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Opportunities in the UK media this month

Opportunities for your media outreach this month: What’s happening on the Vuelio Media Database

February 16, 2026/0 Comments/in Politics, PR, Communications, Media Media Database, Media Monitoring, Media Analysis, Political Services, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

The Vuelio Media Database has a dedicated team of researchers constantly updating and enriching journalist and broadcaster information for our comms community looking to connect with the media.

Read on for the new opportunities for outreach and relationship building now available on Vuelio…

New points of contact in the media to leverage

Last month, the Vuelio research team further strengthened the Media Database with over 5,300 new contacts added globally; more than 20,700 UK media records refreshed; and over 17,000 Forward Features uploaded.

For January alone, there was a net increase of 16,833 media outlets across multiple countries, representing a 1.4% overall growth.

Countries boosted with added media outlets – and more opportunities for outreach across the globe – included Italy (+3.38%), the United States (+0.67%), Argentina (+2.05%), Germany (1.39%), and many more.

Key themes to focus on with your outreach this month

Health & Healthcare: There is continued demand for expert commentary, particularly around private healthcare, access and consumer choice in media requests. This suggests healthcare will remain a key editorial focus into Q1 – useful for comms pros working in the NFP, Public, and Agency sectors.

Want more on what’s happening in healthcare? Check out our latest ‘Health in Focus’ piece from the Vuelio Political team.

Seasonal & Forward-Planned Content: Journalist requests show that long-lead planning is well underway, with editors commissioning lifestyle, travel, food, and consumer content months in advance.

Big brands and agency PRs – Check on forward features lists and get pitching. Combine earlier, more strategic engagement with reactive pitching, and build long-term relationships in the media.

Home & Lifestyle: Ongoing interest in practical living continues to shape upcoming features, including home working, interiors, and functional design.

Food & Consumer Products: Journalists are increasingly focused on value-led, convenience-driven products, with buying advice and comparisons expected to feature strongly in upcoming coverage.

National and consumer journalists and broadcasters need your help

The many media requests being sent through the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service by UK media professionals highlighted ongoing demand from national and consumer media, in particular.

Top national press journalists using the service hailed from The i paper, Metro, PA Media, and The Sun. But consumer media journalists were also frequent users of the service over the last month.

Want to get coverage for your own organisation or your clients in either of these sectors, or others? Head over to the Journalist Enquiry Service and start receiving media requests directly to your inbox, and check out our regular round-ups of the topics journalists are writing about.

Offering authoritative takes, supported by spokespeople, data or real-world experience, will be invaluable to writers, editors, and broadcasters busy finessing and filing news and features.

What to prepare for your PR pitches

Experts and spokespeople: Demand for trusted voices and specialist insight remains high across consumer and national media.

Real people & case studies: Case studies and lived experience continue to support service-led journalism across consumer and lifestyle coverage. (Best suited to NFP, Agency-managed campaigns)

Service-led journalism: Explain-the-issue content, buying advice, and problem-solving features are likely to dominate over trend-led pieces.

For more on what journalists want from PRs this month, here is more insight from media requests being sent through the Journalist Enquiry Service now.

Mother’s Day gifts, fitness fanatics and AI experts: How to get UK press coverage in February

February 12, 2026/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Communications, Media Media Database, Media Monitoring, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Andrew Strutt

Looking for ways to get exposure in the media in February? With the final few opportunities for Valentine’s coverage now passing, you might be wondering what journalists will be focusing on over the next few weeks. Insight from the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service for the last month gives us an indication of what topics are trending and where you can make the most of these opportunities.

Mother’s Day celebrations

Journalists have already been trying to get ahead with Mother’s Day gift guides and information, as around 1% of the total requests in January were covering this topic. This is roughly in line with January last year and if it mirrors February 2025, this will rise to just over 3% of the overall enquiries for this month.

Requests for Mother’s Day gift guides came from journalists at titles including Yours, Bella, Essex Life, and InsideKent. Some enquiries were specific in wanting skincare products, while others looked for foodie gifts, gadgets, and wellness items. There were also several requests for experiences or days out for mums.

Going forward? With Mother’s Day falling slightly earlier this year (15 March), February will see the bulk of enquiries coming in. Gift guide products and samples will represent the majority of the requests but there will be opportunities to promote experiences, days out and possibly get parenting experts featured too.

Fitness in focus

January is often the month that people focus on their fitness and it’s definitely what the media were looking to cover with 3.5% of the total requests featuring ‘fitness’ as a keyword. ‘Wellness’ also cropped up in a lot of enquiries too and slightly exceeded fitness at just over 3.5%, while ‘healthy’ appeared in just under 2%.

The requests around fitness varied from looking for case studies, such as asking for women 75+ who started their fitness journey in their 50s, to asking for an expert to provide comments about walking and daily step counts. Meanwhile, the wellness enquiries included looking for spas and retreats for a wellness series, and a wellness expert to talk about the importance of rest.

Going forward? Fitness and wellness remains popular at this time of year, as we saw in February 2025 when 2.5% of the total requests were for each of these topics. Plus, with the Winter Olympics currently on, this should see an uplift around sport and fitness. Journalists are most likely to be looking for experts so have them ready with comments and you could feature in the I paper, Women’s Health, Men’s Fitness, or Health & Wellbeing – as journalists from all of these sent an enquiry last month.

AI-related content remains in high demand

Artificial intelligence has dominated the news headlines consistently over the last few years and it’s unsurprising to see that this has been mirrored on the Journalist Enquiry Service. AI regularly appears as a keyword and in January, over 7% of all enquiries featured it.

Many of these recently have focused on the impact it’s having on the workplace with requests last month focusing on the best way to go about AI upskilling, and requests to speak to businesses that have optimised their websites to rank in LLMs. There have also been more general enquiries for AI music experts and information on whether AI can help people lead happier, healthier, and longer lives.

Going forward? With more information continuing to come out around the use of Grok AI and the current trend for making AI caricature’s, this is a topic that will remain in high demand throughout February. Titles such as BBC News Online, IT Pro, Metro, People Management, and Compliance Week all sent enquiries looking for AI experts last month and likely will again this month.

Other opportunities for PRs in February and beyond

With Mother’s Day falling earlier this year in the UK, Easter has also come forward and will be on 5 April. Journalists have already been sending requests in January (with around 1% of the total enquiries being for Easter) and in February last year this doubled to over 2%. The vast majority will be looking for samples of the different eggs on offer this year, but this will expand to other treats and gifts that can be bought for the holiday, as well as ideas of places to get away to.

If you work with any sleep experts, then February could be the perfect time to get them featured in the media. World sleep day takes place on 13 March this year and last year, journalists looked to get ahead as just under 2% of enquiries contained the keyword ‘sleep’. These will mainly be focused on experts sharing advice on ways people can improve their sleep but there could be opportunities to get case studies into the papers or feature products that can aid with rest.

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

The Legislative Look ahead from Total Politics and Vuelio

February 10, 2026/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, Politics, PR, Communications, Media, Public Affairs Political Services, PR, Political Database, Press and Bloggers, Political Monitoring Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

With the country readying itself for a new devolution framework, what changes are coming up in justice, healthcare, and education? And what do public affairs and comms professionals need to work into their strategy for the year ahead?

Total Politics has published its Legislative Lookahead for 2026, featuring insight from a number of Vuelio’s own in-house political researchers and analysts, alongside a mix of political peers and experts including Baroness Smith of Basildon, Lord True CBE, Baroness Grey-Thompson DBE, Baroness Sheehan, Haypp Group, and St Giles Wise.

For the full look, download the ebook here, or read on for lessons from the key milestones, committee inquiries, and bill stages coming up throughout the 2026 parliamentary session.

Pressures to deliver

The parliamentary calendar for 2026 is defined by a Government under pressure to show results. As the ‘year of delivery’ gathers pace, the volume of legislation is expected to intensify, creating a crowded marketplace for attention. Jennifer Prescott, Political Analyst at Vuelio, notes that this shift requires a more forensic approach to monitoring.

‘The government’s primary focus is now on the tangible implementation of its missions,’ Prescott explains.

‘For those in communications, this means moving beyond broad political trends and focusing on the specific mechanics of upcoming Bills. We are seeing a transition from policy announcement to regulatory reality, and that requires a much higher level of precision in how we track and engage with the legislative process.’

This sentiment is echoed by Ingrid Marin, who highlighted the sheer volume of activity within the various government departments:

‘With so many departments pushing through primary legislation simultaneously, there is a real danger of legislative noise where key impacts are missed,’ Marin warns. ‘Effective comms teams will be those who can identify the specific departmental levers being pulled before they become headline news.’

The ethics of influence

One of the most significant hurdles for the Government’s 2026 agenda lies in the House of Lords. With a heavy legislative programme and a series of high-profile constitutional reforms on the horizon, the upper chamber is set to become a primary site of scrutiny. For PR professionals, this means the corridors of power extend far beyond the Commons.

‘The House of Lords will act as a critical checkpoint for the Government this year,” advises Aidan Stansbury.

‘We expect to see significant debate around the constitutional role of Peers, but more importantly, their work in the committee rooms will be where the technical details of regulation are hammered out. Communications strategies must account for this slower, more deliberate phase of the legislative cycle.’

Parallel to this is a heightened focus on transparency and the ‘duty of candour.’ Billy Barham suggests that the ethical landscape of influence is shifting:

‘There is an increasing expectation for transparency, not just in lobbying but in the broader relationship between the public and private sectors,’ says Barham.

‘Legislation like the proposed Hillsborough Law or changes to human rights frameworks will place a new premium on corporate accountability. Communicators need to be ahead of this curve, ensuring their organisations aren’t just compliant with the law, but aligned with the evolving expectations of public integrity.’

Politics beyond Westminster

The 2026 local elections are set to provide a significant test of the political mood throughout the country. For brands and organisations, the bubble of Westminster can often obscure the reality of how policy is being received in the regions.

The interplay between national policy and local delivery is where reputations are often won or lost:

‘The 2026 local elections will serve as a mid-term referendum on the government’s success,’ says Laura Fitzgerald.

‘For comms professionals, it’s vital to understand how national legislative themes (such as housing, transport, and net-zero) are playing out at a community level. The rise of smaller parties and shifting voter priorities means that a ‘one size fits all’ national message is increasingly insufficient.’

This local dimension is particularly acute when it comes to the delivery of public services.

‘We are looking at a year where local authorities are under immense financial pressure while being tasked with delivering on national mandates,’ adds Ellie Farrow.

‘The friction between central government ambition and local government capacity will be a major story in 2026. Communicators must be prepared to navigate these tensions, particularly when their sectors rely on local partnerships or planning.’

What this means for comms and Public Affairs

The legislative agenda is the blueprint for future press cycles, and for PR and PA, foresight is vital for effective crisis management and prevention.

By aligning communication strategies with the milestones ahead, teams can move from reacting to the news to shaping the narrative around the laws that will define the next decade. Understanding the implications of legislation for stakeholders, and communicating value, will be vital for the year ahead.

Read the full ebook from Total Politics here, and learn more about Vuelio’s full Political proposition.

Why integrating political and media strategy is the secret to successful campaigns

January 29, 2026/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, Politics, PR, Communications, Public Affairs Political Services, PR, Political Database, Press and Bloggers, Political Monitoring, Media Database, Media Monitoring Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

While the days of a stable, single-route news cycle are long gone, the modern media ecosystem can still be successfully navigated by comms teams… providing they pay attention to all possible diversions and directions a story can travel along, including the political.

Today, the line between media management and public affairs has blurred. How to navigate the confusion? In short, by incorporating political monitoring into your media monitoring strategy.

Using insights from the Vuelio report ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’, augmented by several leading comms experts, we share advice on how to plot your course through the interwoven media and political landscapes.

Steering through the unpredictable news cycle

The most significant takeaway for modern communicators is the loss of a predictable arc. Kelly Scott, VP of Government and Stakeholder at Vuelio, describes the modern journey of a public interest story as a series of unpredictable rebounds, where a narrative hits various political buffers that abruptly change its trajectory:

‘The path a story takes today is incredibly kinetic,’ says Scott. ‘A narrative can strike a political trigger and suddenly veer off in an entirely new direction. In this environment, it is absolutely vital to correct misinformation at pace, engage with both media and political influencers, and mobilise credible third-party voices’.

Vuelio’s analysis of major stories from the first half of 2025, including the RAAC crisis and the debate over Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), demonstrates this phenomenon in action.

LTNs, for instance, began as a hyper-local debate about planning but were rapidly pulled into a national political conversation about environmental policy and government control. By the time the story reached the national stage, it had evolved from a story about traffic to a shorthand for wider political division.

The lesson for PR professionals: you can no longer wait for a story to reach the mainstream before you act. As Kelly Scott puts it, the fragmented nature of modern media means that ‘you can’t engage with one channel without understanding the others’.

Going beyond the click with KPIs

As the media landscape fragments, the way to measure success must evolve. When audiences are consuming parallel, but often disconnected, versions of the same issue, the traditional ‘big hit’ in a national broadsheet may no longer be the ultimate KPI.

Vuelio’s research into the coverage of ‘Surge Pricing’ showed that different media audiences lived in almost entirely separate echo chambers. While business outlets framed the issue through market regulation, tabloids focused on the cost to the consumer – and even then, there was great discrepancy between mass media on precisely what cost to the consumer (beer, transport, etc) was being cited. If your comms strategy only measures one such strand, you could be missing half of the picture.

Measurement is now less about counting clips and more about understanding movement across the ecosystem. Charlie Campion, External Affairs and Policy Manager at Mental Health Matters, argues that this shift requires a complete rethink of how comms and public affairs have been previously aligned:

‘Politicians are paying closer attention than ever to public opinion,’ Campion explains. ‘This means that conversations in the press, online forums, and across social media have become essential to any successful public affairs strategy. Integration and collaboration between public affairs and communications teams are now more critical than ever.’

Without integrated KPIs that track both media sentiment and political intent, organisations risk traversing the landscape with a limited field of vision. Sean Allen-Moy, Head of Media Relations Strategy at Burson UK, simplifies the challenge: ‘You must know exactly where your audience consumes their content and meet them there’.

Why comms can’t refuse to play politics

If the fragmentation of the media is the how of modern comms, then politics is the why. There is a growing consensus that communications professionals can no longer afford to treat ‘politics’ as a separate silo or a niche interest. Legislation and regulation now permeate every aspect of brand reputation – and integrating political monitoring into your media strategy is even more important this year as we get closer to May’s local elections in the UK…

‘Politics drives the agenda, and the geopolitical world is moving faster than ever, often dictating the speed and direction of media and stakeholder conversations,’ believes Kerry Parkin, founder of The Remarkables.

‘If your product or brand is touched by political events, it must be factored into your mindset and planned for, even through the disruption.’

A lack of political literacy can be terminal for a PR campaign. Anton Greindl, Director of Public Affairs at Tilton Consultancy, warns that failing to track policy and regulation results in mistimed launches and messages that become ‘politically toxic’ before they even land:

‘Policy literacy is the difference between PR being a mere noticeboard and PR being a strategic lever for revenue, risk, and reputation,’ Greindl argues. ‘When politics moves, you need to lead with substance, consistency, and implementation detail’.

Putting a unified strategy into place

Monitoring the media and monitoring Westminster are now part of the same job. The combination further allows teams to anticipate crises rather than simply reacting to them.

In an age of digital connection, and media siloes, cutting through is about masterminding the journey of a story through various spaces. Successful organisations are those that can read the entire ecosystem, engage multiple stakeholders, and adapt their strategy in real time.

As we look toward an increasingly complex future, the advice from the industry is to lean into this complexity rather than retreat from it. The most successful comms professionals will be those who break down the walls between their media and public affairs teams, ensuring that every KPI measured and every story told is informed by a deep understanding of the political current.

Where stories now cross-pollinate across a thousand different platforms at once, a narrow focus is a dangerous one. To survive and thrive, you must understand every platform out there.

For more on traversing today’s multi-platform media and political spaces, check out Vuelio webinar ‘Mapping the media: How stories travel today’s fragmented landscape?‘, with Burson UK’s Sean Allen-Moy and JournalismUK’s Jacob Granger.

Top PR metrics: Making the most of media measurement in 2026

January 22, 2026/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, Insights, PR, Communications, Media, Media Monitoring PR, Press and Bloggers, insights, Media Database, Media Monitoring, Media Analysis Blog Posts /by Amy Chappell

One of the things I regularly get asked in my role as Head of Insight is ‘what are the best metrics to use for measurement?’ or ‘what are the next metrics that we absolutely should be looking at?’. While I don’t believe that there is a single perfect metric that works for everybody, quality metrics are going to continue to be really important in 2026.

Whether that be reputationally thinking about sentiment, or considering the themes or messages that your coverage is carrying through, quality metrics are going to be vital for understanding your position within the media landscape.

Measuring quality in the quantity

With the use of AI and the volume of content going up, everything that’s being published out there isn’t necessarily always of the top quality, or 100% factual.

Making sure that you’re cutting through the noise with quality coverage, and being able to measure that and report it back to your organisation will be key.

Remaining relevant, ensuring that you are being consistent, and keeping it simple will make reports easy to understand, and easy to communicate with your organisation. This will also help with building internal stakeholder trust in your measurement frameworks.

Consider the whole campaign cycle

Measurement isn’t just about recording your results after a campaign. Think about measurement through the entire PR and comms lifecycle.

That means not only using PR measurement and media monitoring in order to retrospectively evaluate your coverage or your campaign, or using it to deliver those metrics to the board or your wider stakeholders on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, but also ensuring measurement is ingrained throughout the campaign lifecycle.

What that looks like is using it to plan for your communications activities. That could be through pre-campaign reports analysing the wider landscape. For example, looking at competitors’ previous launches in order to understand what their messages were, what worked well, and what didn’t work well.

It could be branching out with a wider category of conversation – going beyond your own coverage and your competitors’ coverage to understand the size of the opportunity, then using that data to plan and support your ideas for moving forward.

Benchmarking from the beginning

A wider view also helps to set a benchmark for what might be realistic to achieve with your campaign, or through your communications activity during that period.

Setting up measurement and monitoring for every period means being able to respond to how well things are going quickly. Whether it be with an offshoot campaign, or through general press office, understand what’s working, and what’s not working, rather than waiting right until the very end, and not being able to do anything about it.

The evaluation period

The end evaluation period of a campaign is still important, but that shouldn’t just be, ‘Yes, we did well. No, we didn’t do as well as we had hoped,’ but actually planning for the next time.

Identify what really did work, and what could be carried through next time, what didn’t work so well, and what you can tweak for the future. Work with your insights team in order to understand how you can leverage the best insights from your measurement framework. Because it should be a two-way street for understanding what is important to you – making sure that those insights are relevant to you and can support your work, in that moment, but also moving forward as well.

Insight reporting has traditionally been used to look backwards, but I think it’s really important when planning for the future that that data also has a place at the table.

And remember, just because you can measure something, doesn’t mean you should…

There are going to be a lot of AI metrics coming in in 2026, lots of AI data floating around. My advice would be not to get too swept up in measure for measurement’s sake.

Check that what you’re measuring is relevant to you, that you can measure it consistently, and that those metrics and data are of good quality.

Find out more about Vuelio’s Media Monitoring and Insights solutions.

Journalist Enquiry Service round up for January 2026

New year resolutions, winter travel and staying warm: How to get UK press coverage in January

January 13, 2026/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Communications, Media Press and Bloggers, Media Database, Media Monitoring, Media Analysis, PR Blog Posts /by Andrew Strutt

Wondering how to cut through the noise in January and get featured in the press? The start of the year is often one of the busiest months for the media as magazines publish feature lists for the upcoming twelve months. It’s also a very busy month on the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service and presents lots of opportunities to get media coverage, with topics that were trending in December continuing to gain traction.

2026 in focus

Journalists were looking to get ahead with their content from the end of last year which is why ‘2026’ finished as the top keyword in December, appearing in just under 15% of all requests. ‘New year’ was also popular, with 5% of the enquiries last month featuring it in their enquiry.

The new year requests included asks for a life coach on setting new year goals, new year finances boost ideas, and a psychologist to offer insight into making a career switch. Enquiries around 2026 tended to be more trends-focused, with journalists looking for wellness in travel trends, beauty launches for early 2026, and expert predictions for home tech in 2026.

Going forward? Both these keywords will remain popular throughout the opening month. ‘2025’ received just over 10% of the total requests in January last year and ‘new year’ exceeded 2%. Enquiries can vary from looking to experts, to review products, to general information and trends but with The Times, British GQ, The Guardian, BBC News, The Grocer, Marie Claire and PA Media all sending requests last month, there will be lots of opportunities to feature in major outlets.

Winter travel and holiday planning

Many journalists will need information on places that people can escape to to avoid the colder weather here in the UK, or the best summer holiday destinations and what might be trending for the year. In December, 6% of requests contained ‘travel’ as a keyword with ‘holiday’ and ‘hotel’ both appearing in 3% of the total enquiries.

Requests last month came from journalists at Travel Weekly, Metro, Prima, Sky News, Travel & Retreat, and Business Traveller. The enquiries varied from looking for a travel expert to talk about Brits opting for destinations closer to home to commentary on the best Greek islands to visit and information on people booking travel for the year just after the Christmas period.

Going forward? Travel will remain a popular category and keyword through January, last year receiving just under 6% of the total requests in the first month of 2025. Broadcast, consumer media, trade titles, and national press outlets all sent enquiries last month and similar are expected again, with most looking for experts and travel agents to offer their opinions.

Heating and energy concerns

The colder winter months mean more concerns around heating and energy bills, and journalists were covering this in December as 3.5% of all requests contained the keyword ‘energy’ and 3% featured ‘heating’. ‘Bills’ also cropped up in 1% and ‘warm’ was in just over 2%.

Enquiries included looking for expert commentary on how many hours a day you should have your heating on, heating habits and winter solstice, and signs you need to get your heating serviced. These came from outlets such as The Sun Online, Ideal Home, Express.co.uk, Homebuilding & Renovating, and LBC.

Going forward? The colder weather is set to last for the next few months and journalists will continue to look for information and experts to share with their readers. January last year, 2% of the total requests were for ‘energy’ and 2% also for heating. The topic will remain in demand, so get expert comments ready to share and you could get press coverage.

Other opportunities for PRs in January and beyond

The second most popular keyword this time last year was ‘Valentine’s’, as it appeared in over 6% of the total requests. With less than a month to go, journalists are looking for products for last-minute gift guides as well as date ideas and Valentine’s related recipes.

Looking even further forward, the Journalist Enquiry Service sees its first enquiries relating to ‘Spring’. In January 2025, just over 2% of the requests contained this keyword. Enquiries on this topic tend to come from more consumer-facing outlets and can vary from home decor ideas to gardening advice and activities to do with the family during half-term. Make sure you have relevant experts and Spring-related information ready to send when the requests come through.

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

‘We’re living in an utterly abnormal political era’: Governmental communications in 2026

January 8, 2026/0 Comments/in Politics, PR, Communications, Media, Public Affairs Political Monitoring, Public Sector, Political Services, PR, Political Database, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Political comms reflect the current chaos of the political climate. To help make sense of the uncertainty, Vuelio partnered with the Institute for Government alongside former No. 10 Press Secretary and The Rest is Politics Presenter Alastair Campbell, The Times Washington Editor Katy Balls, Chief Executive of Government Communications (2021 – 25) Simon Baugh, Institute for Government Programme Director Alex Thomas and Senior Fellow and moderator Jill Rutter for the webinar ‘The Trump challenge: Chaos, confusion and government communications’.

Featuring research conducted by the Vuelio Insights team, the panel considered whether traditional functions of accountability still work, how battles for attention will play out in the UK political space, and how the comms industry can adapt accordingly.

‘We’re not living in normal political times,’ warned Alastair Campbell. ‘But most of the media and political establishment are still acting as though we are.’

Where is the UK press centring its political reporting? One guess…

A startling statistic from Vuelio Insights shared during the webinar was that US President Donald Trump doesn’t just garner more UK headlines than our own Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the press (2.2x)… but more than every member of the cabinet combined.

What is coming over from the US is ‘rewriting the comms playbook’ was moderator Jill Rutter’s summary of the situation, but what are the lessons for UK comms people tasked with communicating in this climate?

‘This is a reverse of the overscripted, cautious minister or shadow minister, refusing to deviate from their lines to take,’ said Rutter. ‘While Trump plays fast and loose with the truth – he insults reporters, particularly women, and news outlets he does not like who dare to ask critical questions – he seems to have found a way of communicating that mobilises his supporters while enraging or frustrating his opponents, achieving the twin gods of authenticity and cutthroat.

‘Trump’s social posts are miles away from Keir Starmer’s careful Substack and TikTok updates. Is this what good modern political communication looks like?’

Political reporting has changed – and comms needs to catch up

Campbell had other stark warnings for those waiting for official organisations to step in with regulation, and reason, in the face of obfuscation:

‘Institutions that we expect to uphold standards in public life, not just the media, are just not functioning.

‘There is this totally new landscape which is transforming all of our lives in terms of how we try to make sense of what’s happening politically.

‘We have to stand back and apply a little bit of judgment as to what is actually news – maybe take some of the more “old-fashioned” disciplines of journalism from the print side of journalism into the broadcast media space.’

The importance of access and availability for the press

Regularly reporting from Washington, Katy Balls highlighted how vital ready-to-use quotes are from political figures for journalists – particularly in this 24/7 news cycle, even when they are controversial:

‘In one way, Trump is easy to cover because he is everywhere, all the time – you’re not having to haggle for too much access. He is speaking all day to the press. In terms of access and visibility, and the number of questions this White House tends to take, it’s extensive when you compare it to the UK and Europe.

‘Of course, where it gets more complicated is how adversarial it is…’

The fragmentation of the media has changed how a political story travels

Another challenge to contend with is what happens to updates from government figures once they’ve been reported by the media, according to IFG’s Programme Director Alex Thomas:

‘There’s a lot about this that is not new – the world has seen unpredictable, charismatic, authoritarian populists before. If you’re prepared to bend or ignore the truth, it’s actually quite easy to grab attention.

‘For all that Trump is a novel force, information fragmentation and social media means that this is different.’

From the journalistic point-on-view, Balls highlighted the impact of ‘new’ media in how stories are shared, and reshaped, as they travel to their audiences:

‘America is ahead of the UK in terms of how it uses it at the moment. When you look at the last US election, there was a podcast strategy to reach the young men who were perhaps less good at getting out to vote, a bit non-political. Unconventional ways to get to voters – it didn’t feel as though it came up through focus groups – it feels like an authentic conversation.

‘The traditional means of page adverts, TV – social media is one of the reasons that is a weaker thing now. There’s a feeling in American politics at the moment that if you have an authentic message, it will travel because people will share it.

‘I don’t think we’ve quite yet had a TikTok election in the UK, but certainly if you look at Nigel Farage and Reform UK – the parties that get ahead of this are the ones that are going to be able to unlock some of these votes that have been notoriously tricky to get for certain parties.’

Campbell concurred on which UK parties are utilising TikTok to mobilise potential voters: ‘I don’t know if it’s still the case, but certainly the last time I checked, Nigel Farage has more TikTok followers than every other MP combined. They have worked on this for years.’

Speaking out to be heard

Campbell reiterated the importance of speaking out to connect with audiences:

‘Starmer should be out there, he should be on every platform, all the time, and his team should be building the content that allows him to do that. I do think you have to wake up every day and say “how do I explode into the attention economy today?”. Because that’s what we’re in now.

‘I hope that the podcast world is part of a desire for a kind of deeper debate. It’s part of this completely transformed landscape where you have to be heard. Connection is happening all the time. Now, that doesn’t mean you should be communicating all the time. You should be thinking about how your message is being communicated.’

Are tried and tested comms strategies still useful?

On whether the growing influence of ‘new’ media means the end of the traditional comms handbook, Chief Executive of Government Communiations (2021 – 25) Simon Baugh saw a need for evolution and expansion, not abandonment:

‘When people are talking about social media, they over-focus on the tactics and this sense of chaos. What they should really be thinking of is more that this is kind of the modern day equivalent of Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats. How do you have a direct conversation with different audiences who are operating within their own fragmented bubble?

‘You’ve got to be kind of thinking every day, how am I going to create attention, how am I going to create a story? Though, what I think people often miss is that you need to have a story to tell.

‘And I think if you asked anyone in the UK, what does Trump stand for? They would be able to tell you. I think if you asked people today, what does Starmer stand for? I think they would struggle to give you an answer.

‘I actually think if you asked the cabinet, you’d probably get different answers as to what the driving purpose of this government is. When MPs talk about improving government communications or needing to get its message across, it suggests there’s a coherent message to communicate. I think the real issue with the government’s communications has not been a lack of ideas or even technical proficiency, but a real lack of strategic purpose.

‘The most important lesson is not to mimic the chaos, but to really mimic and master the strategic focus.’

Putting a premium on truth

‘We’re in a post-truth age,’ said Campbell on the damage of disinformation.

‘Many politicians who are thriving across the world – Trump, Putin, Modi, Erdoğan – have a pretty tenuous hold on truth and they don’t get called out for it. With our desire for strengthened ministerial codes, what we feel probably is that ultimately politicians don’t like lying, don’t like bullying and intimidation – that’s my experience. In most of our democracies, it has meant political death.

‘We need to fight harder for politicians, however imperfect they may be, who at least keep striving to understand that fact as the center of debate is incredibly important.’

Thomas advocated for a recentring of the importance of truth in communications:

‘Can we create a world where there is a premium on fact and seriousness among ever increasing amounts of AI slop? Does proper communications, proper reporting, authoritative reporting become a kind of premium product?’

Baugh also advocated for transparency in messaging:

‘I do wonder whether there is a point, perhaps we haven’t reached it yet, where radical transparency and openness about the choices and trade-offs that come with delivering what the public want would be an effective political tactic.’

A better form of politics

For political communicators, ‘it’s tough at the moment,’ Campbell acknowledged.

‘You know, you wake up, you turn on the telly or the radio, you read that paper, everything’s pretty depressing. I get hope from the fact that so many people know how bad it is. When I go into schools and colleges and stuff, there is a sense that people know this is unsustainable.

‘People really want change, and it is up to a generation of politicians to come through and lead that change.

‘But it’s not just about the politicians. All of us can make the change. All of us can actually argue for a better form of politics.’

Watch the full Institute for Government and Vuelio webinar here, and find out more about the impact of media fragmentation by downloading the Vuelio white paper ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’.

PR New Year’s Resolutions for 2026: What does the comms industry need to leave behind in 2025?

January 7, 2026/0 Comments/in PR, Communications, Media PR, Press and Bloggers, Media Database Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

It’s time to look forward to what the year ahead will bring, and to leave some bad PR habits behind. If you’re yet to make your own resolution for 2026, pick one or more from the list below…

And for more help with forming good habits, check out these 14 PR and comms trends for 2026.

1. Gatekeeping

‘One of my biggest bugbears is the industry’s insular nature. We talk to each other too much and there’s just an unwillingness to make comms more accessible and understandable to the wider world (I understand that there are restrictions around what can be shared given the nature of our roles, but there are ways around this).

‘There still seems to be quite a lot of gatekeeping of information and knowledge and I think if we just made some of our messages clear and more accessible a lot of issues surrounding misinformation and disinformation would improve.’

Ronke Lawal, PR Consultant, Ariatu Public Relations

2. All the rushing

‘We need to leave behind the obsession with speed over quality. AI has made it easier than ever to churn out content, but that doesn’t mean we should. Consumers and stakeholders are increasingly discerning, and brand safety has never been more fragile. The habit of prioritising volume at the expense of originality and accuracy is something we can’t take into 2026.

‘We should also move past siloed thinking. The old model of separating PR, social, creative and growth marketing belongs firmly in 2025. The brands winning today are the ones treating comms as an integrated discipline, not a set of disconnected channels.

‘And finally, we should retire the idea that you need to be everywhere. Spreading yourself thin across every platform rarely drives impact. In 2026, clarity beats chaos, pick the channels where you can be genuinely brilliant, and commit to them.

Matt Brown, CEO, W Communications

3. Celebrating fails

‘Celebrating great ideas that didn’t get any coverage or social shares. LinkedIn can be a funny ol’ place where we all see the same campaigns: clever ones, funny ones, ones that we all think are great. And they are. On paper. But all too often no one outside the industry saw them. And unless we’re the target audience, surely that’s a fail?’

Dominique Daly, Director, Hope&Glory

4. Buzzwords

‘GEO has been one of the most hotly debated topics of 2025, representing a new specialist service for some agencies – and just another example of how comms should be, and always has needed to be, integrated for others. I’ve spent many hours this year reading articles debating the point of the phrase itself, as well as what it means for the PR industry.

‘Given how many worlds now collide for brand visibility, the most important habit to embrace must be collaboration and speaking plain English to deliver maximum value for clients looking for impact and ROI.’

Emma Streets, Associate Director, Tigerbond

5. Using moldy metrics

‘As we move into 2026, the PR industry must adapt and move on from measuring success purely by coverage. Clients want clear outcomes – impact on reputation, improved stakeholder trust and ultimately business results – not just column inches or social impressions. Our clients need growth and that must be the focus of the PR & comms industry.’

Sarah Owen, Founder and CEO, Pumpkin PR

‘Over-indexing on outputs rather than outcomes. We need to stop celebrating volume and start championing impact.

‘2026 is a year to be more collaborative and future-facing. And that starts with letting go of what no longer serves us.’

Kerry Parkin, Founder, The Remarkables and The Mark

6. Being performative

‘The first habit to drop is performative adoption, so talking about AI capability while relying on shallow experimentation and misleading usage statistics. It creates a false sense of readiness and delays the governance function urgently needed.

‘We should also abandon demographic targeting as a default. Behavioural and situational segmentation are simply more accurate in a world where media habits diverge from birth and not with age.

‘Then there’s the addiction to messaging over meaning. Internal communication cannot be reduced to digital convenience; culture is built in conversations, not channels.

‘And finally, let’s retire the illusion of control: PESO binaries, top-down narratives, heroic leadership models. Influence is now distributed.’

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

7. Burning out as a badge of honour

‘The communications industry needs to leave behind its long-standing burnout culture, where overwork is normalised, exhaustion is worn as a badge of honour, and productivity is measured by visibility rather than value.

‘For too long, success in PR and comms has been linked to long hours, constant availability and physical presence in the office, rather than the quality and impact of the work delivered. This culture not only damages mental and physical health, but disproportionately pushes talented people – especially parents, carers and those managing health challenges – out of the industry altogether.

‘The future of communications should prioritise sustainable productivity, where results, creativity and outcomes matter more than being online at all hours or sitting at a desk. By embracing flexible working, realistic deadlines and a healthier relationship with work, the industry can retain experienced talent, encourage better thinking and create more innovative, effective campaigns.

‘Moving beyond burnout culture isn’t just better for people; it leads to better work, stronger teams and more sustainable businesses.’

Charlotte Dovey, Founder, Quince Creative Communications

8. Superficiality

‘Surface-level celeb endorsements and hype without deeper brand alignment. Tokenistic celeb marketing or attention-seeking stunts without authenticity or follow-through will start to feel hollow. Audiences will increasingly care about substance over flash.’

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

9. Clinging to the comfort of the mainstream

‘Mainstream press is great, but there are huge sections of the public who completely bypass it. Likewise, some social media channels reach some groups and not others, and some are best reached by other means entirely. Campaigns need to use whichever medium is best and not chase vanity metrics that won’t deliver actual results.’

David Sykes Head of PR, Carrington

10. Overdependance on AI

‘Fully outsourcing writing and outreach to AI. Journalists can tell immediately when a pitch has been generated or templated, and it damages relationships. The art is in working smartly with technology, not expecting it to do all the work for us. In the past PRs could focus on just getting coverage, but we need to leave that approach behind and work more as reputation architects, ensuring our clients’ messages are fed correctly to machines and that their identities and product details are accurate across multiple platforms. This is critical to creating long lasting future proof results for clients.’

Lexi Mills, CEO, Shift6 Studios

‘Relying on AI-generated press releases, social media posts, or pitch drafts directly to distribution channels. It’s a fad and undermines everything PR stands for. This is about Public Relations, not Artificial Relations.’

Pamela Badham, Founder and CEO, Four Marketing Agency

11. Underselling the importance of PR

‘Tolerating the narrative that it is optional or secondary to business success. PR has carried an image problem for too long, and the industry needs to be far more confident in positioning itself as a strategic enabler.

‘In an AI-enabled world where trust and genuine connection are increasingly scarce, PR’s role is becoming increasingly important. We should stop apologising and start leading.’

Marco Fiori, Managing Director, Bamboo

12. Unethical avoidance

‘Avoiding difficult conversations around ethics and transparency is no longer an option. Whether it’s AI, sustainability, or inclusivity, audiences can see through spin – so being honest will give you a competitive advantage.’

Claire Crompton, co-founder, TAL Agency

13. Spray and pray pitching… please?

‘We know it happens but we need to leave spray-and-pray pitching on the doorstep for good. Generic mass emails and one-off blasts do not build relationships or cut through in a noisy, AI-assisted world. With clients demanding a bigger bang for their buck and earned media becoming more competitive than ever, the temptation to try anything to get the wins might be there, but resist it. Yes, press are busy, yes everyone wants a piece of the publicity pie, but go deep into your research, look at where your clients need to be and seek the quality outreach and results that will lead to results that actually matters.’

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

‘Mass pitching and generic templates. The ‘spray and pray’ approach is dead. Journalists expect hyper-personalised, relevant outreach, not AI-generated spam. If you wouldn’t read it, why would they.’

Stephanie King, Managing Director, BlueSky PR

For more pointers on getting things right this year, check out the best campaigns of 2025, as decided by PR and comms experts across the UK.

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

December 18, 2025/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Communications, Media Media Database, Media Monitoring, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Andrew Strutt

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.

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

December 16, 2025/0 Comments/in PR, Marketing, Communications, Media Media Database, Media Monitoring, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

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.

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

December 12, 2025/0 Comments/in PR Pulse, PR, Communications, Media Media Database, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Andrew Strutt

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.

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.

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

December 11, 2025/0 Comments/in PR, Marketing, Communications, Media Public Sector, Media Database, Media Monitoring, Political Services, PR, Political Database Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

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’.

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

December 9, 2025/0 Comments/in Politics, PR, Marketing, Communications, Media, Public Affairs Media Database, Media Monitoring, Media Analysis, Political Services, PR, Political Database, Press and Bloggers, Political Monitoring Blog Posts /by Alex Bryson

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.

‘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.

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.

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

December 5, 2025/0 Comments/in PR, Marketing, Communications, Media Media Database, Media Analysis, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

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.

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.’

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’.

Mapping the media: How do stories travel today’s fragmented landscape?

December 4, 2025/in PR, Comms, Brand, Stakeholder Management /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

Why do some stories vanish while others catch fire?

The path from pitch to public attention is no longer linear – it’s a complex, multi-platform journey full of unexpected twists, political buffers, and social media accelerants.

For PR, communications, and public affairs professionals, navigating this chaotic ecosystem has no clear course ahead. To go beyond the headlines, we unpack the findings from our report, ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment‘, to give you a new playbook for building, tracking, and influencing narratives.

Further insight comes from expert panelists Burson UK Head of Media Strategy Sean Allen-Moy and JournalismUK Community Editor Jacob Granger.

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

November 27, 2025/0 Comments/in Politics, PR, Marketing, Charity, Communications, Media Media Database, Media Monitoring, Media Analysis, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

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.

AI in measurement: Counting, connecting, and getting attention in the algorithm

November 26, 2025/0 Comments/in PR, Communications, Media Media Monitoring, Media Analysis, PR Blog Posts /by Amy Chappell

The world of visibility is changing fast. As large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT become new information gatekeepers, PR is no longer just competing for audience attention. It’s competing for algorithmic inclusion.

In a digital landscape increasingly shaped by automated content, the quality, credibility, and authority of earned media have never mattered more. What cuts through now is not simply how much content exists, but which content is trusted enough to be cited, surfaced, and amplified by both humans and machines.

At the same time, the way we measure communications is evolving just as rapidly. Our Head of Insights Amy Chappell recently attended the AMEC AI Day, and one message stood out: AI isn’t here to replace human intelligence – it’s here to enhance it. Measurement professionals are no longer just counting the past; we’re connecting data to insight, outcomes, and influence in ways previously impossible at scale.

Together, these shifts point to a fundamental change in how PR and measurement work hand in hand in an AI-driven world: Credible storytelling fuels visibility, and intelligent measurement proves its impact.

Why earned media still dominates

Research presented at the AMEC AI Day suggests that around 90% of AI visibility comes from earned sources, not paid placements. That’s because LLMs favour content that is accessible, credible, and editorially independent. Paid content often falls short on two counts:
It sits behind paywalls or sponsorship disclosures, reducing citability.

It lacks the credibility signals that LLMs prioritise when determining trusted sources.

In an era when 60% of Google searches end without a click, visibility increasingly depends on being cited rather than clicked. AI-generated summaries pull from high-authority, earned sources, meaning quality and credibility of coverage matter more than ever.

The new role of qualitative metrics

If AI models prioritise credible coverage, it’s no longer enough to measure volume or sentiment alone. Understanding the authority and influence of sources, and how well your coverage aligns with your strategic narrative, becomes essential to assessing impact across both human and AI audiences.

In a landscape where automated content is multiplying, human-authored, well-sourced journalism carries greater weight.

That’s why the focus must shift from volume to value: not how many pieces you secured, but how credible, contextual, and influential those pieces are.

Emerging ideas like ‘share of answer’ (which explore how brands appear in AI-generated responses) hint at where measurement might go next. But these are still early indicators, not yet established metrics.

How we measure in the age of AI

Metrics like share of search and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) scores are early attempts to quantify visibility in AI environments. But as discussed at the AMEC AI Day, the industry is still testing and calibrating what “good” looks like.

The takeaway? Don’t measure for measurement’s sake.

Storytelling still drives machine understanding

AI is reshaping how visibility works, but not what makes it valuable. The best route to long-term visibility, with both audiences and algorithms, remains the same: authentic earned media, built on credible storytelling, relationships, and expertise.

As the line between human and machine audiences blurs, PR’s superpower endures, creating messages that are not only seen and read, but also trusted.

Where AI supports measurement

AI can assist across every stage of the workflow:

Collection and cleaning: unifying messy inputs from multiple sources.

Categorisation: speeding up tagging and sentiment analysis while ensuring consistency across languages.

Insight generation and prediction: highlighting emerging risks, narratives or audience shifts earlier.

AI’s strengths are clear: speed, scalability, consistency, and cross-market comparability. But its weaknesses are just as important to understand: opaque decision-making, bias in training data, false confidence in generative summaries, and the temptation to switch off human critical thinking.

That’s why we will see a shift from analysts acting less as ‘data producers’ and more as ‘insight curators’, allowing us to spend more time understanding, interpreting, and recommending than ever before. New skills are emerging: prompt engineering, validation, ethical reasoning, and bias checking. These sit alongside the fundamentals: empathy, relevance, and context.

Human accountability remains essential in measurement

Governance is catching up fast. AMEC is developing standards to ensure ethical use of AI in measurement. But the guiding principle is simple: AI can enhance, not replace, human judgment.

The best measurement programmes will use automation for efficiency, freeing up analysts to focus on interpretation, storytelling and strategy. The industry is shifting from manual counting to intelligent contextualisation, and AI is the accelerator helping us get there.

Preparing for the next era of visibility

AI is not a passing trend in communications and measurement; it’s a structural shift in how visibility, influence, and trust are created and understood. For PR teams, that means doubling down on what machines can’t replicate: credible relationships, meaningful narratives, and human judgment. For measurement professionals, it means evolving from trackers of activity to interpreters of influence.

The organisations that will lead in this next era will be those that combine high-quality earned media with intelligent, accountable use of AI, using technology to go faster and further, without losing sight of strategy, ethics, or impact.

Want help with measuring the success of your campaigns? Find out more about Vuelio Insights.

For more about the impact of AI tools on the media and measurement spaces, check out key takeaways shared at the 2025 Press Gazette Future of Media Technology Conference.

Plotting press coverage when every story is political

November 24, 2025/0 Comments/in Politics, PR, Public Affairs Political Services, PR, Political Database, Political Monitoring, Public Sector Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

For public affairs professionals, the challenge of comms is no longer just about getting a message through. It’s about managing how that message evolves once it enters the current fast-moving, politically-charged, and increasingly fragmented media landscape.

The latest report from Vuelio, ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’, provides a data-driven look at how stories move across the modern ecosystem — here is a closer look at what this means for those operating at the intersection of politics, policy, and public opinion.

A media ecosystem without clear borders

Tracking specific stories through the media confirms what those in Westminster and Whitehall already know: there is no longer a single, stable route for a story to reach its audience. Instead, the news cycle has become an ecosystem – complex, reactive, and full of feedback loops between political actors, journalists, and the public.

In this ecosystem, narratives that once followed predictable arcs (a ministerial statement, a round of coverage, then commentary and response) now move multi-directionally. They emerge from local conversations, ricochet through social feeds, and land on front pages already laden with political significance.

Mental Health Matters’ External Affairs and Policy Manager Charlie Campion sees the closer connections playing out, directly impacting how PA and comms teams work:

‘Politicians are paying closer attention than ever to public opinion. That means that conversations in the press, online forums, and across social media have become essential to any successful public affairs strategy and to influencing the government’s agenda. This is why integration and collaboration between public affairs and communications teams is more critical than ever.’

Political buffers and public pinball

Vuelio’s analysis of five major stories from the first half of 2025 spotlight this effect. From reporting around the RAAC Crisis to Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and the Zero Hour Contract Ban, each issue demonstrates how the political sphere can act both as amplifier and accelerator.

Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) began as a hyper-local debate about planning and mobility. But as online community discussions grew across X, Reddit, and local blogs the topic was pulled into the national conversation. By the time of local elections, it had become shorthand for wider political divisions around environmental policy, civic freedom, and government control.

RAAC Crisis reporting by contrast, shows how policy accountability narratives spread in unexpected ways. Regional news outlets drove much of the early coverage, but attention from MPs and regulators kept it alive in the national press. The story’s longevity wasn’t purely due to public interest — it was fuelled by parliamentary intervention and the policy implications that followed.

The Zero Hour Contract Ban demonstrated the convergence of social and political storytelling. What started as personal testimonies across social media grew into union advocacy and, eventually, coverage of specific political action, including the Worker’s Rights Bill.

Each case underlines a central point: policy stories don’t just sit within political news anymore. They move between issue communities, partisan echo chambers, and mainstream media with remarkable fluidity – reshaped every time they cross a new threshold.

Kelly Scott, VP Government & Stakeholder at Vuelio, summarises the phenomena:

‘The journey of public interest stories can be like a pinball machine — hitting political buffers that change their course. It’s vital to correct misinformation at pace, engage with both media and political influencers, and mobilise credible third-party voices.’

In this ‘pinball’ model, the risk of distortion is constant — but so is the opportunity for those who can anticipate the next pivot.

Fragmentation and connection

Major obstacles for any comms team tasked with getting vital information out to audiences are media siloes, which are abundant, even in an age of digital abundance. Reporting and conversation around the story of Surge Pricing for example, shows different media audiences consuming parallel (but largely disconnected) versions of the same issue.

Broadsheets and business outlets framed surge pricing as a question of market regulation and fairness. Tabloids focused on its impact on consumers, from concert tickets to the price of a pint. Each narrative reinforced itself within its own echo chamber, while cross-over between the two remained minimal.

This division presents a serious challenge for public affairs teams: a single policy debate can now exist in multiple, self-contained forms. A story that looks resolved in one arena may still be live (and inflamed) in another.

National broadcasters remain one of the few connecting threads, offering brief bursts of shared attention, but even these tend to lack the interpretive depth audiences once found in print. Increasingly, it falls to issue specialists, from think tanks to influencers to community groups, to bridge the gaps.

The collapse of siloes between media and politics

Perhaps the most consequential finding for political communicators is how blurred the lines have become between media management, public affairs, and reputation strategy.

In a world where journalists quote MPs’ tweets and policy conversations trend before they’re debated in Parliament, separating media and stakeholder engagement strategies could be dangerous.

‘In our recent call for increased investment in the charity sector ahead of the Autumn Statement, our approach extended beyond engaging MPs or the Chancellor directly,’ says Charlie. ‘The Mental Health Matters team worked with the media and in turn, built public support that can drive change.’

For public affairs professionals, integration is now essential. Understanding the media’s rhythms helps shape political engagement, while political intelligence helps anticipate where and how a story might evolve once it enters the news cycle.

Influence in an age of flux

Public affairs practitioners must think beyond Westminster and mainstream media to include the new spaces where policy conversations take shape — podcasts, Substacks, TikTok explainers, and influencer commentary all play a role in framing political stances and, in some cases, impact policy.

If the traditional model of influence was about control, be it controlling the message, the moment, and/or the medium, the new model is about navigation.

‘Know where your audience consumes content, and meet them there’ – Burson’s Head of Media Relations Strategy Sean Allen-Moy.

Fragmentation hasn’t diminished the power of public affairs; it’s simply expanded the field. Every story, from infrastructure to employment, is now a live and dynamic object — interpreted, politicised, and repurposed across audiences.

Those who can read the ecosystem, engage multiple stakeholders, and adapt their strategy in real time will not only survive this shift but thrive within it.

Because in today’s media environment no story stays still, and no issue stays purely political.

Read our full report ‘How news travels in today’s fragmented media environment’ and find out more about Vuelio’s services and support for the Public Sector here.

Navigating the modern media maze for brands

November 19, 2025/0 Comments/in PR, Marketing, Communications, Media Press and Bloggers, Political Monitoring, Media Database, Media Monitoring, Political Services, PR, Political Database Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

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.

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.

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:

‘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:

‘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’.

What PR agencies need to know about the CLA

November 17, 2025/0 Comments/in PR, Communications, Media Media Monitoring, PR, Press and Bloggers Blog Posts /by Phoebe-Jane Boyd

In PR, success is measured in visibility. That means getting coverage in the right titles, shared with the right people, at the right time. But when it comes to sharing that success, copyright compliance can be difficult to navigate. Whether you’re distributing press clippings to clients, showcasing coverage on your website, or using published content in campaign reports, you need permission to do so.

You may already be familiar with NLA media access, which licenses the reuse of newspaper, magazine, and news website content. But what about the huge range of other published material, like books, journals, magazines, and websites? That’s where the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) comes in.

What is the CLA?

The CLA, a regulated not-for-profit organisation, licenses organisations to lawfully use, copy, and share text and image-based content owned by authors, publishers, and visual artists. Revenues are distributed to owners, ensuring fair compensation for rights holders and support for the UK’s creative economy.

Through its collective licences, CLA provides blanket permissions to reuse millions of books, journals, magazines, and websites, including international titles from the US and beyond. Its licences allow businesses, public sector bodies, and educational institutions to copy, share, and reuse content without infringing copyright.

For PR and advertising agencies, this means you can legally share coverage, insights, and published materials with clients and colleagues, without the risk.

CLA and NLA: What’s the difference?

It’s a common misconception that one licence covers all published content. In reality, CLA and NLA media access manage different repertoires:

CLA covers books, journals, most magazines, and over 10,000 websites.
NLA covers UK national and regional newspapers, selected magazines, and around 4,000 websites.

There’s no overlap. If your agency shares content from both sets of sources, you’ll need both licences to stay compliant.

Why copyright compliance matters in PR

PR and marketing campaigns often rely on high-impact words, compelling visuals, and timely media coverage. But taking content from the internet or forwarding articles without permission can lead to serious consequences, including fines, reputational damage, and even the loss of a client.

One of the biggest fears among agencies is a client being contacted by a copyright holder because reused content wasn’t properly cleared. Another is having to scrap a campaign because the creative assets can’t be legally used. These risks are real and avoidable.

Copyright compliance isn’t just about avoiding mistakes. It’s about building trust, demonstrating professionalism, and protecting the creative ecosystem that PR relies on.

Which CLA Licence do PR agencies need?

There are two main CLA licences relevant to PR and comms teams:

Business Licence

The CLA Business Licence gives organisations blanket permission to copy, print, scan, and digitally share (e.g. email or upload) published content internally, covering:

Intranets and shared drives
Internal emails and presentations
Campaign planning and team collaboration

It also includes Workplace Generative AI permissions, allowing teams to use published content as prompts in permitted AI tools for things like summarisation, ideation and analysis.

Media Consultancy Licence

Designed specifically for PR, advertising and communications agencies, the Media Consultancy Licence is an essential add-on to the main CLA Business Licence, empowering PR and media agencies to lawfully share content with their clients.

It’s ideal for agencies that report on media coverage, showcase results, and want to ensure copyright compliance while doing so.

What publications are covered?

With a CLA licence, you are permitted to copy and share millions of publications, including books, journals, magazines and websites. CLA’s Check Permissions search tool lets you see what you can copy, share or re-use legally under each type of licence.

Why licensing builds credibility

Retained clients are the holy grail for PR agencies. And while great campaigns and strong results are essential, credibility plays a huge role in client retention. That credibility isn’t just built through awards or viral success, it’s built through professionalism, transparency, and ethical practice.

Licensing helps agencies:

Avoid legal pitfalls and protect clients
Streamline internal processes with blanket permissions
Build trust through transparent reporting
Support the creative industries that fuel PR success

Amplify your coverage with peace of mind

With a CLA licence, agencies can also republish up to five articles at a time on their websites, perfect for showcasing media coverage and building credibility. It also enables smarter client consultancy, helping clients understand their media landscape and the impact of PR efforts.

And yes, it makes you look good. Licensing demonstrates professionalism, respect for creators, and a commitment to ethical practice, all qualities that resonate with journalists, clients, and partners alike.

Want to Learn More?

Explore the CLA website to find the right licence for your agency, search the repertoire, or speak to the CLA team for tailored advice.

For more about copyright licencing, read our PR guide to the NLA.