bootcamps, home gym equipment, and fitness etiquette.

What journalists are asking for in September 2025

Going forward? National Fitness Day is coming up on 24 September, so we are likely to see more requests for experts and information on different exercises and classes that people can take up to get fit. Have comments ready to send out and you could get featured in a consumer magazine.

Other opportunities for PRs in September and beyond

Party conference season is nearly upon us and journalists have been looking to get ahead of this with 2.5% of requests containing ‘government’ and 1% for ‘Labour’. Enquiries are likely to focus on getting expert opinion on new policy announcements, and speeches, and conventions from the major party conferences. You can also keep up with the developments from the party conferences by subscribing to our newsletter.

Peak holiday season may now have passed but the media are already looking to get ahead and cover Autumn and Winter travel ideas and holidays. ‘Travel’ appeared in 5% of the total enquiries in August with the majority looking for experts to share their tips and advice on places to go. This is likely to continue throughout September with journalists seeking information on half-term holiday suggestions.

Want to get the most out of the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service? Check out this explainer.

Preparing for a cyber crisis

‘Cyber crisis is a completely different animal’: Advice on planning a cyber secure comms strategy

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , /by

‘The thing to remember: it’s not a normal crisis’ – that’s Joanne Gill’s advice for comms teams. And Joanne would know: her organisation Cyber Crisis Readiness & Response is geared towards helping comms teams who are faced with cyber security crises.

And in today’s climate, every comms team is at risk. Any organisation with an internet connection could be subject to a cyber attack, a data leak, or a deep fake of their c-suite in today’s climate of increased danger. According to Panorama report ‘Fighting Cyber Criminals’, there were an estimated 19,000 ransomware attacks on UK businesses in 2024, and that number is only set to grow.

‘You have to have a separate part of your crisis comms plan, a separate process, a separate mind map. Don’t fall back on your usual muscle memory, because it’s not going to work for you,’ adds Joanne, who equips organisations across the UK with the confidence to withstand and recover from the dangers of a cyberattack.

Read on for what to learn from recent crises that hit the headlines; practical steps for getting started on your plan; and where comms can get particularly complicated…

Lessons to learn from the 2025 summer of cyberattacks

‘All comms teams need to be prepared for something like this to happen to them, and other organisations in their sector. Identify stakeholders, have statements that are ready to go,’ advises Joanne.

Cyberattacks are on the rise

‘The key thing that’s different with a cyber crisis is, how do you actually distribute that? If all of your systems are down (for example, M&S had to revert to pen and paper), how do you distribute your statement to journalists?

‘There’s that added complication of having a distribution list that is not attached to a system which might go down. Ask yourself – do I know how I’m going to contact people? Where am I keeping that information? If I’ve got a crisis communication plan, do I have a paper copy of that? Do the people who are involved in that have a paper copy of it? And how are we going to communicate and actually do our jobs, get approvals for things that we put out when our systems are all down?’

Cyber crisis versus crisis

‘The additional element with a cyber crisis is that you need to be a good corporate citizen. With a cyber crisis, you’re not the sole victim. Your suppliers are potentially victims – it’s going to cost them money, one way or another.

‘All the usual things that you would do in a crisis need to be considered – how do we shore up the reputation of the company? How do we reassure people? How do we say sorry? But you also need to also look at how to be a good corporate citizen, preventing further harm to all of the people who are in your business ecosystem.

‘That is about communicating with CISOs (Chief Information Security Officers), telling them what the solution is to this problem, and how they can prevent contagion to their own systems. You’ve got a whole load of communication that has to happen before anybody even thinks about what to say to the media.

‘The media isn’t going to drive how a company recovers. That’s going to be how you deal with your stakeholders – the media is just a route to communicate with those stakeholders.

‘A cyber crisis is a different animal to other crises.’

Practical steps for planning your response

‘Ensure that you have those stakeholder distribution lists and that you’ve done some analysis in advance about who you need to communicate with, and what to do if all your systems are down.

‘Make sure that you’ve got all of the suppliers, all of your ecosystems, chief executive security officer details so that you can contact them, so your technical people can write to them. And that’s very different messaging to that of reassuring your customers.

‘It’s about segmenting, making sure that you’ve got that information available outside of your usual systems.’

CEO statements: Always a solid comms strategy?

‘As a comms team, you know whether your chief exec is somebody that you want to put forward – it’s what companies traditionally do for crisis comms. You do the media training, emphasing the need to be apologetic, to be empathetic.

‘But I don’t know… the other element with cyber issues is that the more content you have of your senior team in the public domain, the more opportunity there is for criminals to use AI deep fake tech. To do some social engineering, and then use that to get access to your systems. Nobody is going to argue with the CEO if they call a help desk in the middle of the night and say “reset my password”.’

Extra complications to consider

‘It’s so complicated because you’ve got things like GDPR, there are potential fines coming further down the line. Cyber crisis is a multi-layered, complicated thing.

‘Comms teams who come into this thinking that it’s going to be like a regular crisis will come unstuck very quickly.’

For more on planning your strategy, watch Vuelio’s webinar ‘Cyberattack Crisis Comms’, or read our overview of the key points covered here.

What are journalists writing about in August

Wellness, AI and gardening: How to get UK press coverage in August

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

Looking to get featured in the media during August? The final month of the summer still presents plenty of opportunities to get expert comments, case studies and more out into the press. Below we provide insight into what journalists could be looking for based on trending words and themes from the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service in July, and what that means they will be looking for this month.

Wellness is well-in

August is National Wellness Month and journalists have been looking to get ahead as just under 2% of all requests last month contained the word ‘wellness’.

Top themes for August

Enquiries have included looking to speak with business leaders about their top wellness tips, wellness retreats and spas to visit in the UK, and looking for high-profile health and wellness experts. These requests have come from outlets such as PA Media, SheerLuxe, MailOnline, City A.M. and Top Santé.

Going forward? Journalists will still be sending last-minute National Wellness Month requests – have experts and info ready and you could get yourself or your PR client featured in national press or a major consumer media title.

AI and new tech’s impact

Technology journalists have had a lot to cover in the last few years with the rise of artificial intelligence, and more recent news around cyber attacks and online safety. ‘AI’ continues to prove popular on the Journalist Enquiry Service, with just under 6% of requests in July. ‘Cyber’ has also been getting a lot of interest too with just under 2% of all enquiries last month.

Requests have been looking to cover how AI is impacting many different sectors including case studies on retailers trialling agentic AI and how it’s transforming the banking sector. Plus enquiries covering more general points such as how the UK’s AI action plan compares to Trump’s. While requests around cyber have been more focused on cyber security and also getting perspective on who handled the cyber attacks better – M&S or the Co-op.

Going forward? The amount of enquiries around AI were 35% higher in July this year compared to last, which is in line with what we have seen across the year. Journalists are constantly on the lookout for case studies and experts that can shed more light on the sector they cover. If you’ve got AI or cyber-related information then you could appear in IT Pro, the AI Journal, Retail Week, The Grocer, or Sifted – as they all sent requests last month.

Gardening continues to grow strong

The Spring and Summer season are the peak time for gardening requests and July saw another strong indicator of that as just under 5% of the total requests contained the keyword ‘garden’ or ‘gardening’.

Enquiries were sent from journalists at titles such as The Independent, GB News, Homes & Gardens, and Country Living. They ranged from covering topical issues such as how to keep your garden alive during a hosepipe ban, to looking for an expert to comment on building a patio on a sloping garden and the latest and best products and gadgets for the garden.

Going forward? August is probably the final month of the year where gardening is one of the more popular keywords on the service, with around 4% of the total requests in August 2024. Journalists will be looking for information on the on-going hosepipe ban in certain areas of the country, as well as looking for experts to share advice as we approach a change in season.

Other opportunities for PRs in August and beyond

In August 2024, ‘Autumn’ took over from ‘Summer’ as journalists sought to get ahead with content for the upcoming season. New fashion and beauty trends often tie in with these requests, as well as recommendations for Autumnal activities, Autumn decor, and places to visit during the fall as well.

This month sees the end of festival season with big music festivals like Reading & Leeds and Creamfields still to come over the Bank Holiday weekend. The Edinburgh Fringe festival is also currently taking place and the final few summer carnivals are also happening, with the most famous one being Notting Hill, still on the horizon. If you have information surrounding these events or tips on what festival goers should be taking with them, then you could get featured in a national press title.

Want to get the most out of the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service? Check out this explainer.

Media monitoring what makes Vuelio different

Media monitoring platforms for PR and comms – what makes Vuelio different?

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by

With a number of media monitoring platforms boasting AI-optimised integration and constant streams of real-time coverage, how can you tell which one will actually meet the practical needs of your team on a day-to-day basis?

For those in PR, comms, public affairs, politics, or marketing, here’s how the Vuelio platform provides straightforward support with media outreach, brand building, scanning (and planning) for potential trouble, stakeholder management, and much more.

1) A fully integrated communication suite

With no need to click out of the platform, Vuelio offers the ability to access your news on journalist and outlet profiles, alongside their wider coverage. Track your company mentions, coverage about competitors, your industry, or the wider trends you’re watching.

You can also click straight through to contact profiles from your news records to interrogate the related coverage, quickly. Vuelio’s Media Database is fully integrated with its monitoring solutions, meaning it’s really simple to create targeted lists based on news coverage.

2) Automatically link coverage to your press releases

Leverage Vuelio’s ability to link coverage directly to your releases, making it simple to see which of them have been most successful when it comes to engaging your stakeholders – whether it be the press, the public, or high-profile people and organisations in your industry. Uncover who has opened them (with specific time and date stamps), and where your story has shaped coverage and conversation.

3) Create target media lists to reach the right audience

With Vuelio’s Media Database, not only can you create bespoke target media lists, you can also overlay them onto dashboards to gauge your share-of-voice versus that of your competitors’ within your key publications.

Vuelio empowers you to proactively measure the impact that you’re having with key publications, allowing you to replicate what’s working, or make adjustments before your next release; leveraging insights based on what is working within key target media.

4) Make use of automatic unlimited tagging in-platform

Vuelio will surface bespoke tags within your coverage, ensuring you’re able to identify and understand the narrative and related themes across your coverage.
These tags will be current and tailored to your company and campaigns – comprising brands, products, categories, spokespeople, issues, topics, and much more.

5) Unlimited bespoke analytics

Uniquely, Vuelio offers the ability to analyse bespoke and filtered datasets. What this means in practice: filtering down by keyword or by any of our flexible filters (Date, Reach, Outlet, Target Media List, Tags, Competitors, for example) and gaining insight on what matters most, all in real-time.

6) Going beyond traditional media

Vuelio’s Media Database includes voices from across the widening media landscape – not just newspapers, magazines, and trade titles, or broadcasters in television and radio. It also includes podcasters, TikTokers, and more – influencers across social platforms and new media that can help you connect with audiences outside of ‘traditional’ media.

With news avoidance on the up, audiences are getting their information and entertainment from a wide variety of sources, which Vuelio monitors, and offers a way in to.

7) AMEC-accredited media insights

The Vuelio Insights team have experience and deep knowledge of the industries they work with, and conduct in-depth research to highlight media opportunities, potential risks, and performance trends via bespoke and easily-digested reports.

Featuring clear analysis, tailored recommendations, and actionable next steps, these reports are human-curated – not AI generated – ensuring unparalleled levels of nuance and personalised contextualisation. They are also delivered on a basis that works for you and your team – not spat out from the platform, but regularly scheduled, or delivered on a campaign or ad-hoc basis.

8) Hands-on support from the Vuelio team

From day one of using the Vuelio platform, whether mixing a number of services from its fully-integrated suite or just one of our solutions, you’ll receive dedicated support from both a Customer Success and an Account Manager, ensuring smooth setup, and real-time training from our wider expert team.

Quick turnaround support is available from your dedicated Account Manager, who is on hand to help you. Regularly upskilled with training, Vuelio’s in-house team are embedded within specific sectors to build a fluency and depth of knowledge. This allows the team to not only provide generalised platform knowledge, but also to answer the questions you care most about. Not sure how to put a boolean string together, or how to utilise an LLM to brainstorm a campaign email? The Vuelio team, as well as its platform, is ready to help.

Find out more about Vuelio Media Monitoring here. 

Why email is an effective part of comms strategy

Why PRs should be making the most of email in an AI-driven world

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , , , , , /by

Is email outreach as outdated as the 90s-era posted PR press mailer? With the comms industry rushing to integrate AI tools into their tech stack, the email blast could be seen as just another tactic of PR’s past. But think again…

‘At the start of my career fax and phone were the only way of reaching journalists,’ says Anne Cantelo, founder and managing director of Onyx Media and Communications Ltd.

‘Younger generations of PR hate the phone even more than the generations before them, and most journalists seem to feel the same. At the same time, journalists have confessed to me that they have thousands of unopened emails in their inboxes…’

Phone calls are out, and unread emails are piling up – the rush to integrate AI across the industry could signal that electronic mail will go the way of its franked counterpart. But the lessening of 1-2-1 engagement that comes with AI automation makes email even more valuable – especially when it’s powered-up by artificial intelligence.

Here is advice from comms professionals already evolving their email strategies to boost engagement.

1. Cutting through with quality content

Stakeholders are overwhelmed by constant messaging even outside of their inbox – how can you catch their eye?

‘The rise of AI presents both a challenge and an opportunity,’ says Liz Churchman, deputy managing director at B2B tech PR agency EC-PR.

‘With inbox filtering becoming more intelligent, relevance is no longer optional; it’s critical. Yet, AI also empowers us to create what I call a ‘one-to-one feel as one-to-many scale.’ Using tools like ChatGPT, we build custom GPTs aligned to buyer personas, underpinned by deep audience insight; motivations, fears, frustrations, so that our emails feel crafted with intent, not churned by automation.

‘Clean, segmented lists and emotionally intelligent messaging make the difference between delete and engage.’

Formatting is also important – short and relevant copy, interactive elements including video embeds and html features, and making sure it’s mobile-first for people on the go, or trapped in long meetings without access to their laptop…

2. Email as part of a wider strategy

‘Comms pros need to be where the audience is and adapt our methods and routes to communication,’ says Leopard Co CEO and co-founder Rachel Roberts, whose team utilises email as just one way to communicate with stakeholders.

‘It’s been a while since I faxed through a press release but meanwhile, we have embraced new routes to engage with audiences including WhatsApp messages, social media DMs, programmatic emails, remarketing and calling campaigns.’

Email is no longer in a silo, and should be used in conjunction with private messaging platforms like WhatsApp, Slack, and Discord; microsites and press rooms; personalised landing pages for campaigns; and follow-ups after in-person networking.

Sycamore Communications’ PR manager Danielle Windecker-Hilton advocates for email as a ‘connecting’ tool:

‘We treat email as a connector, driving recipients to deeper content or prompting direct engagement with the people and brands we represent. It supports our clients’ goals and can be a good initial touchpoint with journalists and publications.’

‘Attending to emails can be viewed by some as a bit of a negative, burdensome chore,’ admits Rachel. ‘Indeed, we have a client who only wants to communicate with us on WhatsApp.

‘But with email carrying weight from a legal perspective – eyeballs are there, and so is the marketing opportunity.’

Just remember to be careful…

‘Automation and AI does make email marketing more accessible, but it means more people with less expertise can be spamming people,’ warns Rachel. ‘There is no quicker way to break a brand than to spam and annoy your customers. Press send with care.’

3. Personalisation

Does bringing artificial intelligence into email strategy make the messaging impersonal and robotic? Used properly, AI can actually bring personalisation back into your email strategy.

‘AI helps us go beyond just inserting someone’s name,’ shares Ed Hopkins, managing director of Ed Hopkins PR.

‘AI can tailor emails based on behaviour, preferences, or timing. This leads to more relevant content and stronger engagement. People are more likely to respond when they feel a message is meant for them.’

4. Optimisation

Writing eye-catching subject lines that are just the right length; segmenting your contact lists, selecting the right sending times; and predicting the levels of engagement – AI can help with all this.

But before you get stuck into prompting on ChatGPT or Gemini, here is some extra help from Riley Gardiner, founder of No Strings Public Relations:

‘To stand out in busy inboxes you’ll need to focus on concise, relevant subject lines and genuine, value-driven content. Avoiding generic language and adding a human touch helps cut through noise.

‘Email offers a direct, personal channel for stakeholder communication that social or mass media can’t replicate. It supports ongoing dialogue, builds trust, and allows for nuanced messaging in ways that other tactics struggle to match.’

5. Complying with regulation, not dicing with dodgy data

GDPR, CCPA, and incoming abbreviated regulations for the use of data means that opt-in emails are non-negotiable for comms professionals.

Your media database of choice can help with this (like the Vuelio Media Database, for example…) and so can AI.

‘AI can be a great help in staying GDPR-compliant by automating consent management and ensuring data is handled correctly, reducing human error,’ says Riley Gardiner.

Just make sure your lists are maintained and kept up-to-date…

‘AI can help identify potential compliance risks, streamline workflows, and ensure that personalisation is based on compliant, permissioned data,’ says Gerard Boon, Financial Times contributor and managing director of Boon Brokers.

‘But it’s important to remember that AI is only as effective as the framework it is given. Human oversight must remain a non-negotiable part of the process – experts in their field need to be vigilant and ready to amend, review, or flag potential issues as they arise.’

6. Making more of metrics

Open rates are less reliable with the increased use of email protection and privacy tools, but there are other metrics to make the most of – including clicks, replies, and conversions. Some tools also offer bespoke insights, like time spent reading an email. Additionally, it’s important to keep an eye on factors like send times to optimise delivery.

‘While open rates still provide some value, I think it’s important to remember the fundamental principles behind comms is to establish a relationship and communication,’ says Gerard.

‘Focusing on click-through rates (CTR), time spent on linked content, and conversion actions (such as booking a call or completing a contact form) are actually better measuring metrics to establish how close your branding and messaging is with your specific target audience.

‘Reply rates and engagement with follow-up emails are now more important than ever, putting in place a stronger bond of genuine interest and intent.’

7. Human to human connection

Journalist and stakeholder inboxes fill up with generic pitches throughout the day. Effective email strategy in comparison goes further, focusing on relationship building rather than blasting out a message.

‘Email still allows for direct, personal communication that can be tailored to your ideal client,’ says Sarah Lloyd, founder of ISPR.

‘I still believe that email can create a more intimate and focused experience, allowing for thoughtful and deeper conversations. Emails can be segmented and targeted, and you can track, document and enjoy focused interactions without the noise of social media.’

Email can be a personalised check-in with a client, an invitation to an upcoming event, or the sharing of a piece of content relevant to their industry. It should be a continuing conversation – not a series of non-sequitur statements littering an already busy inbox.

‘In today’s crowded inboxes, success comes from speaking to your audience’s problems, not your solutions,’ adds Liz Churchman.

‘If your subject line and first line don’t address what keeps your audience up at night, they’ll be gone in two seconds. Relevance, empathy and creativity must drive every word.’

Evergreen email

‘Email remains one of the most direct and controlled forms of communication,’ believes Gerard Boon.

‘Unlike social media or paid ads, it allows us to be incredibly specific on our outreach, tailoring a wide-variety of content for nuanced and context-rich messaging. There are no character limits as such and less platform restrictions.

‘While innovations in technology have boomed in recent years, there is a lot of focus on social media influencers, podcasts, and hyper attentive alternative platforms. While these all have a place under the umbrella of marketing, I think it is sometimes forgotten that emails offer that personalised edge with a familiar outreach – we’re all still connected to the online world.

‘For stakeholder engagement, this means we can maintain, build on, and direct to useful resources, with a strategy that continues to build an evergreen trust over time.’

Our own email expert, Pulsar Group head of global marketing campaigns Kirsti Kauronen says:

‘For us, email is one of the key channels to reach our audiences directly. With new AI tools emerging at a fast pace, we are able to deliver even more tailored comms with greater impact.

‘Many email providers now offer automatic summaries of emails, so it’s even more important to include strong subject lines and opening sentences that stand out in crowded inboxes.

‘And don’t forget to test your content regularly. It’s essential to optimise performance and ensure your key message comes across clearly.’

For help with your emails, and wider comms strategy, check out Vuelio’s Media Database, Stakeholder Relationship Management, and Media Monitoring solutions.