Cutting through the noise with podcasts

Cutting through the noise: Why podcasts should be central to 2026 campaign planning

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Engaging the attention of audiences as the media continues to splinter into new formats is a major challenge for PRs. Operating in this world of fewer ‘gatekeeper’ titles brings opportunity (more spaces for coverage) but also confusion (where should PRs place their energies and time when reaching out to the media?).

Counter in the erosion of trust in ‘traditional’ media formats, the mass move to social for news and entertainment, and the proliferation of AI-generated content, and the challenge for PRs becomes not just being heard, but being believed.

In the midst of this noise, one medium has moved from the fringes to the heart of the media mix: the podcast. Podcasting has become a powerhouse of influence, offering a level of intimacy and engagement that print and even broadcast television can fail to match.

Here is why podcasts should be part of your campaign planning and media outreach:

The power of authentic conversation

The move towards podcasting is a shift towards greater depth and connection. For recent webinar ‘The Trump challenge: Chaos, confusion and government communications’, 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 to discuss the changing nature of how we connect with audiences.

Katy Balls highlighted the blueprint for success used across the Atlantic to engage with audiences ahead of the election:

Katy Balls on podcasting

‘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. It was an unconventional way to get to voters. It didn’t feel as though it came up through focus groups; it feels like an authentic conversation.’

This ‘authentic conversation’ is what PR campaigns can lack when relying solely on social media soundbites or static press coverage. A podcast allows a brand, organisation, or spokesperson time to explain a complex position, humanise a leadership team, or dive into the nuances of a CSR initiative.

Breaking through the static

For Alastair Campbell, the boom in podcasting represents a healthy pushback against the attention wars of modern social media. He believes that listeners are increasingly hungry for substance:

Alastair Campbell on podcasting

‘I hope that the podcast world is part of a desire for a kind of deeper debate,’ Campbell said. ‘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.’

This distinction is vital for campaign planning. It is no longer enough to broadcast a message and hope it sticks. PR professionals must consider the mode of connection. Because podcasts can create a one-on-one relationship between the host and the listener, leading to higher levels of trust than other mediums.

The statistics: A growing influence

The data for 2025 and 2026 confirms this fundamental shift in consumption. Global podcast listeners are projected to reach 619 million by the end of 2026, with the UK market seeing particularly robust growth.

  • Over 70% of the UK population aged 16+ have now consumed a podcast, with 33% listening weekly.
  • Research indicates that podcast listeners are more likely to trust recommendations made within an episode than those seen on social media feeds. 86% of engaged listeners can recall ads and brand mentions, a rate significantly higher than traditional digital formats.
  • The definition of podcasting is also evolving. With YouTube now a leading platform for ‘watched’ podcasts, the medium offers a visual component that can be easily ‘clipped’ for TikTok and Instagram, providing a multi-channel return on investment for a single piece of content.

Strategic integration and niche targeting

One of the most compelling reasons to factor podcasts into PR outreach is the ability to target micro-audiences. While a national newspaper reaches a broad demographic, a podcast like The Rest is Politics or niche industry-specific shows reach a highly self-selected, attentive group.

Vuelio’s research into the story of water pollution in the UK highlighted how podcasts can take a complex, emotive issue and sustain public interest over months, rather than the days a typical news story might last. By providing a platform for experts and campaigners to speak at length, podcasts turn news into a narrative to follow.

This is particularly useful for connecting with often ignored audiences. As Katy Balls pointed out, podcasts can reach the non-political or the disengaged by meeting them in a space that feels personal, rather than institutional or overly curated (even if it is…).

How Vuelio can help

Navigating this new landscape requires the right tools. The Vuelio Media Database has been expanded to include comprehensive data on thousands of podcasts, allowing you to identify the right hosts and producers with the same precision you would use for a national editor. You can research topic, audience reach, and even pitching tips to ensure your story resonates with the specific tone of a show.

Vuelio Media Monitoring also includes sophisticated broadcast and podcast data. We monitor thousands of hours of audio content, providing transcripts and alerts whenever your brand, client, or competitor is mentioned. This allows you to quantify the impact of your audio outreach, ensuring that authentic conversation translates into measurable PR success.

Find out more about Vuelio’s integrated services for PR, comms, and public affairs here. 

Journalist Enquiry Service integration into Vuelio

The power of connected media intelligence: Media requests added to the Vuelio Media Database

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The ability to react quickly while maintaining a long-term strategic view is what separates successful campaigns from those that falter. Vuelio has always evolved to meet the challenges of the comms industry, which is why we’ve integrated media requests from the Journalist Enquiry Service into the Vuelio Media Database.

In what can be a fragmented and increasingly disconnected media landscape, here are the benefits of an integrated platform for PRs planning media outreach and building relationships with journalists, broadcasters, podcasters, and influencers.

Full context for pitch-perfect pitching

Context is key when planning your media outreach to gain coverage for your brand or clients.

You might find the perfect journalist in your chosen media database, but have no definite read on what they are working on right now, and could need from you. Alternatively, a media request on its own lacks vital background information on the journalist it came from to help you tailor your pitch perfectly.

Embedded media enquiries from the Journalist Enquiry Service within the Vuelio Media Database grants users this wider context. A request now sits in the same platform that features a comprehensive profile of the individual behind it, including their career history and specific patches. This visibility allows you to understand their recent beats and preferred contact methods, gathered by our in-house research team, ensuring your response to a request they made will be both timely and relevant.

JES in Vuelio UI

Real-time intelligence

Aligning your brand or client with the current news cycle is vital for gaining coverage in the media, in combination with knowledge of what editorial teams are working on for upcoming longer-lead content.

With the Journalist Enquiry Service now a core part of the Vuelio Media Database, PRs have a window into the live newsroom and foresight into what is coming up months in the future – direct from media professionals themselves.

Embedded enquiries can provide a real-time heat map of the topics journalists on your media lists are currently investigating and researching. Comms teams can be both proactive and reactive with their media outreach. Instead of guessing what might be trending, you can see the editorial needs of the UK media as they happen, allowing you to pivot your strategy to meet the immediate demand for expertise.

Streamlining the PR path to media coverage

Managing a busy press office means finding extra efficiencies, and integrated services mean no switching between tabs and platforms.

Both sides of media opportunities (what you’re pitching, and what media professionals need now) are combined within the Vuelio platform.

Whether a media contact is looking for products for a gift guide, a comment for a breaking news story, or a guest for a podcast, PR subscribers to the integrated platform can access requests quickly. This centralisation boosts opportunities for coverage, and improves workflows for comms teams of all sizes, whatever their sector.

Balancing immediacy with longer-term strategy

PR is a blend of short-term wins and long-term authority and relationship building.

Immediate opportunities: The Journalist Enquiry Service provides a constant stream of opportunity – journalists actively seeking help for stories that could go live tomorrow.

Long-term planning: The Vuelio Media Database’s log of forward features lists allows a look months into the future, highlighting seasonal opportunities, and planned editorial specials.

Access to both tools in one platform allows for more effective balancing of daily tasks: A mix of strategy mapping for upcoming campaigns, and responses to urgent press requests, all in Vuelio’s connected solutions for PRs and media professionals.

Supporting you and your clients (current and future)

Deeper intelligence into what the media wants from PRs is here for both in-house teams and agencies.

Media requests that provide insight into opportunities agencies can pitch to new clients are now directly within the platform they utilise for current client campaigns. Prospects and clients can be catered to in one place, with accuracy.

And accurate pitching is vital. One of the most common complaints Vuelio hears when asking the journalist community about their irks is around ‘spray and pray‘ pitching; vague, irrelevant emails that don’t meet their specific needs. To help, our integrated platform provides deeper intelligence into what the media wants from PRs.

When a journalist submits a request that might seem broad (journalists can be vague, too…), the platform’s database allows you to dig deeper into their previous work and editorial deadlines. By seeing their history and the types of stories they usually cover, you can interpret their needs more accurately. This leads to higher-quality responses that provide exactly what the journalist is looking for, which in turn builds the trust necessary for long-term media relationships for you, your clients, and stakeholders.

A unified ecosystem for every PR

Whether you are a dedicated Vuelio users, a long-time subscriber to ResponseSource, or currently using a mix of different services, the transition to a fully integrated platform offers some clear advantages:

For Journalist Enquiry Service subscribers: Moving to the integrated platform provides a wealth of new data. Alongside requests, you have access to a full media intelligence suite that includes a comprehensive database of over one million outlets and influencers.

For Vuelio Media Database subscribers: A new, active stream of opportunities. Stop waiting for your pitch to be opened – respond to journalists who are explicitly asking for your help, in real-time.

For new users: The most complete PR tool on the market, combining a trusted 25-year-old media request service with a world-class media database.

The power of integration

While the media further fragments and grows, the tools the comms industry uses for its outreach need to evolve. The integration of media requests into the Vuelio Media Database is our response to the industry’s need for greater efficiency, deeper insights, and more meaningful connections.

By bringing these services together, we have removed the barriers between identifying an opportunity and acting on it. Comms professionals can now work faster, smarter, and with a level of insight that was previously impossible. Whether you are aiming for a mention in a local blog or a front-page story in a national daily, the platform provides the infrastructure to make it happen.

Find out more about the Vuelio Media Database.

10 Year Health Plan

Health in Focus: Rare Cancers Bill, Commission into Social Care and Interim report into Maternity care

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In previous years, the Spring Statement would dominate the political discourse, acting as the sister to the Autumn Budget and providing a focal point to direct public policy and opposition criticism. However, with Chancellor Reeves’ shift to a single annual fiscal event, the Spring Forecast could instead be seen as another session of repetitive political pantomime.

The almost weekly rendition of an economic metric followed by ‘up’ or ‘down’ to rally the benches works to portray the image of a supported and backed Government. This allowed the Spring Forecast to become a moment for Reeves to celebrate the work of the Government so far. Reeves boasted about the record cash settlement for the NHS and reductions in waiting lists, which recent analysis by the Telegraph found will only meet their 18-week pledge 15 years late, and declined to include the topic of health in any of her forward planning, with focus centred on trade, investment, education, and energy.

Many in the sector will be disappointed by this speech, as it seems despite the NHS being placed at the core of the Government’s mission, the Government is not going far or fast enough to realise its potential. Most fundamentally, the value of improving and investing in the NHS is that it can release benefits and savings all across the economy. One of these areas, social care, experienced its first proper update from the Independent Commission into Adult Social Care when Baroness Casey of Blackstock, chair of the Commission, gave a speech to the Nuffield Trust Summit. Lady Casey called for a ‘sixth social giant’ to match the five set out by the 1948 Beveridge report which concerned the challenge of supporting the old and sick population. Lady Casey called for the Government to deliver the ‘creation moment’ for social care in what was ‘a moment of reckoning’, achieving progress against the backdrop of continual Government failure.

Days prior to the speech, Lady Casey wrote to the Health Secretary Wes Streeting setting out six initial recommendations, ahead of her interim report set to be published this year. The recommendations called for a designated board for adult safeguarding, an urgent review into adult safeguarding statutory duties, scaling up investment in dementia trials, faster progress on the Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia, a Dementia Tsar, and a fast-track ‘passport’ scheme for those with Motor Neurone Disease. These recommendations were swiftly accepted in full by Streeting, who also confirmed that an interim Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia will be published by September, with the full framework by the end of this year. With the Commission holding an end date of 2028, and the repetition of the long-term ‘National Care Service’ in every social care press release, social care may be the slowest moving sector in politics. Many label this the social care political ‘taboo’ with the most prominent example being the failed reforms set out by the May Government, labelled the ‘dementia tax’ in a media and political tsunami. Rather, it would seem it can be more promptly termed the older people ‘taboo’. Recent movements from the Government, but also political parties across the spectrum, further reconcile this. A dramatic moment of political self-harm with the stripping of winter fuel payments, the refusal to touch the Triple Lock, and the inert nature of social care, all highlight that the backlash embedded in policy that impacts older people’s lives leads to impasse on improvements and policy metathesiophobia.

The National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation, chaired by Baroness Amos, also saw an interim report in recent weeks in which Lady Amos identified six factors which were contributing to pressure on the maternity system and impact the poor performances of many wards in regard to avoidable baby loss. Notably, the interim report took a key focus on the issue of racism and discrimination in maternity wards. This included the prevalence of stereotypes regarding ‘angry or aggressive’ Black women who could tolerate more pain, the discrimination of Muslim women based on their religion, the judgement of young couples, and insufficient accessibility for non-English speaking patients. The report also took note of significant workforce pressures, with many staff working beyond capacity, stretched to fill obstetric rotas and with poor morale, incivility and stress across clinical teams. This has been compounded by poor relationships across workforce hierarchies and inaction against poor behaviour and improper practice. The report says these pressures have accumulated into poor wraparound care, a lack of compassion, and diminished capacity and support in neonatal deaths and throughout the bereavement process.

The Rare Cancers Act gained Royal Assent on 5 March, a Private Member’s Bill by Dr Scott Arthur that has been backed by the Government since it was tabled in October 2024. The Bill was introduced to improve the Government’s focus and research on rare and less common cancers, which can be defined as cancers that affect no more than 1 in 2000 people. The current landscape means that pharmaceutical companies are disincentivised to fund rare cancer research because it appeals to smaller populations, creates weaker profits and can be logistically difficult to conduct clinical trials. The Act requires the Secretary of State to review the law on market authorisations for specialised medicines, called orphan medicinal products, considering international approaches and whether the current approach properly encourages research and investment into rare cancers. The Health Secretary is to report on this within three years of March 2026. The Act also creates a bespoke contact registry for rare cancer patients, appoints a National Specialty Lead and opens the National Disease Registration Service to help facilitate, centralise and promote rare cancer clinical trials.

The Act has been backed by many rare cancer charities including the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce, as well as Blood Cancer UK and Brain Tumour Research, who have said the Bill will work to build a framework to improve survival rates for cancers where patients can benefit from a more coordinated research landscape alongside a clearer core point of accountability for the Government. A key feature of the Government’s life sciences strategy has been to try and bring pharmaceuticals companies onboard, working with NICE and the MHRA to bring down clinical trials waiting times and bureaucracy, uplifting investment through the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund, and most recently, through the passing of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Amendment) Regulations 2026 empowering the Secretary of State to direct NICE’s cost-effectiveness threshold as a matter of public policy. This influx of investment and ‘cosying up’ has been welcomed by the sector but also been scrutinised for a perceived choice to promote corporate profits over patient centred care. Specifically, the Liberal Democrats have been vocal in their criticism, calling for a clear impact assessment of the decision and advocating for this funding to be directed towards more hospital beds and efforts to tackle the crisis of corridor care.

As the political narrative crescendos into the May local elections and the 2024 King’s Speech, policy is expediting, with the notable passing of the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act and the Rare Cancers Act, and the imminent Tobacco and Vapes Bill, rounding up the policies outlined in 2024’s King Speech. Labour will look to turn around their polling and the aftermath of the triumph of the Greens in Gorton and Denton. Since the Mandelson saga, Streeting has obscured himself back into the perimeters of the cabinet and has faced calls for his sacking in the wake of a secret plot against Starmer. Many commentators fear that a Labour wholesale reshuffle and reset is inevitable when political destruction impends in the local, Welsh, and Scottish elections in May, and Streeting may be the favourite to throw his hat in the ring for the premiership.

C-suite comms

C-suite comms getting hit with TL:DR? How to make CXO updates more impactful

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Audiences are increasingly on the lookout for trust signals before they engage with a brand or organisation, and what could be more trust-worthy, and engaging, than a high-profile CEO who is willing to speak up with honesty and regularity?

‘Creator CXOs’ – c-suite level storytellers who create content for their brand and share their takes on social media – are on the rise. Yet, despite the resulting surge in executive activity on platforms like LinkedIn, engagement is beginning to plateau or, in many cases, completely plummet.

In flooded feeds, sterile corporate-speak updates and AI-generated ‘thought leadership’ aren’t going to prevent your stakeholders from scrolling. Here’s how to stop your c-suite sparking snores on social and beyond.

Escaping ‘corporate bot’ syndrome

When corporate comms are so heavily filtered and sanitised, they lose the human element that pays off on social platforms. If leaders treat social media as a one-way megaphone rather than a telephone, the audience will switch off.

‘Being authentic is a daily ritual; it isn’t just a buzzword,’ said Prashant Saxena, VP of Revenue & Insights, SEA at Isentia.

‘Instead of sharing company wins, like hitting Q3 targets, share the ‘why’ behind the decisions. When you post about a new initiative, explain the difficult trade-offs you faced or the core value that drove the decision. What was the moral compass of the decision made?’

If an executive’s content sounds like it could have been written by any CEO in any industry, it’s lost its human element. Authenticity has to be at the core of the strategy and not just an added bolt on.

Production versus perspective

Outsourcing, team rewrites, and multi-level approval rounds are part and parcel of PR to maintain consistency, quality, and brand voice. And team work or additional assistance is still useful for CXO content – as long as it’s for its production and not its perspective.

When a leader completely hands off their presence to a team without providing personal voice notes or unique takes, the resulting content can very quickly become hollow. Audiences are quick to pick up on artificially – particularly when they’re already served reams of it on LinkedIn already. To bridge this gap, comms teams can act as curators of a leader’s genuine thoughts, rather than architects of a fictional persona.

Prashant believes that the most successful leaders on social media are those who show the ‘messy’ reality of progress:

‘Perfection is intimidating, but progress is inspiring. Posting about a challenge you are currently navigating, or have recently overcome, invites empathy and engagement that a polished success story never will.’

Organisations that transform their CXOs into relatable figures signal the right values rather than just listing titles. They aren’t selling a product, or regurgitating industry talking points, but opening a conversation.

Posting and ghosting

Another pitfall for creator CXOs is the ‘post and ghost’ method – sharing a piece of thought leadership and then leaving the post with no follow-up. Rather than showing an industry expert with an unmissable point-of-view, it can signal a disengaged leader who isn’t interested in the conversation, only the business conversion.

Comments and replies sections are where to stick around to engage with audiences and other creators, and to champion your organisation. A good place to start with opening up a conversation – your own team mates.

‘Stop being the only one talking about how great your company is,’ says Prashant. ‘Elevate the voices of your employees, customers, and partners. Repost an employee’s win with your personal commentary on why you’re proud of them. It shows you are listening and that your leadership has a tangible impact on real people’.

Socially successful CXOs build a community and not just a following. A leader who listens will be more influential than one who only speaks.

Building a reputation

Ultimately, the goal for any PR team should be to help their CXO be more than someone to scroll past.

‘Encourage leaders to share real stories, lessons learned and challenges, not just achievements or announcements,’ advises Patrizia Galeota, PR Specialist & Podcast Host of PR LIKE A BOSS!

‘Posts that reveal personality, values, or a unique perspective stand out in a LinkedIn feed full of generic corporate updates.’

Reputation building means more than the occasional post with no follow-up. As the media landscape fragments and politics, policy, and public opinion become increasingly intertwined, the consistency of a leader’s voice becomes a brand’s greatest asset.

‘Reputation is a downstream outcome of an upstream habit,’ says Prashant. ‘If you want to fix your engagement, sounding like a ‘Creator CXO’ actually does a lot of harm to a personal brand. Starting to sound like a person who happens to be a CXO is better.’

The most successful comms strategies from the c-suite in 2026 will be those that break down the wall between the executive level and the audience. By embracing relatability over perfection, and interaction over broadcasting, brands can ensure their leaders aren’t just seen, but are actually heard.

‘When CXOs communicate directly, it humanises the brand and builds trust. Social updates from leadership can inspire employees, attract talent and signal thought leadership to clients and investors,’ adds Patrizia.

‘Authentic CXO content becomes a bridge between strategy and culture, showing that the organisation isn’t just a corporate entity, but a community led by visible, approachable people.’

For more on communicating with authenticity, read advice from thought leaders at brands including AirBus and FutureBricks on building a personal brand.

What journalists want March 2026

New season trends, Easter gifts and travel experts: How to get UK press coverage in March 2026

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Wondering how to get featured in the UK media during March? After weeks of bad weather, brighter skies are on the horizon and journalists have already been looking to get ahead with their coverage of big events coming up in the calendar such as Easter. Find out below what else the British press have been looking for over the last month and how this impacts requests coming into the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service in March and beyond.

Springing into a new season

While the news cycle may not be seasonal as such, the beginning of a new season normally generates a good number of enquiries and that’s been the case for ‘Spring’ as it received just over 3% of the total requests in February.

Being such a broad topic we’ve already seen quite the range of enquiries with everything from looking for a premium vacuum cleaner for some Spring cleaning, to getting the garden ready after Winter, and asking for the latest beauty products and trends. Journalists from the Daily Mail, Stylist.co.uk, Ideal Home, Take a Break, Amateur Gardening, and Cheshire Living all sent Spring-related requests last month.

Going forward? There will be plenty more Spring requests over the next few months, with March 2025 seeing over 5% of requests being related to the season. They tend to be geared more towards a consumer-facing audience with topics like fashion, home & garden, beauty, and food & drink normally proving the most popular. However, if you have a new trend or product for this season then there will be plenty of opportunities to get it featured in the media.

What are journalists asking for on JES March 2026

Egg-citement for Easter building

Both Mother’s Day (15 March) and Easter (5 April) have fallen earlier in the calendar this year which means that enquiries have already been coming in for Easter already, with over 2% of the total requests in February. ‘Eggs’, unsurprisingly, has performed well as a keyword appearing in 1% of the enquiries and ‘chocolate’ has been in just under 2%.

While the majority of requests have focused on eggs, there have been other opportunities as well for those that don’t have a chocolate product to present to the media. There have been enquiries for crafts, activities and homeware, treats for grown=ups to enjoy, and ideas for Easter days out. These requests have come from journalists at the likes of The Week, The Daily Telegraph, Sussex Life and The British Travel List.

Going forward? There are still around three weeks until Easter and we would expect plenty of last-minute requests for review products and ideas to feature in articles. In March last year, just over 3% of all enquiries were for Easter and we would expect similar interest this year so have eggs and related-gifts ready to send out and you could get national press coverage.

Which journalists are sending requests March 2026

School holiday getaways

Easter doesn’t just provide the chance to eat lots of chocolate, it also gives families the chance to head off on their holidays during the two-week school break. Journalists have been looking to get information for this early with just under 7% of enquiries last month being for ‘travel’. Nearly 4% of requests have been looking for ‘hotels’ and just under 2% for ‘holidays’.

Enquiries have come from journalists at The Daily Express, Saga, The Times, PA Media, Travel & Retreat, and Elite Traveler. The requests have included looking for holiday accommodation in the Cotswolds, French campsites for a plane-free family holiday, information around solo travel companies, hotels and resorts, and travel experts to comment on the new travel rules for 2026.

Going forward? The peak of the travel requests is yet to come (normally in April or May) and March should see a good amount of enquiries come through with 4% being travel-related last year. Journalists tend to look either for travel experts to provide comment and advice, or look for information and guides on the best resorts, hotels, etc. in certain countries. Get these prepared and ready to send out to possibly get coverage in the national press or a trade travel title.

Other opportunities for PRs in March and beyond

The Spring season sees people getting back out in their gardens and journalists have tried to get ahead of this as ‘gardening’ appeared in just under 4% of the total requests in February. This keyword saw a big jump up in March 2025 to nearly 6% of the total. Gardening experts and horticulturists are normally the most in demand but there will also be the chance to get gardening gear and gadgets featured in the media too.

Money remains a key talking point in the media and just over 4% of requests in February were ‘money’ related. With Rachel Reeves only recently announcing the Spring statement and news of the energy price cap changes, journalists are actively looking for money experts to provide comment and advice on what this means for consumers’ finances. Get quotes prepared and you could find your client appearing in the national press or on a broadcast title.

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

How to tackle the comms risk of AI super-powered mis- and disinformation

How to tackle the comms risk of AI super-powered mis- and disinformation

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While AI is a powerful catalyst for workflow efficiency and creativity, it is also an accelerant for the spread of false or misleading content. Comms practitioners will have to deal with both sides of artificial intelligence’s rapid integration into the systems of communication that surround us. The ability to embed AI as an extra asset in the PR toolbox also comes with dangers caused by malicious actors intent on causing harm.

For the Vuelio webinar ‘AI, Disinformation and the Risks They Pose for Communicators Today’, Thomas Barton, Executive Director of the Council for Countering Online Disinformation (CCOD), joined us to explore how AI is fundamentally changing the scale and speed of disinformation.

With a background spanning geopolitical intelligence at Polis Analysis and years in the political sphere, Thomas explained how PRs can protect organisational reputation and maintain integrity when the very tools we rely on are used to distort the truth.

Watch the full webinar here.

Defining the threat: Misinformation vs. Disinformation

Before tackling the technological risks, Thomas stressed the importance of understanding the specifics:

‘To boil it down to simple terms: disinformation as the spreading of false information with the deliberate intent to deceive. There is a malicious motive behind the circulation of that content. With misinformation, the key difference is that there is no intent; someone may spread misleading content without the deliberate intention of doing so. It is essentially a question of intent.’

How AI can be used to scale-up deception

While disinformation is as old as human history (Thomas cited examples ranging from Octavian’s smear campaigns against Mark Antony to Cold War subversion), generative AI has increased scalability and persuasiveness.

‘Traditionally, running a disinformation campaign required considerable staff and budget for manual processes,’ said Thomas. ‘Now, a sole malicious actor with the power of an AI platform can manufacture and spread false content at scale in almost real-time. This allows for a technique called ‘flooding the zone’ – overwhelming a user’s feed with so much low-quality disinformation that they become disorientated and eventually withdraw from the information environment entirely.’

Beyond volume, Thomas warned that AI-generated content is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from reality.

‘Synthetic-authored tweets are often found to be several percentage points more believable than those authored by humans. AI is actually better at deceiving people than we are. Furthermore, we can now use AI to scrape publicly available data to build personas of specific individuals, tailoring false narratives to their biases and interests to provoke a stronger emotive response.’

Real-world consequences: From stock markets to deepfakes

While mis- and disinformation is still most discussed through the political lens, its impact on corporations is already big – and only growing.

Thomas highlighted several instances where false information led to tangible financial hits, including a fake tweet that significantly impacted Eli Lilly’s share price and a similar hit to Pepsi. AI has only increased the sophistication of false information:

‘A really important case study is what happened at Arup. An employee was brought into a video call where their colleagues were impersonated in a deepfake. This is not a theoretical threat; it is a real-world form of fraud that organisations must wake up to.’

Practical steps for comms teams

How can teams protect themselves? Thomas argued that the next cybersecurity-style evolution for businesses must be information integrity:

‘Proactivity is critical. It starts at the top; senior executives and boards must understand how disinformation manifests as a corporate risk, whether through stock manipulation or brand trashing. Once leadership is across it, the whole workforce needs protection. Media literacy training should be mandatory.’

Another way to fight the use of AI for malicious intent? AI for good.

‘AI can be a nightmare for spreading falsehoods, but it is also a tool for good. Serious organisations in 2026 should be using LLM-based detection tools to monitor potential campaigns in real-time. These tools allow you to identify, defend against, and ultimately disrupt false narratives before they take root.’

Stopping the spread once it starts

When a false narrative does begin to spread, the instinct to react immediately can be counterproductive. Thomas advises a measured assessment of the threat level before engaging.

‘The challenge is to avoid giving oxygen to false narratives. If you respond to every low-scale bot, you may inadvertently spread the content further. However, if a campaign is orchestrated and poses a reputational crisis, you must fight fiction with facts. The best approach is to ensure your response is data-driven and leveraged through trusted third parties who can legitimise your record-correction.’

Positive counter-forces

Despite what can seem like a scary landscape, Thomas was optimistic about the growing ecosystem of counter-forces, including startups across the world developing deepfake detection and watermarking technologies. However, he believes that technical solutions must be paired with legislative change:

‘Longer-term, we need regulatory policy that addresses the root cause: the platforms. We should have more control as users – toggles that allow us to filter for content regulated by the broadcasters’ code or international journalistic standards. I don’t subscribe to the narrative that the web is “ruined”. We just need the right guardrails.’

Thomas’s final message to the PR and comms industry was a call for corporate social responsibility:

‘Business has to step up. If you are a socially responsible business in the age of AI, you must show you are willing to fight back against these risks. It is in your commercial interest to ensure we all benefit from a clean information environment.’

Find out more about Thomas Barton and his work with the Council for Countering Online Disinformation (CCOD) and Polis Analysis by getting in touch via LinkedIn.

AI, Disinformation and the Risks They Pose to Communicators Today

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As artificial intelligence accelerates the spread of false or misleading narratives, communications teams are facing new risks to trust, reputation, and crisis response. How can organisations safeguard their reputation and messaging in such an unstable media environment?

In our latest webinar, AI, Disinformation and the Risks They Pose for Communicators Today, Thomas Barton, Executive Director of the Council for Countering Online Disinformation and CEO of Polis Analysis, provided an overview of the challenges and explored practical steps organisations can take to respond.

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  • How AI is changing the scale and speed of mis- and disinformation
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Parliament

Top 6 Political Monitoring Tools in 2026: A Strategic Guide for Public Affairs Teams

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Political monitoring tools are specialised intelligence platforms that track and analyse parliamentary, legislative, regulatory, and stakeholder activity to help organisations anticipate political and policy risk. Unlike general media monitoring software, which focuses on press and social mentions, political monitoring platforms are built around the machinery of government.

They ingest structured data from Hansard, select committees, consultations, statutory instruments, devolved assemblies, and government departments — transforming complex legislative activity into searchable, actionable insight. For public affairs teams, this enables real-time legislative tracking, stakeholder mapping, and regulatory risk detection.

In 2026, these tools operate as integrated public affairs monitoring ecosystems, combining parliamentary monitoring software, stakeholder intelligence, media convergence tracking, and AI-assisted policy summarisation. Political volatility is continuous, not episodic. A Westminster debate can escalate into reputational risk within hours.

Modern political monitoring platforms therefore sit inside governance and risk workflows — shifting organisations from reactive alerts to predictive political intelligence.

Feature General Media Monitoring Political Monitoring (2026 Standard)
Primary Data Source News, Blogs, Social Media Committees, Consultations, Legislation
Stakeholder Focus Journalists, Influencers, Consumers MPs, SpAds, Civil Servants, Regulators, Councils
Analysis Depth Sentiment and Share of Voice Policy Impact, Legislative Risk, Stakeholder Mapping
Workflow Campaign Evaluation Governance, Compliance, Strategic Advocacy
Intelligence Type Reactive (What happened?) Predictive (What is coming?)

The Structural Evolution of Political Intelligence in 2026

Political monitoring has shifted from standalone alerting tools to integrated political intelligence ecosystems. The defining change is the direct, real-time integration of structured data from Westminster and the devolved nations, enabling teams to track Bills, amendments, and secondary legislation throughout the legislative lifecycle.

Technology now assists this process by surfacing relevant parliamentary records, consultations, department releases, and think-tank output based on a team’s defined policy priorities. Rather than replacing expert judgement, these tools reduce manual scanning and ensure that no critical development is missed.

AI-assisted summarisation supports analysts by condensing lengthy documents into structured briefings, which are then reviewed, contextualised, and refined by experienced public affairs professionals. Predictive modelling draws on historical patterns to flag potential voting or regulatory scenarios, but strategic interpretation remains firmly human-led.

Crucially, modern platforms embed governance and audit functionality alongside these capabilities. Integrated SRM tools, reporting dashboards, and clear oversight controls ensure transparency, compliance, and defensible decision-making at C-suite level — with technology acting as an enabler of professional expertise, not a substitute for it.

 

Evaluating Political Monitoring Software: A 2026 Framework

Choosing the right political monitoring tool in 2026 requires more than feature comparison. The following criteria prioritise platforms that deliver integrated, governance-ready political intelligence rather than standalone alerting functionality.

  • Parliamentary & Legislative Depth
     Comprehensive, structured UK-wide coverage across Westminster and the devolved nations, including Hansard, committees, APPGs, consultations, and full legislative lifecycle tracking.

  • Stakeholder Intelligence
     Searchable databases covering MPs, SpAds, senior civil servants, and local government leaders, integrated with SRM tools to track engagement and institutional relationships.

  • Governance & Workflow Integration
     Advanced dashboards, custom reporting, audit logs, and role-based access controls to support C-suite reporting and compliance requirements.

  • Media–Political Convergence
     Integrated visibility across parliamentary activity, press, broadcast, and social media to detect when policy developments escalate into reputational risk.

  • AI-Assisted Insight Layer
     Automated policy summarisation, narrative clustering, and predictive risk detection, with human-in-the-loop verification.

  • Regional & Devolved Coverage
     Structured tracking across Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Metro Mayors, and combined authorities.

  • Human Oversight & Compliance Safeguards
     Hybrid AI and analyst models ensuring accuracy, transparency, and defensible decision-making in high-stakes environments.

 

Top 6 Political Monitoring Tools in 2026

The following ranking evaluates platforms based on their ‘completeness of capability’ for modern public affairs teams, focusing on their ability to unify disparate data streams into a single intelligence ecosystem.

#1 Vuelio: The Comprehensive UK Political Monitoring Ecosystem

Vuelio is the most comprehensive political monitoring platform in the UK market in 2026. It has successfully managed to be a media-centric tool as well as a full-stack political intelligence ecosystem that serves the needs of PR, public affairs, and corporate communications teams simultaneously.

Unified Political and Media Intelligence

Vuelio’s primary advantage is its integration of media, political, and social media insights on a single platform. This allows public affairs professionals to monitor everything that happens across the UK’s parliaments and government departments while simultaneously tracking how those events are being received by journalists, influencers, and the public. This convergence is critical for managing reputation in a landscape where political and media narratives are inextricably linked.

Deep Parliamentary and Devolved Coverage

The platform provides structured monitoring of all activity from Westminster, the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd, and the Northern Ireland Assembly. Vuelio goes beyond the ‘main stage’ to track government department releases, committee reports, and information from wider stakeholder groups such as think tanks and trade bodies. This ensures that teams have a 360-degree view of the political machine.

Advanced Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM)

Vuelio features one of the most up-to-date political databases in the UK, containing over 25,000 contacts. This includes not only MPs and Peers but also their staff, special advisers, council leaders, and chief executives. The integrated SRM tools allow teams to manage their engagement strategies, track who opens and responds to their emails, and maintain a detailed log of interactions to show the value of public affairs to internal stakeholders.

The Lumina AI Suite: Beyond Alerts

Vuelio’s Lumina AI suite represents the state-of-the-art in policy intelligence for 2026. Lumina moves beyond simple alerts by clustering mentions into ‘Stories and Perspectives,’ reflecting different media and stakeholder viewpoints. This allows teams to see which topics are gaining traction, receive early warnings of emerging opportunities or crises, and filter out neutral noise. Vuelio’s roadmap includes curated media summaries customised to leadership priorities and a predictive intelligence layer to anticipate policy change before it happens.

Governance and Professional Workflow

Vuelio is designed for the professional public affairs workflow. Its interactive dashboards allow for real-time analysis across all content sources, and the platform facilitates the creation of visual presentations (through the Canvas module) that replace time-consuming spreadsheets and PDFs. This focus on ease of use and professional reporting makes Vuelio the natural choice for large, multi-functional communications teams.

Conclusion: For organisations requiring integrated parliamentary depth, stakeholder relationship management, media convergence, and governance-ready reporting within a single UK-focused platform, Vuelio provides a consolidated political intelligence infrastructure built for complex public affairs environments.

 

#2 Isentia: Hybrid AI and Broadcast Intelligence

Isentia is the leading provider for organisations that manage political risk through media exposure, particularly in the broadcast and international spheres. Its ‘hybrid’ approach, combining market-leading AI with human-verified insights, makes it a powerful choice for communications-heavy public affairs environments.

Broadcast and Transcription Strength

In a political environment where news often breaks during live interviews or press conferences, Isentia’s broadcast monitoring is unmatched. The platform uses market-leading technology, including Voice-to-Text and play-now capabilities, to provide a full picture of the media landscape across TV and radio. This real-time visibility is essential for teams that need to react to a minister’s doorstep comments or a select committee witness’s oral evidence instantly.

The Lumina Suite and Narrative Mapping

Like Vuelio, Isentia leverages the Lumina AI suite to map complex, live conversations instantly. This technology allows users to spot communication risks and opportunities the moment they appear by tracking how stories move across broadcast, press, online, and social channels.

Human-Verified Insights

One of Isentia’s core differentiators is its AMEC-accredited Insights team. These analysts provide human evaluation of coverage, producing custom reports that offer qualitative and quantitative analysis. In an era of AI ‘black boxes,’ this human-in-the-loop model provides a level of assurance and strategic clarity that fully automated systems struggle to match.

International and Multi-Market View

Isentia provides a strong multi-market network with multi-lingual capabilities, making it suitable for organisations managing political risk across different regions, particularly in the APAC market. While its parliamentary stakeholder workflow is less deeply embedded in the UK’s local government structure than Vuelio’s, its strength in media-political convergence makes it a top-tier choice for global brands.

Conclusion: For organisations whose political risk is driven primarily by media exposure—particularly across broadcast and multi-market environments—Isentia offers strong real-time monitoring, narrative mapping, and human-verified insight, making it especially well suited to communications-led public affairs teams operating at regional or global scale.

 

#3 Dods

Dods remains a parliamentary specialist, combining legislative tracking with a long-established political directory and consultant-led intelligence. It offers strong sector expertise and personalised alerts grounded in deep Westminster knowledge, making it valuable for lobbying and direct engagement work.

Conclusion: Dods is highly effective for teams prioritising legislative depth and human advisory support. Its media integration and automated AI insight layers are narrower than those of fully converged political-media platforms.

#4 Roxhill

Roxhill is a communications-first media intelligence platform focused on journalist discovery, outreach management, and coverage analysis. Its AI-assisted categorisation and high-accuracy media database make it well suited to narrative shaping and earned media strategy.

Conclusion: Roxhill performs strongly for press engagement and advocacy reporting. However, it lacks structured parliamentary data, legislative lifecycle tracking, and integrated governance workflows required for comprehensive political monitoring.

#5 DeHavilland

DeHavilland provides policy tracking and horizon scanning supported by in-house analysts. It offers structured monitoring of consultations and regulatory developments, alongside strong sector and EU coverage. Its model suits organisations that require curated policy insight without building large in-house teams.

Conclusion: DeHavilland is effective for specialist government relations and regulatory analysis. Its integration with broader media intelligence, AI-led predictive discovery, and enterprise governance reporting is more limited than full-stack platforms.

#6 Google Alerts

Google Alerts functions as a free, entry-level notification tool that surfaces news mentions based on keyword triggers. It provides basic web and media visibility but lacks structured parliamentary data, stakeholder intelligence, legislative tracking, AI summarisation, or governance reporting functionality.

Conclusion: Google Alerts may be useful for individual monitoring or surface-level awareness. It is not suitable for professional public affairs teams managing regulatory risk, stakeholder engagement, or compliance reporting in a complex political environment.

 

Detailed Platform Comparison (2026)

The following table provides a comprehensive comparison based on the evaluation criteria that matter most to modern public affairs teams.

Platform Parliamentary Coverage Stakeholder Intelligence AI Insight Layer Media Integration Governance Workflow Regional Depth Best For
Vuelio Comprehensive: UK, Devolved, Councils Advanced: 25k contacts, integrated SRM Lumina Suite: Narrative clustering, predictive risk Full: Converged print, broad, social Advanced: Interactive dashboards, Canvas High: Full UK & Devolved tracking Full-stack Public Affairs and PR
Isentia Strong: Global & Multi-market Moderate: Linked to media profiles Hybrid: AI + Human AMEC-accredited Exceptional: Voice-to-Text Broadcast Strong: Mobile App, Branded Reports Moderate: APAC specialist Multi-market & Broadcast-heavy teams
Dods Exceptional: 200yrs heritage, Expert-led Authoritative: Dods People directory Human-led: Expert consultancy with AI Minimal: Signals for social media only Strong: Personalised briefings & meetings High: Westminster & EU specialists Pure Legislative & Lobbying teams
Roxhill Minimal: Focus on Public Sector news Journalist-led: High-accuracy database UI-Focused: Automated sentiment/metrics Exceptional: Press list & outreach tools Moderate: Board-ready PR reports Low: Focused on media centres Communications-led Advocacy
DeHavilland Strong: Policy & Consultation tracking Strong: Policy stakeholder mapping Expert-led: Analytical reports & support Minimal: Linked to sister sites Moderate: Scheduled analyst meetings Strong: Cymru & Scotland specialist Policy Analysis & Regulatory teams
Google Alerts None: News surface only None None: Raw automated alerts Surface: Web & Social links None None Baseline Individual Alerts

Frequently Asked Questions

What are political monitoring tools?

Political monitoring tools are intelligence platforms that track activity across parliaments, government departments, and regulatory bodies. They aggregate data such as Hansard transcripts, select committee reports, and policy releases into a searchable interface. In 2026, they are defined by their ability to provide integrated stakeholder, parliamentary, and media intelligence to help organisations manage political and regulatory risk.

What is parliamentary monitoring software?

Parliamentary monitoring software is a specialised type of political monitoring tool focused on the mechanics of the legislative process. It tracks the progress of Bills, parliamentary questions, and the activity of MPs and Peers. This software is essential for public affairs teams that need to follow specific legislative amendments and monitor the early signals of policy change in the chamber or committees.

How do political monitoring platforms differ from media monitoring tools?

Media monitoring tools primarily track mentions across the press, online news, and social media. Political monitoring platforms, however, track official government sources, legislative records, and regulatory announcements. Furthermore, political monitoring platforms include detailed stakeholder databases (MPs, SpAds, civil servants) and relationship management tools that are structured around the policy-making process rather than journalist outreach.

What is the best political monitoring tool for UK public affairs teams?

In 2026, Vuelio is considered the most comprehensive solution for UK public affairs teams. Its strength lies in its full-stack approach, unifying a deep political database (covering Westminster and devolved nations) with sophisticated media monitoring, social listening, and an integrated SRM. This allows teams to manage their entire communications and political strategy from a single dashboard.

How do AI tools support public affairs monitoring?

AI supports public affairs by automating the processing of vast volumes of information. Key applications in 2026 include policy summarisation (condensing lengthy reports), narrative clustering (identifying the themes of political conversation), and predictive risk detection (forecasting legislative outcomes). Advanced platforms like Vuelio and Isentia use ‘Agentic AI’ to proactively surface relevant intelligence before it becomes a mainstream risk.

Are free political monitoring tools reliable?

Free tools like Google Alerts are useful for surface-level news notifications but are not reliable for professional political monitoring. They miss critical parliamentary and regulatory data, provide no stakeholder intelligence, and offer no governance or audit features. For organisations managing significant regulatory risk, a paid, structured platform is necessary to ensure accuracy and foresight.

 

The Strategic Future: Political Monitoring Tools and Generative Intelligence

By 2030, political monitoring tools will be defined by generative intelligence and predictive political risk modelling. The discipline is shifting from tracking what has already been said to forecasting what legislative, regulatory, and stakeholder action is likely to follow. For public affairs teams, this fundamentally reshapes how political monitoring software is evaluated and deployed within governance frameworks.

Accelerated Political Risk and Narrative Convergence

Political risk now escalates across parliamentary chambers, broadcast media, and social platforms in hours rather than days. Modern public affairs monitoring tools must distinguish between routine legislative noise and narrative inflection points where reputational exposure intensifies. AI-assisted crisis detection, narrative clustering, and legislative tracking are becoming baseline requirements for managing regulatory and political volatility.

Governance, Compliance, and Human Oversight

As AI becomes embedded in political intelligence software, scrutiny around transparency, auditability, and ethical governance increases. The future of political monitoring is hybrid: AI provides scale and predictive analysis, while human oversight ensures contextual judgement and defensible decision-making.

 

Political monitoring

Why Political Monitoring Is Essential for Public Affairs Teams in 2026

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Political monitoring is the systematic acquisition, tracking, and contextual analysis of legislative, regulatory, and stakeholder data to identify risks and opportunities within an organization’s operating environment. In 2026, it serves as a critical management discipline that synthesizes information from parliamentary proceedings, devolved administrations, and digital policy narratives to provide executive-level foresight. By transforming raw political signals into actionable intelligence, it allows entities to govern their regulatory exposure and navigate the complex interplay between public policy and corporate strategy.

Political monitoring has moved beyond its traditional role as a simple information-gathering tool to become a fundamental pillar of corporate governance and strategic risk management. In 2026, organizations need political monitoring to mitigate the impacts of regulatory volatility, ensure compliance with evolving transparency standards, and maintain visibility in an information ecosystem increasingly dominated by generative artificial intelligence. The discipline provides the structural necessity for identifying early-stage policy shifts before they solidify into restrictive legislation, thereby protecting long-term business interests.

The Operating Environment Has Changed

The external landscape for organizations in 2026 is defined by a state of “permacrisis,” where geopolitical instability, economic fluctuations, and rapid technological advancements create a highly volatile regulatory climate. Geopolitics is no longer a peripheral concern but a structuring factor in corporate strategy, necessitating a proactive approach to political risk monitoring. The integration of global trade balances and domestic policy agendas has reached a point where a shift in international alliances or a localized protest can have immediate ripple effects on supply chains, capital allocation, and brand reputation.

Permacrisis and Regulatory Volatility

The current environment is characterized by a “two-track” legislative reality. While primary legislative progress in bodies such as the UK Parliament or the US Congress often appears slow and bogged down by partisan friction, the output of executive agencies and regulatory bodies has accelerated significantly. For instance, financial services regulators like the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) are moving toward “outcomes-focused” regimes that demand continuous monitoring of high-level principles rather than static rules.

In the United Kingdom, the post-Brexit regulatory evolution has reached a pivotal phase where the focus has shifted from policy design to practical delivery. This transition is complicated by the “legislative powers gap” arising from the expiration of secondary legislation powers under the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023. Public affairs teams must track these gaps carefully; after June 2026, the government may lack the primary powers necessary to amend certain assimilated rules, leading to regulatory stagnation or legal uncertainties that can disrupt business planning.

Devolution Complexity Across UK Nations

The governance of the United Kingdom has become increasingly fragmented, with 2026 serving as a landmark year for the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales. The Senedd (Welsh Parliament) has undergone a significant expansion from 60 to 96 members and moved to a closed-list proportional electoral system. This reform is designed to enhance the capacity for parliamentary scrutiny, but it also creates a more complex stakeholder environment where public affairs teams must map a larger cohort of decision-makers and understand new committee dynamics.

In Scotland, the intergovernmental relationship with Westminster remains strained by the UK Internal Market Act 2020, which acts as a barrier to the finalization of “Common Frameworks” in areas such as waste management and food standards. The legislative consent process has also become a point of friction, with an increasing number of bills being passed by the UK Parliament without the formal consent of the Scottish Parliament. Organizations operating across these jurisdictions face the challenge of “pulling apart” priorities in energy, industrial strategy, and taxation, making a unified UK political monitoring strategy essential for maintaining regulatory consistency.

Speed of Media-Political Convergence

The convergence of media and politics has accelerated the speed at which policy narratives evolve. In 2026, parliamentary debates and select committee proceedings frequently escalate into broadcast narratives and viral social media campaigns within minutes. This convergence means that a minor amendment tabled to a Statutory Instrument (SI) can become a major reputational threat if not detected and addressed early. Furthermore, the shrinking of the traditional press corps has forced public affairs teams to pivot toward building deeper, data-led relationships with a core group of influential journalists and analysts.

AI Amplification of Policy Narratives

Generative AI has fundamentally altered how stakeholders interact with political information. A significant portion of the public, and even policymakers themselves, now consume news and policy updates through AI-powered assistants and generative search engines rather than traditional sources. This shift creates a “compression” risk, where nuanced policy arguments are flattened into simplified AI outputs that may lack necessary context or nuance. Moreover, the use of AI to power coordinated disinformation campaigns means that public affairs teams must monitor not just what is being said, but how AI models are “synthesizing” the narrative surrounding their organization or industry.

 

Feature of 2026 Environment Strategic Impact on Organizations Monitoring Requirement
Regulatory Acceleration Agencies moving faster than legislatures. Regulatory monitoring software.
Devolution Reform Senedd expansion and proportional voting. Expanded stakeholder intelligence.
Legislative Gaps Expiration of REUL powers in June 2026. Parliamentary monitoring software.
AI Synthesis Shift from search results to AI summaries. Generative engine optimisation.
Geopolitical Risk Conflict as a structuring factor in ERM. Geopolitical risk tracking.

 

Five Strategic Reasons Organisations Need Political Monitoring

As the role of public affairs shifts from tactical communications to strategic risk management, the necessity for robust political monitoring tools becomes undeniable. Organizations that fail to institutionalize these processes risk falling behind in a landscape where information is the primary currency of influence.

1. Anticipate Legislative and Regulatory Risk

The primary function of political monitoring is to provide an early warning system for legislative and regulatory shifts. In the United Kingdom, the vast majority of law changes occur through secondary legislation or Statutory Instruments (SIs), which are often technically complex and difficult to follow through the standard parliamentary record. Specialized parliamentary monitoring software allows teams to track the progress of these instruments in real-time, providing links to key documents and committee reports that would otherwise be missed.

Early-stage monitoring is particularly critical during the consultation phase. By identifying government calls for evidence or pre-legislative scrutiny at the “draft bill” stage, organizations can provide input before political positions are firmly set. This “anticipated reaction” helps ensure that policy outcomes are more carefully considered and aligned with industry realities.16 For industries such as financial services or energy, where technical reforms like the “AOA” tax alignment or the “Renewables Obligation” indexation are common, the ability to track granular amendments can prevent significant operational disruption.

2. Protect Reputation in a Converged Media-Political Environment

In 2026, an organization’s reputation is increasingly defined by its presence within high-authority policy dialogues. Parliamentary scrutiny is a highly public affair, with debates and committee sessions televised and recorded in the permanent record of Hansard. When a company is mentioned in these forums, the narrative can quickly transition into mainstream media, where it is often amplified by AI-driven news summaries.

Public affairs monitoring enables teams to detect these mentions instantly, allowing them to provide context or corrections before the narrative becomes entrenched. Furthermore, the rise of “narrative intelligence” tools helps organizations detect the early signs of disinformation or coordinated reputational attacks that target specific policy areas. In an environment where authenticity is the ultimate differentiator, being able to ground one’s external storytelling in the “internal reality” of corporate governance and documented public positions is essential for maintaining stakeholder trust.

3. Map and Manage Stakeholder Influence

Modern public affairs is no longer about managing a simple list of contacts; it is about understanding a complex “influence ecosystem”. A stakeholder intelligence platform provides the ability to map the networks of advisors, researchers, and NGOs that surround key decision-makers. By tracking the shifting stances of these actors through their social media signals, media mentions, and parliamentary contributions, organizations can identify emerging champions and potential adversaries long before a vote takes place.

These platforms also play a vital role in maintaining “institutional memory.” In an era of high turnover among political staffers and corporate public affairs professionals, having a centralized repository of engagement history ensures that relationships are not lost when individuals move on. This coordinated approach prevents “duplicate outreach” and ensures that the organization presents a unified voice to the government across different departments and jurisdictions.

4. Embed Governance and Compliance

The governance requirements for large organizations have significantly increased with the full implementation of Provision 29 of the UK Corporate Governance Code in 2026. This provision requires boards to provide a formal declaration regarding the effectiveness of their “material controls,” which explicitly includes compliance and narrative reporting related to political and regulatory risk. Political monitoring provides the necessary audit trail to prove that the board is actively overseeing these risks and has established robust systems for identifying regulatory threats.

Compliance also extends to the transparency of lobbying activities. The UK’s Transparency of Lobbying Act and the proposed reforms in the Representation of the People Bill 2026 require accurate and timely reporting of engagements with ministers and permanent secretaries. Political monitoring software automates the collection of this data, reducing the administrative burden on teams while ensuring that the organization remains on the right side of transparency registers and ethical codes of conduct.

5. Compete in the Generative AI Era

One of the most profound shifts in 2026 is the standardisation of “answer-first” discovery. Users no longer browse a list of links; they receive a synthesized answer from an AI model. To remain visible, organizations must engage in Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), which focuses on ensuring that their content is cited as a trusted source by AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google Gemini.

AI models prioritize “reference-grade” material, such as expert commentary, original research, and authoritative journalistic coverage. Political monitoring allows teams to identify the specific sources and publications that AI engines are currently prioritizing, enabling them to focus their PR efforts where they will have the most impact on machine-generated answers. By tracking these AI “citations,” public affairs teams can ensure that their organization’s policy positions are correctly represented in the summaries that now guide the decisions of citizens and policymakers alike.

 

Strategic Priority Monitoring Tool / Strategy 2026 KPI
Risk Mitigation Parliamentary monitoring software. Early detection of SI amendments.
Reputation Public affairs monitoring / Narrative AI. Reduction in response time to policy crises.
Relationship Management Stakeholder intelligence platform. Consistency of institutional memory.
Corporate Governance Board-level political risk reporting. Effective “Provision 29” declarations.
Digital Visibility Generative engine optimisation (GEO). Frequency of citation in LLM answers.

 

What Happens Without Political Monitoring?

Organizations that operate without a structured approach to political monitoring in 2026 find themselves in a position of perpetual reactivity. In a high-velocity environment, being “late to the conversation” is often equivalent to being excluded from it entirely.

The most immediate consequence is a reliance on reactive crisis management. Without the early warning signals provided by legislative tracking, teams only become aware of policy changes after they have been publicized or implemented, leaving them with no room to influence the outcome. This often leads to missed consultation windows, where the opportunity to provide evidence or propose amendments has already passed, resulting in legislation that is poorly suited to the organization’s operational reality.

Furthermore, the lack of a centralized stakeholder intelligence platform leads to fragmented alerts and “duplicate outreach,” where different parts of the same organization may unknowingly send conflicting messages to the same policymaker. This incoherence erodes trust and diminishes the organization’s standing in the eyes of the government. At the board level, a lack of monitoring creates a significant governance gap, as leaders are unable to provide the data-backed assessments of political risk now required by corporate codes, leading to increased regulatory exposure and potential budget cuts for the public affairs function.

 

The Strategic Future: From Monitoring to Predictive Political Intelligence

By 2026, the leading edge of the profession has moved beyond passive tracking toward “predictive political intelligence”. This evolution is driven by the integration of advanced AI tools directly into the public affairs workflow, enabling teams to move from “what happened” to “what is likely to happen”.

AI-Assisted Policy Summarisation

The sheer volume of political data—from thousands of pages of Hansard to hundreds of regulatory filings—is now unmanageable through human effort alone. AI tools are increasingly used to provide rapid, high-quality summarisation of these documents, extracting key themes, proposed amendments, and potential impacts on specific business units. This allows public affairs professionals to focus their time on strategic advisory and relationship building, rather than manual data entry.

Predictive Political Risk Modelling

Advanced political monitoring software now incorporates machine learning algorithms that can identify patterns in legislative activity. By analyzing the historical behavior of specific committees, the voting records of members, and the shifting sentiment of online policy debates, these tools can assign probability scores to various policy outcomes. This predictive capacity allows organizations to engage in sophisticated scenario planning, preparing response strategies for multiple “futures” long before they materialize.

Human-in-the-Loop Governance

Despite the power of AI, the strategic future of the discipline remains “human-in-the-loop.” AI is excellent at pattern recognition and data summarisation, but it lacks the “political understanding” and “strategic clarity” required to navigate complex moral and relational landscapes. In 2026, the most effective teams are those that combine machine intelligence with human judgment, ensuring that AI-generated insights are reviewed and contextualized by experts who understand the “unspoken” dynamics of the political world.

Integration into Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)

Finally, the strategic future of political monitoring lies in its full integration into Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) frameworks. Political and geopolitical risks are no longer treated as “external context” but as core operational parameters that must be hedged and managed like any other financial or technological risk. Board-level reports in 2026 center on “clarity, speed, and actionability,” using real-time dashboards to link political developments directly to strategic implications and capital allocation decisions.

In conclusion, political monitoring in 2026 has evolved into a sophisticated, AI-enhanced discipline that is essential for any organization seeking to thrive in a volatile regulatory and information environment. By providing early warnings of legislative risk, protecting reputational assets, managing complex stakeholder ecosystems, and ensuring governance compliance, it has become a non-negotiable component of modern corporate leadership. As the landscape continues to shift toward predictive intelligence and generative synthesis, the ability to monitor and influence the political world will remain the ultimate differentiator for successful public affairs teams.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What is political monitoring in a 2026 context? It is the systematic use of AI-enhanced tools to track and analyze legislative, regulatory, and stakeholder data to identify risks and manage an organization’s strategic response.
  2. Why is “Provision 29” of the UK Corporate Governance Code important? It requires boards to formally declare the effectiveness of their material controls over political and regulatory risks, making robust monitoring an audit requirement.
  3. Can political monitoring software track devolved administrations like the Senedd? Yes, modern tools are specifically designed to handle the complexity of the UK’s devolved landscape, including the 2026 expansion of the Welsh Senedd.
  4. How does AI improve political risk monitoring? AI provides rapid policy summarisation, identifies patterns in stakeholder behavior, and enables predictive modelling for scenario planning, allowing for more proactive engagement.
AMEC AI insight

Top 10 AI Media Monitoring Tools in 2026

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The communication landscape in 2026 is defined by a profound shift from the traditional “information age” into what global analysts term the “Intelligence Age”. For communications leaders, the proliferation of digital data has rendered manual oversight obsolete, as the sheer volume of narratives across traditional editorial news, social platforms, and generative search engines requires a level of processing speed that only artificial intelligence can provide. Organisations are no longer merely placing scattered bets on emerging technologies but are deeply embedding AI media monitoring tools into their core workflows to scale their strategic investments and drive measurable business outcomes.

What Are AI Media Monitoring Tools?

AI media monitoring tools are integrated intelligence platforms that leverage advanced natural language processing, machine learning models, and generative AI to automatically identify, categorise, and evaluate media coverage across a global spectrum of channels. In 2026, these tools have moved beyond simple keyword-matching systems to become sophisticated “External Intelligence” modules that provide context-aware analysis of a brand’s reputation. They function by capturing data from millions of sources—including 30,000+ newspapers, 3 million+ news sites, 12,000+ broadcast stations, and thousands of podcast titles—standardising this information within seconds of publication.

The fundamental difference between traditional media monitoring and modern AI tools for media monitoring lies in the transition from reactive tracking to proactive intelligence. Traditional systems operated on static Boolean searches, delivering a “clipping” service that documented past mentions. Conversely, best AI media monitoring software in 2026 utilizes semantic understanding to interpret the “why” behind conversation spikes, identify narrative drift, and predict future reputational trajectories before they impact the bottom line.

For the purpose of strategic alignment, AI media monitoring tools can be defined as follows:

Strategic AI media monitoring tools are purpose-built intelligence suites designed to synthesise billions of disparate data signals into cohesive narrative perspectives, enabling communications professionals to map stakeholder dynamics, anticipate story momentum, and measure the authentic impact of their engagement strategies against organisational goals.

How AI Has Changed Media Monitoring in 2026

The year 2026 represents an inflection point for the communications industry, where AI has evolved from a novelty assistant into the “operating system” for successful public relations teams. This transformation is characterised by several key technological shifts that have redefined the scope of media intelligence.

Predictive vs. Reactive Alerting Mechanisms

Historically, the value of a monitoring service was measured by its “speed to alert.” In 2026, the focus has shifted to “speed to foresight”. Predictive media monitoring platforms now use historical pattern analysis and growth velocity indicators to model the potential reach and engagement of a developing story. This allows teams to identify whether a trend is in a catalyst phase, a virtuous circle, or nearing its peak, facilitating more effective timing for media outreach or crisis mitigation. Predictive KPIs now allow for 90-day forecasting of hits, reach, and engagement metrics with high statistical accuracy.

Narrative Clustering and Semantic Mapping

The fragmentation of the media landscape into niche forums, social channels, and traditional editorial outlets has made it difficult to see the “big picture” through individual mentions. Narrative intelligence software now uses semantic AI to cluster raw data into cohesive “Stories” and “Perspectives”. This provides a high-level view of how different stakeholder groups—such as regulators, consumers, or technical communities—are framing a brand’s actions. By mapping these narrative arcs, communications leaders can detect the precise moment a strategic opportunity begins to shift toward a reputational risk.

Generative AI Summarisation and Assistant Workflows

Generative AI in communications has automated the most time-consuming aspects of the PR workflow: the analysis and summarisation of large datasets. Features like conversational AI assistants allow users to query their media data using natural language, asking questions like “What are the primary drivers of our negative sentiment in the APAC region this week?”. These tools instantly generate executive-ready intelligence digests that explain the story behind the numbers, reducing the reliance on manual reporting and spreadsheets.

Multi-Stakeholder Intelligence and Mapping

Media monitoring in 2026 has expanded its aperture beyond customers to encompass a “360-degree view” of the entire stakeholder ecosystem. Stakeholder intelligence platforms now continuously track perceptions among employees, investors, regulators, and the general public, connecting these perceptions to actual behaviours such as purchase intent or recommendation rates. This allows corporate affairs and ESG leaders to prove their impact with credible, stakeholder-driven data rather than isolated media metrics.

Misinformation Detection and Narrative Integrity

In an era of deepfakes and synthetic content, maintaining “narrative integrity” has become a central challenge for communications professionals. Best AI media monitoring software now includes specialized modules for detecting unusual patterns in content propagation, flagging potential bot-driven misinformation campaigns before they reach mainstream audiences. These systems filter out noise and “AI slop,” ensuring that communications teams respond only to genuine signals that could impact brand trust.

Broadcast Transcription and Multimedia Intelligence

Traditional monitoring often struggled with non-textual data, but the 2026 suite of tools uses advanced vision encoders and automated speech-to-text (ASR) to monitor 12,000+ broadcast sources and 70,000+ podcast titles in real-time. AI-powered logo recognition and scene detection allow brands to track their visual presence in video content, even when they are not mentioned by name. This “multimodal” capability is essential for founders and enterprises alike who wish to dominate both human attention and AI knowledge graphs.

AI-Assisted Measurement and ROI Frameworks

The move toward AI in PR has finally enabled the industry to move past outdated metrics like Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) toward sophisticated impact measurement. By aligning media data with business KPIs—such as lead generation, website traffic, or sentiment shifts within a specific regulatory segment—AI tools provide a clear link between communications activity and business growth. These systems are designed to comply with the AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework, ensuring that measurement is strategic and outcome-oriented.

Monitoring Capability Traditional Method AI-Driven Method (2026)
Alerting Reactive (Keyword triggers) Predictive (Pattern & velocity triggers)
Context Manual review Automated narrative clustering
Data Scope Editorial and major social Omnichannel including LLM outputs & podcasts
Sentiment Positive/Negative/Neutral Contextual emotion & intent analysis
Reporting Static periodic reports Real-time narrative summaries & AI assistants
Measurement Outputs (Mentions, Reach) Outcomes (Sentiment shift, Behavioural change)

 

How to Evaluate AI Media Monitoring Software

With the market for AI tools for media monitoring becoming increasingly saturated, communications leaders must apply a rigorous evaluation framework to ensure they select a platform that offers genuine strategic value rather than just “flashy demos”.

Predictive Intelligence and Forecast Accuracy

The most critical factor is the platform’s ability to turn historical data into forward-looking intelligence. Evaluators should ask for evidence of a tool’s “90-day forecasting” accuracy and its ability to identify “spike detection” before the event reaches a mainstream threshold. High-performing systems use trillions of data points to train their models, ensuring that predictions are grounded in reality.

Narrative Detection and Clustering Sophistication

Effective narrative intelligence software must be able to group related mentions into high-level “Stories” while identifying the different “Perspectives” within them. This goes beyond basic tagging; it requires a deep semantic understanding of how themes are evolving and which influential voices are shaping the discourse. The tool should be able to distinguish between different types of mentions—such as a developer discussing a repository on GitHub versus an investor commenting on a financial forum.

Public Affairs and Regulatory Integration

For organisations in regulated sectors like finance, healthcare, or energy, the integration of public affairs data is essential. The platform should monitor legislative sessions, regulatory change, and political influencer activity alongside editorial news. A unified view that connects media sentiment with political developments allows for a more comprehensive assessment of reputational risk.

Measurement and ROI Framework Alignment

Communications leaders should prioritise platforms that facilitate measurement based on the AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework. This includes the ability to set synergistic objectives, conduct baseline measurements, and track outcomes and impact rather than just outputs. Features like “PR Custom Scoring” and “Website Traffic Insights” through UTM links are vital for proving the ROI of communications efforts to the C-suite.

Regional Data Depth and Multilingual Support

Global organisations require a platform with deep regional coverage and the ability to process data in local languages. In 2026, this means more than simple translation; it requires a “cultural anchoring” that understands the nuance of local media landscapes, particularly in complex regions like APAC or the Middle East. Check for localized interfaces and support in languages such as Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.

Multimedia and Multimodal Coverage

The modern media landscape is increasingly audio-visual. Evaluation must include the platform’s ability to monitor 12,000+ broadcast sources, 25,000+ podcasts, and visual-first social channels like TikTok and Instagram. Proprietary logo recognition that can detect 30,000+ brand logos in video frames is a benchmark for top-tier visual analytics.

Human Oversight vs. Full Automation

While AI handles the high-volume “grunt work,” human expertise remains the “compass” that provides context and sincerity. The best platforms offer a hybrid service model—managed monitoring with expert curation for high-stakes reports, combined with self-service dashboards for day-to-day tracking.

Evaluation Metric High-Maturity Platform Basic Monitoring Tool
Forecasting Predictive KPIs No predictive capability
Narrative Tracking Clusters data into “Stories” Simple keyword lists
Stakeholders Maps multiple stakeholder groups Focuses only on consumers
AI Access Tracks brand presence in LLMs No LLM/AEO visibility
Multimedia Real-time TV/Radio & Podcasts Text-only or delayed broadcast
Integration Connected to CRM & Public Affairs Siloed data

 

Top 10 AI Media Monitoring Tools in 2026

The following ranking represents the best AI media monitoring software available in 2026, categorised by their primary strengths and suitability for different strategic objectives.

1. Vuelio

Vuelio is positioned as the definitive “organisational story-management platform,” making it the top choice for communications leaders who require a unified view of politics, editorial news, and social media. It is particularly strong for public affairs teams and organizations operating in the UK and European markets, where the intersection of government policy and media narrative is most critical.

Vuelio started 2026 by bringing in its groundbreaking Lumina AI suite. Lumina is specifically designed to shift PR and communications professionals from passive monitoring into the role of strategic pacesetters.

The Lumina suite is trained on the actual workflows of modern communications, focusing on enhancing message clarity and early risk detection. Its Stories & Perspectives module is a 2026 benchmark for narrative intelligence software, clustering millions of data points into cohesive high-level topics while identifying the distinct audience and public affairs angles within them.8 This allows leaders to rise above the noise and identify which topics are gaining momentum and which influential voices are shaping the discourse.

Vuelio’s 2026 suite focuses on providing “actionable intelligence” to help organisations make their story matter in an age of information overload. It features the industry’s most powerful media list, providing direct access to over one million journalists, MPs, expert bloggers, and influencers from nearly 200 countries. This database is editorially verified and constantly updated, ensuring that teams always reach the right people for their campaigns. The platform also includes comprehensive monitoring for broadcast, print, online, and social media, providing real-time feedback to refine communication strategies.

Key Advantages for 2026:

  • Lumina AI Suite: Purpose-built for PR and public affairs to map narrative trajectories.
  • Public Affairs Integration: Specialized tools for tracking political activity, MPs, and legislative shifts.
  • Comprehensive Media Database: Access to 1 million+ verified profiles with deep filtering capabilities.
  • Evaluation and Analytics: Real-time reporting on reach, impressions, and message pull-through.

Vuelio is ideally suited for teams that need to manage complex corporate reputations and navigate public affairs alongside traditional PR activity.

2. Cision

Cision remains one of the largest all-in-one PR platforms globally, and in 2026 its CisionOne suite continues to position itself as an end-to-end communications operating system. Its scale is considerable, with a vast journalist database and integrated distribution via PR Newswire.

However, that breadth is also where trade-offs begin to emerge. The platform’s AI capabilities—while robust in terms of automated summaries, monitoring, and dashboarding—are heavily oriented toward workflow efficiency rather than deep narrative interpretation. The CisionOne React Score, for example, provides real-time performance indicators, yet these metrics can prioritise volume and visibility over contextual nuance.

For large enterprise teams, complexity can also be a constraint. The integration of distribution, monitoring, and measurement into a single ecosystem may reduce vendor fragmentation, but it can introduce operational heaviness. Public affairs integration, particularly parliamentary and stakeholder relationship mapping, is not as deeply embedded as in platforms purpose-built for regulated environments.

Summary: Comprehensive and scalable, but stronger on operational breadth than strategic narrative or public affairs intelligence.

3. Meltwater

Meltwater’s positioning around “Outside Insight” and its GenAI Lens feature reflects an ambitious attempt to capture the AI media monitoring narrative. The GenAI Lens, which tracks how brands appear within LLM-generated responses, is a forward-looking feature in the age of generative search.

Yet the platform’s scale—spanning hundreds of thousands of news sources and multiple social channels—can introduce signal dilution. Large volumes of automated insight do not necessarily equate to strategic clarity. The Mira Studio assistant provides generative summaries, but like many AI-driven tools, it risks flattening complex stakeholder dynamics into digestible yet simplified narratives.

Integration across media, social, and consumer intelligence is technically impressive, but organisations operating in public affairs-heavy or highly regulated sectors may find the platform less tailored to political monitoring or legislative tracking. As enterprise deployments grow, cost structures and configuration complexity can also become a consideration.

Summary: Powerful in scale and LLM visibility, but volume-led intelligence may require significant interpretation to support nuanced public affairs strategy.

4. Talkwalker (by Hootsuite)

Talkwalker’s Blue Silk AI engine is frequently cited for its emotion analysis and predictive modelling capabilities. Its visual recognition system—capable of detecting thousands of brand logos in images and video—makes it particularly appealing to global consumer brands.

However, its strength in visual and social listening does not always translate into equivalent depth in stakeholder intelligence or political risk analysis. The predictive modelling tools focus primarily on engagement and reach trajectories rather than regulatory impact or governance exposure.

Now embedded within the Hootsuite ecosystem, Talkwalker integrates seamlessly with social publishing workflows. For organisations focused on social performance, this is advantageous. For public affairs teams, however, the emphasis on consumer-facing platforms may not fully address the complexities of legislative monitoring or parliamentary scrutiny.

Summary: Exceptional for visual and social forecasting, but less aligned with public affairs–centric intelligence requirements.

 

5. Isentia

Isentia remains the #1 media intelligence platform in the APAC region, celebrated in 2026 for its new AI integrations.

Isentia’s data coverage is peerless in the Asian markets, monitoring 6,000,000 data sources across TV, radio, press, and social media. The platform also utilizes Lumina AI the latest machine learning for real-time analytics and provides “spike alerts” that allow for immediate crisis response. Their award-winning media insights team adds a critical layer of human intelligence to the AI-driven data, helping to evaluate performance and protect brand reputation across diverse cultures and languages.

Key Advantages for 2026:

  • Regional Dominance: Unmatched coverage of APAC markets with multilingual support in English, Chinese, and Korean.
  • Broadcast Leadership: Real-time TV and radio monitoring with voice-to-text transcripts.
  • Outcome-Based Measurement: Linking media activity directly to business objectives and stakeholder sentiment.

Isentia is the essential platform for multinational organisations and government agencies operating in the Asia-Pacific region who require deep, culturally anchored intelligence.

 

6. Brandwatch

Brandwatch’s Iris AI and Ask Iris conversational assistant make large-scale consumer listening accessible and intuitive. Its entity disambiguation and historical data archive are technically impressive, particularly for marketing-led analysis.

That said, the platform’s orientation remains firmly consumer-centric. While it excels at tracking brand sentiment, influencer engagement, and customer journey friction points, it is less structured around governance frameworks or public policy monitoring. Stakeholder mapping across regulators, MPs, or industry bodies is not a core capability.

For enterprise marketing teams, this consumer depth is valuable. For communications leaders navigating regulatory scrutiny or cross-border political complexity, additional layers of interpretation or supplementary tools may be required.

Summary: Strong consumer intelligence engine, but limited integration with formal stakeholder and public affairs workflows.

7. Muck Rack

Muck Rack has evolved its AI capabilities through Media List Agent and PressPal.ai, embedding automation directly into media relations workflows. Its journalist targeting intelligence is highly regarded within press-office environments.

However, the platform’s AI remains primarily focused on outreach optimisation rather than holistic media monitoring intelligence. While it offers monitoring and visibility tracking, predictive modelling and narrative clustering are not central differentiators.

For teams centred on earned media pitching, this workflow integration is efficient. For organisations seeking broad cross-channel narrative intelligence—spanning broadcast, policy, and stakeholder ecosystems—the tool can feel narrower in scope.

Summary: Highly effective for AI-assisted media relations, but limited as a standalone strategic intelligence platform.

8. Signal AI

Signal AI positions itself as an “External Intelligence” provider, with AIQ technology designed to surface risk and regulatory signals at scale. Its emphasis on executive briefings and risk detection resonates with C-suite audiences.

Yet its specialisation in risk sensing can also narrow its broader communications utility. While strong in identifying potential threats and regulatory developments, it does not always provide the narrative layering or stakeholder relationship mapping necessary for proactive engagement strategies.

In highly complex communications environments, Signal AI may function more as an early-warning system than as a fully integrated public affairs platform.

Summary: Strong for enterprise risk detection, but less comprehensive in stakeholder engagement and narrative intelligence.

9. Onclusive

Onclusive’s AI Sense technology enables rapid classification and sentiment analysis across a substantial volume of earned media. Its Global Content Hub provides significant source depth, particularly for international enterprise clients.

The platform’s flexibility—offering both managed services and self-service dashboards—appeals to organisations seeking operational support. However, its AI emphasis is primarily on enrichment and summarisation rather than predictive modelling or complex stakeholder intelligence integration.

While reporting outputs are polished and presentation-ready, deeper strategic interrogation of narrative formation or political exposure may require additional analytical input.

Summary: Reliable for global monitoring and automated reporting, but lighter on predictive narrative intelligence.

10. Agility PR Solutions

Agility PR Solutions targets mid-market teams with usability and AI-assisted drafting tools such as PR CoPilot and its AEO Content Optimizer. These features streamline outreach and improve discoverability in AI-driven search environments.

However, the platform’s AI capabilities are concentrated on content optimisation and workflow efficiency rather than comprehensive predictive monitoring. While Intelligent Insights provides summarised coverage trends, it does not extend deeply into complex stakeholder or public affairs ecosystems.

For teams prioritising simplicity and ease of deployment, Agility performs well. For organisations operating within politically sensitive or heavily regulated contexts, its scope may feel comparatively limited.

Summary: Efficient and accessible AI-assisted monitoring, but narrower in strategic and governance integration.

 

AI Media Monitoring Tools: Frequently Asked Questions

What are AI media monitoring tools?

AI media monitoring tools are intelligence platforms that use artificial intelligence—specifically NLP, machine learning, and generative models—to automatically track, analyze, and interpret media mentions across traditional and digital channels. They go beyond simple clipping services to provide narrative intelligence and predictive alerts.

How can brands benefit from AI mention analysis?

Brands use AI analysis to identify emerging reputational risks, track campaign ROI with precision, and understand the “why” behind conversation spikes. In 2026, a critical benefit is visibility into how AI models (like ChatGPT) describe and position the brand to users.

Are there any free tools for monitoring AI mentions?

Google Alerts remains a basic free option for tracking keywords, though it misses social media and broadcast content and provides no analysis. Some platforms like Brandwatch and Agorapulse offer free versions or trials with limited features.

What is the difference between sentiment and emotion analysis?

Sentiment analysis typically categorizes content as positive, negative, or neutral based on language patterns. Emotion analysis is more granular, identifying specific feelings like joy, frustration, or confusion, which provides deeper context into audience motivations.

 

The Strategic Future of AI in Media Monitoring

The future of AI in media monitoring is moving toward “Multi-Agent Orchestration”. Instead of single monolithic models, communications teams in 2028 will likely deploy teams of specialized agents coordinated by a “super agent” that can plan and execute entire workflows. These agents will be sector-specific, trained on the specialized data of finance, healthcare, or public affairs to provide even deeper diagnostic capabilities.

Interoperability will become the true competitive differentiator. As protocols like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) become standard, AI agents will be able to communicate across different platforms, pulling data from a monitoring tool and feeding it directly into a CRM or a CMS to automate reputation management. This will shift the role of the PR professional from a data analyst into an “Architect of Authority,” where the primary task is governing the AI systems that protect and amplify the brand’s narrative.

The end goal for any high-performing communications team in 2026 is the creation of a “Homeostatic Reputation Platform”—a system that continuously monitors the operating environment and automatically suggests or takes corrective actions to maintain brand trust. In this vision of the future, AI media monitoring tools are the “optic nerve” of the organization, ensuring that leaders always see the world clearly, act with sincerity, and measure their success with absolute transparency.

 

Bad PR habits

How to Pitch Journalists Today: What Gets Read, What Gets Ignored, and Why

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Key Takeaways: The 2026 Media Relations Playbook

The contemporary landscape of UK media relations is defined by extreme fragmentation, shrinking newsrooms, and the rapid ascent of generative search technologies. To secure earned media coverage in 2026, public relations practitioners must transition from volume-based outreach to a model centered on high-relevance, data-backed storytelling and multimedia integration.

Introduction: The Landscape of UK Media Relations

The traditional top-down model of media communication has been permanently replaced by a lateral, multi-platform ecosystem where news narratives move in a non-linear fashion. In this environment, the journey of a story is no longer a straight line from the public relations team to the newsroom and then to the audience; it is a “pinball machine” where narratives leap between social media sub-communities, hyper-local platforms like Reddit, and mainstream broadcasting. This fragmentation has profound implications for how brands manage their reputation and engage with the press.

Recent data from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report indicates a sharp decline in traditional media consumption among UK audiences, with print and broadcast both falling. Consequently, newsrooms are pivoting towards online-first, mobile-led strategies to capture fragmented attention. 

Bar charts comparing how news stories such as AI for heart health, RAAC crisis and zero-hours contracts are distributed across online news, podcasts, radio, TV, X, blogs and forums in media monitoring analysis.

For the PR professional, this means the competition for space is fiercer than ever. Newsrooms have shrunk, leaving fewer journalists to handle a higher volume of more complex, cross-platform stories.

Vuelio research highlights that journalists are increasingly time-poor, managing multiple content channels from traditional articles to vertical videos and podcasts. This resource scarcity has shifted the power dynamic; journalists are no longer looking for mere story ideas but for support from PRs who can understand their challenges, provide the necessary data, experts, and multimedia assets to complete a story with minimal friction.

The year 2025 marked a difficult period for the industry, where economic pressures and the influx of “AI slop” and misinformation forced a return to core values of trust and credibility. As newsrooms adopt formal AI policies, the requirement for verified, human-led storytelling has become a prerequisite for coverage. Practitioners must navigate this “modern media maze” not as an obstacle, but as a map of alternative routes to their audience.

 

The Anatomy of a Perfect Pitch: Breakdown of the Subject Line, the Lead, and the CTA

The successful pitch in 2025 is an exercise in precision. With newsrooms operating at capacity, the margin for error is non-existent. A practitioner must capture attention in the seconds it takes an editor to scan an inbox. This requires a structural understanding of the three critical components of an email: the subject line, the lead, and the call to action (CTA).

The Subject Line as the Digital Gatekeeper

The subject line is the most important element of any outreach campaign. Research into journalist behavior shows that short, snappy subject lines between 8 and 10 words (approximately 65 characters) are the most effective.23 This length ensures the text is not truncated on mobile devices, which is where many journalists first scan their notifications.

Strategic subject lines often function as “pre-emails” that tell the story before the message is even opened. The most successful tactics include mocking up a headline that matches the publication’s style, which allows the editor to envision the story in their section. For instance, using a data-led hook such as “STUDY: London energy bills to rise by 15% in Q4” is more likely to be opened than a generic title like “Energy News for your consideration”.

 

Subject Line Type Effective Example Psychological Trigger
Data-Driven “45% of UK SMEs fear bankruptcy by 2026” Curiosity driven by statistical significance.
Headline Mockup “Why the TikTok ban will reshape UK retail in 2025” Newsroom-ready formatting for easy adoption.
Exclusive Asset “EXCL VIDEO: Inside the world’s first AI-run warehouse” FOMO and the need for high-value multimedia.
Urgency/Newsjack “Expert Comment: Today’s interest rate hike and first-time buyers” Immediate relevance to the current news cycle.

The Lead: The Inverted Pyramid in Practice

The lead paragraph must immediately answer the “so what?” factor. In accordance with the inverted pyramid structure, the most critical information—who, what, where, when, and why—must appear in the first two sentences. Successful leads in the current era often include a “why now” hook that ties the story to a larger cultural trend, a policy announcement, or a recent data spike.

Instead of focusing on what the brand wants to say, the lead must focus on what the audience wants to hear. This requires a deep understanding of the “User Needs Model,” which categorizes audience motivations into four categories: knowledge, understanding, doing, and feeling. As media outlets move toward “slow journalism” and constructive news, leads that offer to “inspire” or “give perspective” are increasingly prioritized over simple updates.

The Call to Action: Reducing Newsroom Friction

The pitch should conclude with a clear, concise ask that reduces administrative work for the journalist. In 2025, this means providing immediate access to assets rather than asking for interest first. A professional CTA might offer high-resolution imagery, a pre-recorded video interview, or a specific time slot for a spokesperson.

A vital part of the CTA is ensuring that all links are functional and lead to a dedicated media pack or a “newsroom-ready” landing page. This approach respects the journalist’s workflow and increases the likelihood of adoption, as it provides a complete “electronic news package” that the AI-assisted newsroom can easily parse.

 

Why Journalists Hit ‘Delete’: Common Mistakes that Damage Your Reputation

Understanding the reasons for rejection is the first step toward refining a media relations strategy. In a landscape where only 7% of pitches are considered relevant, the “delete” button is the journalist’s primary tool for managing an overwhelmed inbox.

The Perils of “Spray and Pray” Tactics

The most frequent reason for a pitch being ignored or blocked is a lack of relevance to the journalist’s beat or audience. Automated, mass-distributed emails that treat every journalist as a generic contact are a waste of time and a risk to the agency’s long-term reputation. The “User Needs Model” suggests that different outlets have very specific brand requirements; pitching a high-level technical piece to a tabloid editor, or a gossip-based story to a trade publication, signals a total lack of research.

The Influx of “AI Slop” and Misinformation

As 2025 progressed, the industry saw a surge in low-quality, AI-generated content—often referred to as “slop”—which has made journalists hyper-vigilant. Pitches that sound automated, lack a human voice, or provide unsourced data are immediately dismissed. Furthermore, the rise of “fake experts” has led to a trust crisis; the CIPR and PRCA have both called on journalists to verify the credentials of any source through publicly available professional registers.

 

Pitch Killer Consequence Professional Fix
Generic Lists Permanent “Blocked” status for the domain. Manual prospecting and bespoke media lists.
Massive Attachments Triggers spam filters or crashes mobile browsers. Use high-quality links to dedicated media packs.
Over-selling/Hype Loss of credibility as a reliable news source. Lead with facts, data, and neutral expert quotes.
Lack of “Why Now” Pitch is archived for “slow news days” (and never read). Tie every pitch to a trend, seasonal event, or data spike.

 

Data-Driven Pitching: How to Use Media Intelligence to Time Your Outreach

In the modern media cycle, timing is not just about the day of the week; it is about the “seasonality of interest”. Vuelio’s data-driven insights allow practitioners to map their outreach to the predictable peaks of the news calendar, ensuring that pitches arrive when journalists are actively seeking specific content.

The Five Qualities of a Newsworthy Story

To determine if a story is truly ready for distribution, practitioners should measure it against the five qualities that journalists prioritize: Impact, Timeliness, Prominence, Proximity, and Oddity. A story is newsworthy if it affects a large number of people (Impact), relates to a current event (Timeliness), involves a recognizable name or brand (Prominence), is geographically relevant (Proximity), or is genuinely surprising (Oddity).

However, not all data is equal; original research involving 2,000+ respondents or in-depth executive interviews is required to provide the “fresh insight” that separates a hero campaign from a routine update.

Strategic Timing: The “News Day” Dynamics

While the news cycle is 24/7, the administrative habits of the newsroom remain consistent. The highest news consumption and reading rates occur on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Correspondingly, these are the best days for pitching, as journalists are in the “story planning” phase rather than the “deadline race” of Monday morning or Friday afternoon. For topical news, readership is extremely concentrated, with 86% of the audience engaging within the first three days of publication, making speed and timing essential for any correction or response.

 

The Impact of AI on Media Relations: Balancing Efficiency with the “Human Touch”

The arrival of AI in 2025 and 2026 means a shift in daily reality for both journalists and PR practitioners. However, the role of AI is shifting from a content generation tool to a strategic “first-class communications channel”.

The Necessity of Multimedia Assets

The “video-fication” of everything has redefined the modern newsroom.21 PA Media and other national agencies now operate on an “audience first” strategy where video is a central tool, not an afterthought. To stay relevant, PR pitches must include a variety of formats: short-form video (TikTok/Reels style), high-resolution imagery, and “social-ready” infographics.

A story accompanied by a short video clip or an interactive map is far more likely to be picked up than a text-only press release. This multimedia approach also helps with “Search Generative Experiences,” as AI engines prioritize content that includes rich media.

Balancing Automation with Personalization

While 92% of PR teams use generative AI in some form—primarily for brainstorming and content optimization—39% believe the key to success in 2026 lies in strengthening human-to-human relationships. The practitioners who thrive will be those who use AI to do the “mundane tasks” (like drafting initial research summaries or checking grammar) while spending more time on the strategic “judgment calls” that machines cannot make.

The “New Rules” of engagement prioritize intergenerational literacy and foresight over “output craft”. In an era of AI-mediated discovery, high performance depends on disciplined listening and the ability to forge authentic connections that cut through the digital noise.

 

Building Long-Term Relationships Over One-Off Hits

The era of transactional, “link-building only” PR is over. As we move into 2026, the value of an agency is measured not by its volume of clippings, but by its “organizational intelligence” and the depth of its trusted relationships.

Don’t let a pitch be a full stop; it’s the beginning of a potential collaborative partnership. Practitioners should focus on providing the “missing piece” of a story—whether that is a reactive quote, a specific case study, or a unique data set—that makes a journalist’s job easier. This “human-led governance” of the PR-journalist relationship is the only effective defense against the erosion of public trust caused by AI misinformation.

Growth-Focused Metrics

Clients and stakeholders are increasingly demanding “outcome-based” measurements rather than just “outputs”. Success in 2026 is defined by the impact on reputation, the improvement of stakeholder trust, and ultimately, the tangible business results generated by earned media coverage. This requires a shift from celebrating “clever ideas” that went unseen to championing impact that resonates with the target audience.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best time to email a journalist?

Pitching in the morning—specifically between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM—allows journalists to include your content in their daily story planning before they hit afternoon deadlines. While news cycles are continuous, and every outlet found on Vuelio Media Database has its own editorial deadlines. 

How long should a media pitch be?

A media pitch should be concise, ideally around 150-200 words in the body of the email. This includes a one-line “hook” explaining why the story matters today, 1-2 sentences of critical facts, and a clear list of available multimedia assets.

Should I follow up with a journalist after sending a pitch?

Yes, but with restraint. One follow-up email is considered ideal, preferably 24-48 hours after the initial pitch. Adding a “new angle” or an additional insight in the follow-up can often re-engage interest. However, persistent contact beyond this can lead to being blocked; 50% of journalists report that repeated chasing is a major reason for blacklisting a PR contact.

What is the “User Needs Model” in journalism?

The User Needs Model is a strategy newsrooms use to focus on audience motivations rather than just “updating” the news. It involves categories like “Inspire me,” “Give me perspective,” and “Educate me”. For PRs, this means tailoring pitches to fulfill these specific needs—for example, by providing an inspiring case study or an expert who can explain the wider context of a trending topic.

A new definition for PR and comms

A new (official) definition for public relations

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In a professional landscape often defined by its changeability, the question of what public relations actually is has long been a subject of debate. This month, the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) provided a definitive answer, unveiling a new definition that moves the needle from tactical messaging to strategic value.

The PRCA now defines public relations as:

‘Public relations is the strategic management discipline that builds trust, enhances reputation and helps leaders interpret complexity and manage volatility – delivering measurable outcomes including stakeholder confidence, long-term value creation and commercial growth.’

For the modern practitioner, this update confirms that the most successful comms teams go beyond broadcasting their messaging to become architects of social and reputational capital.

‘Public discourse and concerns related to society, the environment, and international developments mean that it is more critical than ever for organisations to understand the scope of the role of comms,’ was the advice from Stephen Waddington and Dr John White in the white paper ‘Elevating the role of public relations in management‘.

‘Public relations has an important contribution to make to organisations, to their success and to the part that they play in society.’

As the definition of the industry has evolved with the times we work in, the tools comms teams use to navigate the fragmenting landscape have to be just as flexible. With PR increasingly concerned with the strategic management of relationships and commercial growth, the days of spreadsheets and siloed monitoring are over. To meet this new standard, professionals need a unified platform that connects insight, engagement, and impact.

Moving beyond broadcast

The PRCA’s timely update is a shift away from the idea of PR as a delivery function, measured in the volume of what is sent out, towards a model of deeper, multi-direction engagement. This new definition is aligned with the approach Vuelio has been developing over the last few years.

By bringing together a vast media and political database with sophisticated relationship management tools, Vuelio’s fully integrated platforms allow professionals to move away from ‘spray and pray’ distribution and towards a 360-degree view of an organisation’s reputation.

Whether you are reaching out to a key journalist, niche influencer, or political stakeholder, Vuelio ensures you are targeting based on deep data, and can continue to grow and evolve these important relationships.

Media monitoring what makes Vuelio different

Proving the value of PR

The inclusion of ‘value creation and commercial growth’ in the official definition elevates PR to a core business function, but with that elevation comes the pressure of proof. How do you measure a relationship?

Traditional metrics can fail to show real business impact. The modern professional needs to demonstrate how their work influences perception and, ultimately, drives the bottom line.

Vuelio offers AMEC-accredited media insights and real-time analytics, allowing the overlay of media lists onto dashboards to gauge share-of-voice against competitors, track key message penetration, and link coverage directly back to specific campaigns.

Traveling a multi-platform space

The PRCA’s definition acknowledges the many different forms that stakeholders take. Today’s stakeholders are MPs, local councillors, TikTokers, podcasters, and community leaders, as well as traditional journalists. The strategic management of these diverse groups requires a tool that understands this fragmented landscape.

Vuelio is designed for this complexity, bridging the gap between the Westminster bubble and the digital zeitgeist. Whether you are tracking a mention on a niche industry blog, or monitoring a high-stakes debate in the House of Commons, the platform ensures you won’t miss anything important.

SRM for the comms world

If PR is the strategic management of relationships, then a comms practitioner’s stakeholder database is their most important asset. But a standard sales CRM isn’t built for the nuances of the press office.

Vuelio’s Stakeholder Relationship Management (SRM) is purpose-built for the comms world. It allows teams to log every interaction, from a phone call with a producer, to a formal meeting with a civil servant. Preventing the information silos that can plague large agencies or in-house teams, everyone can work from the same playbook – the organisation speaking with one voice, ensuring that messaging remains consistent and reputation is protected.

Future-proofing public relations

The PRCA’s update is a call for the comms industry to step up and claim its place as a strategic powerhouse. PR teams are a direct line to the commercial success and reputational health of the organisations they represent.

Moving past the limitations of manual processes is a must for meeting this modern mandate. The strategic management the PRCA has highlighted requires new levels of flexibility and integration in approach and in the tools at your team’s disposal.

Unifying media monitoring, political intelligence, and stakeholder engagement into one ecosystem makes the work of comms easier and its value, socially and commercially, obvious.

As we look toward the future of the industry, one thing is certain: those who embrace the ‘strategic’ in the new definition, and equip themselves with the technology to deliver on it, will be the ones leading the conversation.

Looking to align your strategy with the new PRCA standards? Discover how our platform can help you manage your relationships, monitor your reputation, and prove your value – request a demo.

Opportunities in the UK media this month

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

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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. 

How to get press coverage in Feb 2026

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

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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.

What are journalists asking for in Feb 2026?

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.

Which journalists are using the Journalist Enquiry Service?

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.

Parliament

The Legislative Look ahead from Total Politics and Vuelio

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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?

Legislative Lookahead 2026

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.’

Jennifer Prescott quote

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.’

Ingrid Marin quote

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.’

Laura Fitzgerald quote

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.’

Ellie Farrow quote

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. 

Integrating political and media strategy

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

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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.

LTN example on social media

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’.

Kelly Scott on media and political channels

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’.

Sean Allen-Moy quote

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’.

Anton Greindl quote

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.

Measurement metrics for 2026

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

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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.

A formula for best practice measurement

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

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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.

What do journalists want in January 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.

Which journalists are sending media requests

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

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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’.

The Trump Challenge

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.’

IFG and Vuelio webinar panel

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.

Statistic from Vuelio Insights on political social sharing

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:

Alex Thomas quote

‘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.

Katy Balls Quote

‘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:

Simon Baugh

‘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.

Alastair Campbell

‘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’.

Bad PR habits

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

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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.