Monthly Archives: May 2026

Why Smart Companies Want Journalists on Their PR Teams

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When I was a working journalist, I sometimes hung up on public relations people who called my office. I regret doing so because now I’m on the other end of the line.

While my response back then showed a lack of maturity as well as patience, my reasoning was on somewhat solid ground. Well intentioned, no doubt, those I hung up on would lead the call with some version of the following: “I’m calling on behalf of XYZ company, and I’m just following up to see if you received the press release I sent you by fax.”

In addition to dating myself, the above illustrates how the PR person never considered the perspective of his audience: me, a working journalist.

On any given day, we would receive about one dozen press releases along with two or three menus from local lunch spots promoting that day’s specials. The 1990s were wild; loaded with possibilities and dining options. Still, we had a small team and responding on receipt to each release was never going to happen. Also, there’s nothing remotely engaging about the above phone pitch. Would you search breathlessly to find their press release? I didn’t.

Eventually someone would skim the resulting stack of streaky press releases. If the headline or lede didn’t grab and hold us immediately, it was tossed into the recycle bin. Most were drenched in florid verbiage celebrating the wonder of monumental pronouncements that were of zero interest to our readers.

The Perspective Problem

As a former journalist who never studied PR, I had to reverse engineer my approach to the practice when I entered public relations. That meant identifying the interests of the audience, finding a compelling story or idea that matched that interest, and then dialing in the client’s value proposition. Over the course of two decades I have refined the approach, gut checking myself with current working journalists to make sure what my colleagues and I do remains effective. And when change is needed, we adjust.

That journalism-first perspective has served me, and my clients, well. 

It’s not that native public relations professionals, those who train for the job from the start, aren’t effective. On the contrary, the really good ones, and there are many—including among our team—bring skill and intellect that, well applied, are powerful force multipliers. And when you can teach these PR pros to think like journalists, well, the effect can be positively stunning. 

What former journalists bring to PR sets them apart from the traditional training provided in college for PR pros. Former journalists will:

  • Stress test a story or pitch concept before it ever lands in a journalist’s inbox
  • Constructively, but insistently, push back on leadership who want to promote a story with no news value
  • Not confuse a feel-good company newsletter concept for an actual newsworthy story
  • Always remember trade journalists receive 100-or-more press releases per day while mainstream news outlet reporters get as many as 300 per day, and act accordingly
  • Never forget to consider working journalists are time starved and have zero interest in doing anyone a favor
  • Filter announcements and messaging for credibility, legal exposure, source strength and headline worthiness because that was the job as they pursued enterprise stories from their newsroom days

A Nose for News

Experienced journalists-turned-PR-pros know what today’s journalists need. They know most journalists are skeptics, so they will redouble their efforts to make any press release or announcement bullet-proof and factually accurate. Quotes in a release have to say something meaningful and memorable. They push their clients to stay engaged with media rather than just reaching out with promotional announcements because credibility, availability and consistency matter to journalists looking for reliable sources. And they should have the courage to respect their clients enough to push back when an idea or story concept will fail to serve the reputation of the executive or organization well because their experience and training validate that perspective. 

In short, former journalists working at PR agencies are ideal sounding boards because they’ve had to assess countless pitches to determine real news value, and that’s a skill that never leaves the soul of a journalist. 

This skill, applied to the advocacy they undertake for clients in their PR roles, can be the difference between securing one-off or infrequent coverage and becoming a trusted, reliable and quotable source media will return to regularly.

If Your PR Is Like a Light Switch, You’re Always in the Dark

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  • Public relations doesn’t work.
  • We reach out to journalists, but they don’t cover our news.
  • The media get it wrong or they refuse to tell our side of the story.

Across a decades-long career in communications, I’ve heard a few variations on the above responses from executives when discussing public relations. The longer I do what I do, the more emphatic I’ve become in my response to these statements: It’s because you’re doing it wrong. 

That’s not a condemnation or criticism; it’s simply reality.

PR has been around for a long time, and while times have changed, the fundamentals of good storytelling have not. This means the more frustrating-but-nuanced response to the above statements is this: PR works if you consistently work at it.

PR Is Not a Light Switch

Most business leaders never trained for internal or external communications, so, respectfully, their understanding of its particulars is limited.

Where I see the disconnect for many organizational leaders is in the application of PR. Countless times businesses and non-profits determine the ideal time for PR is when they have something to say about themselves; a new CEO, a speaking opportunity they want to promote, a new product or service or simply because they want to drum up new business. And that’s the disconnect; they want to talk about something that offers little or no impactful benefit to the audiences of those media. 

The most effective PR incorporates consistent outreach and rarely talks about the organization trying to get coverage. This seems counter intuitive, right? The goal is to promote the organization and its reputation. You want to drive sales or fundraising. So why would you not talk about the organization? The answer is simple: Self-promotion won’t drive clicks on media platforms, which means it doesn’t benefit their organization or the readers/listeners/viewers/followers they reach.

PR Works if You Work It

The best PR strategy is an always-on PR strategy. By continuously engaging media with what they need (not what you want), organizations can enjoy larger benefits than those that treat PR like a light switch, only turning it on to promote themselves. 

So, what does an always-on PR strategy look like?

It offers a steady cadence of genuine thought leadership, from organizational leaders and other subject matter experts, on trends and issues of import to the industry or industries where the organization operates. Shrinking newsrooms need content, and if you can provide well-written, authoritative content or insightful nonpromotional interviews then you have an opportunity to become a valuable media source. 

An always-on PR strategy also includes real- or near-real-time monitoring to gauge and react to trends or issues, as well as reputational threats to the organization. Doing so allows you to engage on an issue or communications concern before it is missed or becomes a problem. This approach also helps to better assess where the organization stands with the media, and the public, in terms of perception, reputation and sentiment. An always-on approach allows organizations to also benchmark their share of voice in the media against their competitors. This last piece will help inform leadership on the most-discussed narratives and trends, and the perceived experts in these discussions with the media. 

In practical terms, this usually ends up looking like a monthly editorial calendar of issues, trends, company announcements and rapid response strategies to emerging topics within the media itself. This calendar covers content and expert participation both with the media as well as the organization’s owned channels, such as newsletters, social media and email blasts that speak to both internal and external audiences. Various monitoring and analysis tools provide the metrics and feedback needed to measure success.

Always-on, Always Helpful

Warren Buffett once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it.” In modern times, that reputation can be damaged in the time it takes to bang-out a 280-or-less-character social media post. Employing an always-on PR strategy helps to mitigate risk to the reputation of the organization it serves. It also ensures that same organization has a voice media are willing to hear, if only because of the consistent familiarity of that voice.

Public Relations, What Were You Like in the 90s?

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By now, you’ve likely seen the “What were you like in the 90s” question posted on Instagram, with the song, Iris, by the Goo Goo Dolls playing in the background. Maybe it’s a former boyband member flashing back to a slideshow of himself in a synchronized dance routine or posing on the cover of Teen Beat magazine. Or maybe a movie star, when they were lesser known and less wrinkled. In the same vein, we thought it might be fun to reflect on public relations. After all, things have changed quite a bit since Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky dominated a budding 24-hour news cycle.

Here is a brief list of some common PR tools and tactics that have since gone the way of the be-kind-rewind video store.

  • The fax machine: If you look carefully, you can still find these relics in some doctor and dentist offices, but in the 1990s, the fax machine was an office staple. It was often delegated to a room of its own due to the screeching, buzzing and beeping noises emitted when transmitting or receiving the thermal rolled paper via fax. At the time, PR pros would distribute press releases via fax machine as it was one of the fastest ways to   a newsroom. Also, often found on the fax machine, was the menu for the pizza place down the street. These days, good PR pros have learned to rely less heavily on the press release to gain media coverage, but when distributing a press release, we lean into email and wire distributions. Of course, the best agencies will steer clear of the so-called spray and pray approach.
  • The Bacon’s Book: The thick green Bacon’s Media Directory was the PR pro’s bible back in the day. This heavy tome listed contact information for daily and weekly newspapers and news services providing PR pros with valuable phone numbers and eventually emails to reach reporters. These days, those searches are conducted on software systems that help PR pros identify a reporter covering a certain beat, circulation and readership information for their publication, reporter’s preferences and more. While these platforms are not perfect, they have eased and sped up the process for PR pros and reduced the “heavy lift” required.
  • The beeper: Leading up to the dawn of cell phones, many business professionals relied on this device to get in touch with an executive or subject matter expert. The beeper was a small device users clipped onto their belts, allowing them to receive phone numbers or a numeric message. The PR pro attempting to reach the SME would make contact with the beeper via a landline and the executive receiving the text would need to find a landline to call back the number displayed. Today’s PR pros are attached to their cell phones where they text and call for immediate access to the SME or colleague. Whether it’s receiving news of a crisis in a timely manner or quickly reaching an executive before a reporter’s tight deadline, these devices have been a game changer.
  • The clippings’ service: While many of us continue to refer to an online list of the month’s client media placements as a clip report, earlier iterations of these reports were much different. In the old days, clippings services would actually clip – with scissors – mentions of a client’s name in a physical newspaper or magazine and mail or deliver the collection of clips to the PR agency or client. The goal was to build a fat clip book with a “thud” factor when dropped in front of a client. Today, PR pros gain access to news stories featuring their client through online vendors that provide clickable access to client stories and in some cases, those of their competitors.
  • The wine and dine: In the 1990’s PR professionals could be equated with salesman, setting meetings at a fine restaurant where they hoped to woo a reporter with a high-end meal and a fancy cocktail. This trend has come and gone over the years in line with peaks and valleys in the economy, but since COVID, the wine and dine trend has nearly disappeared. With many reporters, subject matter experts and PR professionals working remotely or located in geographically diverse locations, it has become increasingly difficult to find the time for an in-person meal. At the same time, on-screen meetings have provided a new and important medium where all parties can “see” each other with some frequency to build stronger relationships without having to physically travel.

Admittedly, in the 90s, I was on the other side of the fence – studying journalism in college and then starting out as a young reporter. However, from this perspective, I did gain valuable insight into the public relations world – insight into more than their beepers, beer, and Bacon’s Books. That insight has certainly helped shape my career in PR.

When looking for the right PR partner, understanding the tools at their disposal is important, but it’s also critical to ensure any PR partner:

  • Thinks like a journalist and possesses a journalism ethos
  • Prioritizes responsiveness
  • Comes to the table with ideas, rather than asking what’s next?

To learn more about how Kimball Hughes PR can work for you or to simply reminisce with us about PR in the 90s, drop us a line.

Outwit, Outplay, Outlast: Finding New Audiences Without Sacrificing Established Ones

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In August of 2000, the season one finale of “Survivor” became one of the decade’s most-watched television events with over 50 million viewers. 

In today’s streaming era, live viewership of that caliber is a rare achievement, especially around a reality TV event. While ratings for “Survivor” have never again reached the first season’s finale, the show is currently airing its 50th season, proving lasting power lies in its ability to evolve with the times. 

With 26 years under its belt, “Survivor” has viewers, and even contestants, who are younger than the show itself. Over the course of 50 seasons, the show has had to find ways to not only keep its audiences watching but to also draw in new, younger viewers with noticeably different appetites. 

For the producers of “Survivor”, and really any business, finding and connecting with new audiences, as well as evolving audience preferences is imperative to organization growth and long-term viability. 

Strategies for Surviving New Audience Outreach

When it comes to reaching new audiences, company leadership are best served by involving their communications teams from the jump. PR pros and comms professionals can help to guide the process ensuring any new messaging conveys a refresh, not a wholesale replacement of everything that made your product or service appealing in the first place. Consider the following tips when conducting outreach to new audiences: 

  • Stay consistent with your mission: For the first 32 seasons, “Survivor” would film in a new location, from the Australian Outback to the Amazon rainforest. But beginning in season 33, the show found a permanent filming location on the beaches of Fiji. While the logistical decision may have removed a unique aspect of the show, the competition continued to fight the harsh conditions viewers tuned in to watch. Similarly, an organization cannot forego its core value proposition in a quest to reach new audiences. Without aligning new messaging to core values, companies can run the risk of muddying their brand on their way to reach a new demographic. 
  • Understand your audience needs: “Survivor’s” New Era, targeting millennial and Gen Z viewers, has been focused on a faster play style, greater diversity among contestants and flashy twists to catch audiences by surprise. When considering expanding your audience, a good marketing and communication team will know to conduct research, social monitoring and analyses of competitor strategies to identify how and where new audiences are most likely to receive information and engage with the organization. From there, the communications team can dive deeper into a target audience’s needs to ensure new messaging will resonate.
  • Respect your existing audience: While many surface-level aspects of the game of “Survivor” have been updated over the past 26 years, core game mechanics have mostly remained. Still, certain twists like season 41 and 42’s Hourglass twist, were negatively received due to what some audience members felt compromised the game’s integrity. When companies are considering refreshing messaging around a product or with the goal of reaching new audiences, it’s important that messaging does not upset existing audience expectations. Communications pros can help organizations develop strategic messaging that acknowledges the brand’s past while connecting with its future. 

Over the course of 700 episodes, “Survivor” has consistently worked to keep the show fresh for its original audience and entice new and younger viewers. The show’s attempts to stay fresh may not always work, but it is that forward momentum that has gotten it to its landmark 50th season. 

With the right communications support to navigate different audiences and their evolving preferences, your company’s messaging will continue to resonate and fuel growth. Careful and thoughtful communication is key to ensure a brand is not left behind like a contestant with their torch snuffed out at tribal council.