{"id":144090,"date":"2023-10-05T09:28:44","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T08:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=144090"},"modified":"2023-10-05T09:28:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T08:28:44","slug":"festivities-fitness-and-topical-trends-what-journalists-need-from-prs-in-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/festivities-fitness-and-topical-trends-what-journalists-need-from-prs-in-october\/","title":{"rendered":"Festivities, fitness, and topical trends – what journalists need from PRs in October"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s still nearly two months before we can open the first door on our advent calendars, but journalists and bloggers have already been looking to get their hands on them for reviews and features.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wondering what else the media are looking for? This roundup of all the topics and trends on the <\/span>Journalist Enquiry Service<\/span><\/a> in September will shed some light and provide you with pointers for getting media coverage in October.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sign up for the <\/span><\/i>ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service<\/span><\/i><\/a> to start receiving requests from the UK media straight to your inbox.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

A flurry of festive enquiries<\/h3>\n

Christmas requests started to trickle through from July and are now the dominant keyword on the Journalist Enquiry Service. Last month, over 13% of the total requests contained the keyword \u2018Christmas\u2019. This is double the number we saw in August.<\/span><\/p>\n

A lot of these requests have been for a \u2018gift guide\u2019, which as a key phrase occurred in 8% of the enquiries. While \u2018advent calendar\u2019 also performed well and there were just under 3% of the total requests looking for these. Journalists at heat magazine, MailOnline, The Sun and Glamour have used the key phrase \u2018advent calendar\u2019 while reporters at Town & County, Bella, Yours and The Guardian have sent enquiries for \u2018gift guides\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

This will remain pretty constant throughout October and November, meaning plenty of opportunities to get products and samples out and covered in both consumer media and national press titles.<\/span><\/p>\n

A strong showing for fitness<\/h3>\n

A keyword that you would normally expert to find in January that was prevalent last month (appearing in just under 3% of the total requests last month) was \u2018fitness\u2019, perhaps because of National Fitness Day on 25th September.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some journalists were looking to get ahead of the curve with one looking for information on \u2018Health, fitness and wellness events taking place in 2024\u2019. Others were more focused on the here and now, as another journalist asked for \u2018Fitness gear for fall: must-have equipment and apparel.\u2019 This resulted in a very healthy 23% increase for the Leisure & Hobbies category.<\/span><\/p>\n

A BOO-m for Halloween<\/h3>\n

We mentioned <\/span>last month <\/span><\/a>that \u2018Halloween\u2019 would naturally increase in popularity throughout September and that proved to be the case as the amount of requests doubled. This holiday is normally popular with children and the Children & Teenagers category saw a 23% rise as a result.<\/span><\/p>\n

Journalists from the Daily Mail, Daily Express, Metro and Stylist.co.uk all sent Halloween-related requests last month. These varied from wanting suggestions for costumes, to events for adults and kids, to Halloween home decor ideas. This should continue to be a trend until we reach the holiday at the end of the month, so still time to get coverage in the media if you have products\/events along these lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

Topical trends – From AI to mental health<\/h3>\n

Seasonal events like Christmas and Halloween will always do well on the Journalist Enquiry Service, but what about the trending topics each month?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018AI\u2019 performed strongly with just over 2% of the total requests featuring it as a keyword. This has been a trending topic for most of the year but could also link into legal issues for ChatGPT around <\/span>copyright relating to \u2018Game of Thrones\u2019<\/span><\/a> and other media properties. The Consumer Technology category had the second biggest increase from August as it rose 24% – only Men\u2019s Interest improved more at 27%.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another trend that we have, unfortunately, seen for a while is around the cost-of-living. September\u2019s focus has been on energy, with journalists asking for advice from experts on reducing bills ahead of the Winter months. \u2018Energy\u2019 as a keyword featured in just under 2% of last month\u2019s enquiries. The Times, The i paper and ITV News all covered this topic and it should remain a keyword, presenting more opportunities to get an expert featured in the national media.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Mental health\u2019 has been another key phrase performing well on the service, with World Suicide Prevention Day on 10 September and World Mental Health Day coming up on 10 October. Enquiries around this topic are usually for experts or information and statistics. The Health category, which is regularly the second most used each month by journalists , saw an 8% increase as a result.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are journalists using the service for?<\/h3>\n

The majority of journalists using the service in September were looking for a spokesperson or expert (34%). Review products was the second most popular enquiry type on 24%, with information for an article next on 22% and personal case study fourth on 11%. Most of the journalists were from consumer media (35%), with national newspaper\/current affairs second on 26% and trade\/business\/professional media third on 18%.<\/span><\/p>\n

51% of people sending a request were staff journalists, while 27% were freelance journalists – making up nearly 80% of the service. In terms of the top outlets sending requests, eight of them were national press and the other two were consumer titles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Opportunities for PRs in October?<\/h3>\n

\u2018Halloween\u2019 will see a final flourish as a keyword and \u2018Christmas\u2019 is likely to increase again as the festive season approaches. Both keywords present chances to get review products featured.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you work with experts and spokespeople, then health is the hot topic this month. As we mentioned, World Mental Health Day is coming up, as is World Menopause Day. It\u2019s also time to celebrate Black History Month, so we expect journalists to be looking for comment. We could also see a boost for the Travel category, with the October half-term holiday in a couple of weeks\u2019 time.<\/span><\/p>\n

To start receiving requests from the UK media to your inbox, find out more about the <\/span><\/i>ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wondering what the media are looking for this month? This roundup of all the topics and trends on the Journalist Enquiry Service in September will shed some light and provide you with pointers for getting media coverage in October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":144098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7365,350,7272,3725,3729],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144090"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144100,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144090\/revisions\/144100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}