Category: Media Relations

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: newsrooms in 2026 are having a tough year. 

Cision’s 2026 State of the Media Report found that about half of journalists now point to shrinking budgets, staff cuts and heavier workloads as their biggest daily challenge, a sharp jump from last year.

Continuing a decades-long trend, journalists must do more with less, so reporters are leaning on PR professionals more to find the stories worth telling. Cision’s report also found that two-thirds of journalists say PR-provided content is their leading source of story ideas, ahead of social media, rival outlets and industry events.

PR professionals have increasing influence over what gets covered, and the editors we work with have less time and patience. In a year when anyone can spin up a “personalized” pitch in about three seconds with an AI tool, the stuff that actually earns coverage hasn’t changed.

As James Carville once said, “It’s the relationship, stupid!” (Well.. that’s not exactly what he said, but the point stands.)

Our relationships with journalists are the one thing that no tool can fake. Here’s a look at what really matters when it comes to managing a media relations program in 2026:

1. Relationships live in the notes

The best working media relationships are built on memory, not just contact information. After all, it’s not hard to find a reporter’s email address. What really matters is understanding the human that you’re reaching out to.

To do this, it’s all about keeping track of the small things. A reporter covered a retail returns fraud story last spring, so a new data point on that beat is a welcome gift. Or maybe a LinkedIn connection mentioned they are heading to Retail Club in September, or they posted about switching outlets, or that a child is starting college. Take note of these and mention them in interactions.

These thoughtful comments make a world of difference between “here’s a pitch” and “I thought of you specifically because of the work you already do.”

It’s not about treating media relations like a numbers game with the goal of reaching as many inboxes as possible and hoping something sticks. When reporters receive sometimes hundreds of pitches a week, they’ll sense that immediately. 

Slow down, pay attention to the little things, and take care to remember key details about a reporter. The payoff comes when you do have something genuinely relevant for them because you have already earned the two seconds it takes them to open your email.

2. “The Media” isn’t one audience

As a personal aside, I cringe every time I hear someone say, “the media,” as if the thousands of professionals working across outlets of all types and mediums exist as one group. But practically, treating media professionals like this is the fastest way to waste their time.

In today’s media landscape, it’s important to understand the unique characteristics of the individuals and outlets worth targeting because they all have different needs:

• Traditional print and digital media, the top-tier and trade reporters and editors, generally want a timely news hook and a reason their readers should care. Things that have real news value, like new research data or announcements tied to an important brand on their beat.
• Industry analysts operate on a different clock. They want technical substance and context around specific technology developments. These relationships are fostered over months and years of consistent engagement with a company.
• Then there’s the growing world of nontraditional voices: the podcasters, Substack authors and independent creators. These industry influencers are after a genuine, non-promotional point of view and an experienced guest, not a press release.

Understanding the modern media ecosystem and what different types of media professionals need changes how to approach them. Don’t send an analyst the same breaking news pitch you would a trade reporter. The ability to read the room and match the outreach with the kind of contact you’re dealing with has become one of the most valuable skills a PR professional can have.

3. You have to understand how outlets operate

One piece that’s easy to overlook: knowing a reporter’s beat is only half the equation. It’s important to also understand how their outlet operates.

Some publications welcome contributed bylines and thought leadership articles, and others won’t touch them. The ones that do all have their own submission process, including word counts and formatting preferences. Already knowing whether an outlet accepts contributed content and what they expect makes it much easier for them to say yes.

It’s simple and unglamorous knowledge, but doing the legwork ahead of time is the kind of thing that gets a client actually published instead of left in an editor’s inbox. 

4. Media relations is a living thing

Finally, what we knew even a month ago is already outdated. Journalists constantly change beats, outlets, move across the country or leave the industry entirely. According to Press Gazette’s running tally, more than 2,300 newsroom jobs disappeared in the first half of 2026, a pace running about 34% ahead of last year.

A relationship isn’t something to build once and file away. A writer that I had a rapport with last year may now be somewhere new, covering something different, or gone. Keeping up with these changes — and genuinely caring when someone’s situation shifts — is part of the work we do.

As PR professionals, it’s so important that we treat our relationships with media as living things, worth checking in on and keeping current. It’s how we ensure that we have these relationships when it counts.

The job hasn’t changed

PR tools keep changing, outlets keep consolidating, technology keeps getting shinier and the next AI feature will promise to automate all of this away, saving you valuable time and effort.

That’s not the point. None of that changes the actual job we do. Media relations has always been about earning an editor’s trust, being useful to them and remembering who the person is on the other end.

At Ketner Group, relationships matter most at the end of the day. It’s the foundation of our business and the work we do for our clients. If you want to build a program that earns real trust and drives genuine impact, we’d love to talk.

A customer announcement press release earns the most coverage when you assess four things before sending: newsworthiness, customer media-willingness, your customer’s own PR plans, and whether wire distribution actually fits.

So you’re a marketing leader at a tech company, and you have a customer announcement to make. Your first reaction should be jumping for joy!

In our experience, customer announcement press releases are great tools for inspiring credibility in the marketplace and garnering valuable coverage. After all, journalists love to write about the retailers themselves — more so than the software provider. That’s just the reality!

However, it’s not as simple as whipping up a good press release — read our advice on how to draft an effective press release here — and sending it to your media list. While that may get you a few hits, for the biggest impact, you need to think strategically about how you’re distributing the news.

We’ve pulled together considerations to make as you assess your customer announcement press release strategy. Take a look!

Consideration #1: Is the announcement actually newsworthy?

You’ll want to do some form of media outreach on a customer announcement regardless, as it helps with your credibility. But the way you approach the outreach is heavily dependent on this question: is the announcement actually newsworthy?

Yes, announcing your retailer customer is exciting, but it’s not always newsworthy.

Newsworthiness can depend on myriad factors, such as name recognition, current events, scale and story.

If your new customer is a smaller or more regional name, opt to keep the pitch strategy simple; omit embargoed pitching and follow-ups. One quick blast is all that you need to ensure you’re not pestering uninterested reporters. When sharing the news for a small, regional retailer for our client Inspectorio recently, we saw two direct coverage hits. That was a win for a retailer of its size!

But on the other hand, our client Inspectorio recently announced its Gap, Inc. partnership. Given Gap’s name recognition and global scale, we received over 14 pieces of coverage for a press release that was only a few paragraphs!

For that announcement, we shared the news a day in advance under embargo with a targeted list of reporters. After the news was live for a couple of days, we also conducted follow-ups with folks who had not yet covered it but who we believed may still want to.

Newsworthiness shapes how aggressively you pitch, not whether you pitch.

Consideration #2: Is your customer open to media opportunities?

If yes, milk that! Make sure your pitching is offering up your customer’s thought leader by name. 

If no, that’s okay — it’s likely! Don’t directly offer the customer as a source; instead, keep the language of the pitch centered on your company. 

If yes to both of the above questions (the announcement is newsworthy, and the customer is open to media opportunities), and if you have ample time to prepare, you may want to consider offering an exclusive, joint interview with your customer to a wish-list publication.

Give the target journalist a time window to reply, and if no response, move the offer to another valued publication. If nobody bites, embargoed pitching to multiple publications can still do the trick.

Consideration #3: Is your customer running their own PR?

This is an easy question to forget to ask. Our advice? Don’t! Not considering this question can lead to regrets down the line.

Here’s why: overlapping outreach to the same journalists is often annoying to media. Also, if you’re not collaborating with their PR team, you may find unaligned timelines, or the news could break on another channel too early or too late, which lends to a disjointed campaign all around.

So make sure you’re checking in on items like: has your customer approved the language? Who owns the comms relationship? Are they pitching reporters — and if so, who? Is the news going live on their owned channels at the same time?

Coordinate across the board, and your customer announcement campaign will make a bigger splash.

Consideration #4: Does the announcement belong on the wire?

Putting a press release on the wire — paid distribution services like Business Wire, PR Newswire or GlobeNewswire — is actually not always necessary and doesn’t have to be the default for customer announcements. It can make sense when it’s a large, Fortune 500 customer, if there’s a contractual obligation, or if you need an SEO-permanent home for the news that goes beyond your website.

But if the announcement doesn’t fit any of the above criteria, there is nothing wrong with saving dollars and sharing the news via direct outreach alone.

You can also frame the news as a media advisory to give it a more official format. We’ve done a few media advisories, and journalists seem to take to them!  

It may sound surprising, but we’ve found that direct outreach often outperforms the wire anyway.

The checklist: What should a customer announcement press release distribution checklist include?

In sum, we recommend you consider the following press release distribution strategy options, from simple to most complex:

• Sending one simple blast to relevant media when the news goes live.
• Sharing the news a couple of days in advance under embargo with select media targets. Widen the net when the news is live. Consider follow-ups.
• Offering the news as an exclusive to a wish list publication. Send it out widely to media when live. Consider follow-ups.

Even the third strategy has a fallback: if the exclusive runs lukewarm, you can still pitch broadly when the embargo lifts.

Your press release outreach strategy can set you up for success

To be clear, a well-written press release is crucial when sharing news, and you should also ensure that the pitch accompanying it is timely and relevant. You can read about how to turn trends into stories here.

But remember: it’s the strategy around how you sharing the customer announcement that ultimately drives meaningful coverage and advances your media relationships.

We’d love to help you with your press release strategy. Reach out to us here to get in touch!

Dear trade magazines,

From the bottom of our hearts, from all of us as a team, thank you.

Thanks for keeping the lights on, for delivering the news in your part of the world.

Thank you for deeply investigating your market and audience. And thank you for being agile enough to report on a wide array of topics quickly, without ego.

Thank you for sharing your content widely: across print, digital, email, social and even in-person interactions. You find creative ways to tell stories and innovative paths through which to tell them. As you identify new revenue opportunities to keep your lights on, you continue to report truthfully.

Thank you for scouring every analyst research report, every press release wire, and even (YES!) print. You inspire conversations and connections.

Trade magazines, your consistency and dedication to the news are two big reasons our clients generate new leads when they are covered in your publications. We love working with our clients to tell big stories about how the shopping ecosystem is evolving.

Our senior content specialist Dan Ochwat, who has worked as both managing editor and reporter, thanks you too. Dan said about trades, “These are the publications where true execs go to learn and keep tabs on competitors. LinkedIn provides a great space for thought leadership, but it also comes with a fair bit of chest thumping and squabbling. 

“Major media is no doubt where our clients want to be seen—the reach and clout are unmatched—but there’s a lot to be said about trade publications knee-deep into the space, often writing on trends months before a national publication catches on.”

Trade magazines, thank you for accepting byline articles. We know how difficult it is to keep evolving your business model. Our commerce technology clients truly appreciate the opportunity to submit thought leadership that tells market trends from the very inside.

Trades, we love so many things about you and we want to thank you for:

• Inspiring sales conversations 
• Helping us reach decision makers
• Allowing us to share domain expertise
• Connecting us to analysts and influencers who monitor your coverage closely
• Improving digital discoverability
• Meeting us where we are at and where important conversations are happening, whether in person or online 

Trade magazines, do you think we were surprised to learn that 82% report that trade media coverage directly impacts purchase decisions? No, no we were not.

As it gets easier to generate more content with less (looking at you, AI), you continue to do more with less. Your commitment to original content and expert voices warms our hearts.

Trade magazines, thank you for being a daily part of our lives. And for inspiring us to think creatively about the future. 

We love you.

Gratefully,

The team at Ketner Group

P.S. Curious to know which trade magazines we’re talking about here? Check out our client coverage to see which publications we’ve loved working with recently.

At a time when everyone is looking for the next big trend to latch on to, it can be hard to differentiate what makes a good news story vs. what is the next “flash in a pan” trend. 

The reality is, trends are not on their own, stories. Good PR professionals know that the media are far more interested in how the trends are impacting business overall. For those of us working in the tech industry, it seems as if there are trends coming out of the woodwork every week. 

So, how do we as communications professionals use PR tactics to capture attention and tie those tactics back into the trends a journalist is most passionate about? 

Creating lasting stories with tried and true PR tactics

By utilizing the following PR tactics, we can quickly begin generating the buzz needed to turn what could just be a one-off trend to a more impactful business story, which ultimately drives brand awareness for a company.

These PR tactics include:

• Proactive pitching: As one of the more direct ways to get the attention of the media, proactive and newsjacking allows PR professionals to send quick and to-the-point messages about a unique story angle using a known industry trend or breaking news as the hook. 
• Press announcements: Press releases are another great way to tie company news to bigger industry stories. This can be done by including key industry stats or a customer quote to anchor the bigger story you are trying to tell.
• Byline articles: These thought leadership pieces provide a unique way to share relevant insights around an industry trend. Typically published in a trade or business publication, bylined articles delve deeper into a trend to seamlessly create a bigger business story specifically tailored for target stakeholders.

Identifying the “bigger” story out of a trend

Now that we’ve explored some of the PR tactics that can help turn industry trends into business stories, let’s look at some real world examples of how these tactics have been used to pitch recent trends.

Sustainability:

Sustainability has been a trend for several years, with recent buzz around the circular economy. 

U.S. News & World Report did a story in September of last year focused on what clothes have the highest resell value. The article included commentary from a vintage boutique from Kansas City and call outs to major apparel brands that have launched resell programs. As well, the story also included a comment from a retail tech company, the result of a PR pitch, on why tag-on clothes have the best resale value in the resale marketplace. 

This is a perfect example of taking a big trend, like sustainability, and creating a very specific story around circular economy using the proactive pitching tactic.

AI:

AI is another trending topic across industries. For one of our clients focused on retail fraud prevention, we created a strategic PR plan with a pitch angle using unique data, which focused on AI-driven fraud detection that can intelligently review every transaction for potential organized retail crime activity. 

This new angle – using press announcements, bylined articles, and targeted media pitching – generated a ton of coverage with trade and business media. These tactics also helped to secure an on-air interview with CNBC for the client. 

Inspire the next “big” story

By digging deeper into industry trends to find the heart of a story, and using the right PR tactics to create interest, PR pros will not only find media success for clients but inspire editors to generate the next “big” story. 

Contact us to discuss how you can use PR to inspire stories and generate leads today.