As AI continues to reshape PR workflows, agencies are being forced to reconsider what junior roles might look like in the future. With AI tools increasingly handling responsibilities such as research, drafting, and administrative tasks - tasks that junior PR practitioners traditionally start out with - some fear entry-level positions could gradually disappear.
Yet, removing these roles altogether risks creating long-term talent gaps across the industry. A more sustainable path may lie in reimagining what the junior role looks like in an AI-assisted workplace.
To explore the potentials and possibilities, Telum Media spoke with Tom Robinson, CEO of Edelman Australia on rethinking the value of junior agency roles. He shares insights into the risk of relying on AI to replace traditional entry-level tasks, the responsibility of preparing job-ready junior talents, and how early-career practitioners can upskill in the AI-driven world.
As AI takes on many traditional junior tasks, how can agencies rethink the value of junior PR roles today? What would a reimagined junior role look like?
The traditional junior toolkit is being reshaped. But that does not diminish the role; it elevates it.
If AI is removing operational friction, junior practitioners can spend more time developing judgement, context, and commercial thinking. For example, in an agency like ours, new entrants into the industry are not hidden in the background but exposed to clients early - and this exposure matters.
A reimagined junior role is less about producing volume and more about interrogating ideas: Can you challenge a brief? Can you identify reputational risk in the market? Can you connect cultural nuance to brand strategy?
We can get AI to generate a media list, but it cannot replace lived experience, nor can it replicate the instinct that comes from understanding local audiences, regulators, and communities. Technology can amplify an idea, but it cannot originate one with substantive depth or the understanding of irrational human behaviour.
As an industry, we should not forget the value created by our most formative professional years. Nowadays, we have new roles in the agency that didn’t exist three years ago, and new, upcoming talent will need to grow into them. For the new generations, the differentiator will be creative and strategic thinking.
With proper investment and cultivation, junior roles can become more intellectually demanding and promote more commercial awareness. That is a positive shift.
With budgets tightening, there are agencies turning to AI and mid-level staff instead of hiring juniors. What risk does this approach pose to the industry’s long-term talent pipeline?
There is a temptation, particularly in a tightening market where margins can be under pressure at all ends of the supply chain, but I believe it is short-sighted.
Professional services firms are built on progression. Mid-level talent does not come fully formed; they are shaped over years of guided responsibility. If we pause junior hiring for too long, we will feel the gap acutely in three to five years’ time.
Our firm is continuing to invest at that level and partnering with universities in doing so, because rather than as a substitute, we see AI as an enabler of better development. It removes repetitive processes and creates capacity for higher-value work.
There is also a broader commercial question at play. Agencies operating on time-based models can face pressure to prioritise efficiency, as clients can prioritise paying for input rather than results as a defining measure of success.
In that environment, it can be tempting to rely more heavily on AI or mid-level talent instead of investing in junior roles. But communications ultimately needs to contribute to business impact. If we shift the focus toward the outcomes we deliver for clients, the mix of talent becomes a strategic decision rather than a cost-cutting one.
Australia’s market is competitive but relatively small. If we fail to nurture early talent, the shortage will be felt quickly. Long-term capability requires deliberate investment and remains an obligation for any leader to protect in the industry today, whether you operate on the client side or agency side.
There’s ongoing debate about who is responsible for preparing job-ready junior talent - agencies, clients, universities, or the juniors themselves. Where does this responsibility genuinely land, and where has the industry been avoiding accountability?
Responsibility is shared, but agencies remain unique in their ability to offer breadth of experience and exposure to different ways of thinking.
Universities in Australia do a strong job of teaching theory and communications principles, but it's down to individuals to maintain their sense of curiosity and initiative - increasingly invaluable attributes today.
Where the industry has avoided accountability is in expecting graduates to be “client ready” while reducing structured mentoring. You cannot demand strategic acumen from someone who has not been given meaningful exposure.
We have an obligation to invest in the next generation. That means structured onboarding, feedback that goes beyond redlines, and real involvement in client work. It also means teaching AI fluency, governance and ethics, as well as writing and media skills.
Clients play a role too. If we put too much emphasis on efficiency, advisory, and experience without recognising how talent is developed, we create a fragile system. We need more transparent conversations about how capability is built.
Talent development should be seen as a strategic investment, not an overhead. In a market of our size, we cannot rely on importing fully formed practitioners indefinitely. We must nurture and help them evolve.
Avoiding that responsibility may protect short-term margins, but it weakens the profession over time.
Many senior practitioners developed their skills through learning from mistakes made early in their careers. With AI-enabled PR constantly assisting and correcting, how can junior practitioners learn to judge quality, develop their voice, and improve their work, and what needs to change in how juniors are trained or mentored?
The answer is not to shield juniors from AI, but to change our mindset in how we use it. The technologies are only as good as the inputs we offer and the human oversight.
As AI accelerates drafting and ideation across industries, human validation becomes crucial to ensure accuracy, trustworthiness, and brand consistency. The learning comes from analysing the difference: Why does one version land better? What nuance is lost? Does the argument hold up in the Australian context? Does the human essence come through in the output? That critical evaluation builds judgement.
Mentorship becomes even more important in this environment. Senior practitioners will need to explain their reasoning, not simply correct the output. In a busy agency environment, this discipline requires intent.
We must also preserve the space for accountability. If AI removes every visible flaw, we risk developing technically proficient but strategically shallow professionals.
Training now needs to include prompt craft, validation, bias awareness, and governance alongside core communication skills. Juniors should understand both the power and limits of AI.
Creative thinking and lived experience remain accelerators of growth. Technology can refine and test ideas to open up the possibility of diverse thought. It cannot replace the human capacity to sense risk, opportunity, or cultural mood.
Do you see AI as a net positive or a potential limiter for junior career development in PR? What will determine the outcome?
I am optimistic.
AI, when used properly, accelerates learning. A junior practitioner can test multiple angles, analyse data sets, and iterate ideas in ways that were previously prohibitive. This creates exposure to more diverse thinking when applied correctly, but the outcome will depend on leadership.
If AI is treated as a cost-reduction lever, junior development will suffer. Whereas if it is treated as a thinking partner, it will expand capability.
In any market where clients expect both strategic counsel and efficiency, AI helps us remove operational hurdles. That frees our teams to focus on higher-value client problem-solving and creative amplification.
As we’re already experiencing in the industry, new skills and roles will come to the forefront, such as data fluency, ethical oversight, and systems thinking. The strongest talent will use AI to push their thinking further - not replace it.
The commercial model also matters. If we move further towards valuing outcomes over hours, AI becomes a performance enhancer rather than a billing threat.
Ultimately, culture determines the result. Agencies that invest in people while embracing technology will produce stronger, more versatile leaders. Those that do not may find themselves technically efficient but strategically diminished.
As technical tasks become automated, soft skills like emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and resilience are gaining prominence. How do these qualities show up in strong junior practitioners, and how can agencies better identify and nurture them?
In strong junior practitioners, emotional intelligence shows up in how they read client dynamics, anticipate stakeholder sensitivities, and adjust tone instinctively. Critical thinking appears in the questions they ask and the time spent listening to understand, not just the tasks they complete. Resilience is evident in how they respond to feedback or fast-moving issues.
In Australia, where relationships and trust are critical to business, these qualities matter enormously.
So, agencies will need to recruit and adjust accordingly. Scenario-based interviews, collaborative exercises, and real-time problem-solving reveal far more than a polished CV. Once inside the agency, exposure is key. For example: sitting in client meetings, participating in crisis simulations, or debriefing openly after campaigns.
Technical competence is essential, but it is table stakes. The differentiator is the ability to connect culture, commerce, and community with clarity and confidence.
If we invest in those human capabilities while equipping our teams with new tools, we will build a generation of practitioners not replaced by AI but fuelled to new heights by it.
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Every few years, someone declares the death of the media release.
Today, the arguments sound familiar. Journalists don't read them anymore. Everything is social-first. AI is replacing traditional media outreach. It's all about the pitch. Press releases are becoming little more than AI-generated filler.
And yet, when we speak with journalists across Asia Pacific and the Middle East, a different picture emerges.
Media releases aren't dead, but expectations around them have changed significantly.
We've analysed more than 10,000 Journalist Interest Survey responses in the Telum Media platform collected over the past five years, alongside insights gathered from conversations with editors, reporters, and producers across the region.
Key takeaways:
- Journalists still value useful PR content
- Relevance matters more than reach
- The pitch and the release serve different roles
- The best releases reduce friction for journalists
- Modern releases need to support multiple platforms
The conclusion is clear: journalists still value media releases, but they value them for different reasons than they once did.
The media release has evolved from a distribution tool into something far more strategic.
The media release is no longer the story
For decades, many PR professionals treated the media release as the centrepiece of media relations activity.
Write the release. Send it widely. Hope for coverage - “spray and pray”.
That approach was far from perfect, but you could get away with it in an era when newsrooms were larger, competition for attention was lower, and journalists had more time to evaluate incoming information.
Today's reality is very different.
Journalists are producing content across multiple platforms, often with smaller teams and tighter deadlines. Their inboxes are flooded with pitches, announcements, thought leadership submissions, and increasingly, AI-generated content.
As a result, journalists have become far more selective about what earns their attention.
The modern media release is no longer just about news stories. It has become a source-of-truth asset, a newsroom resource, and a content hub that supports broader communications activity.
The best PR teams understand this shift.
“The strongest message from journalists can be summarised in a single phrase: ‘Understand what I cover’. Relevance remains the most important factor in successful media engagement.”
What journalists are actually rejecting
One of the most revealing findings from our analysis is that journalists are not rejecting PR content altogether.
What they're rejecting is low-value outreach.
Across thousands of responses, the same frustrations appeared repeatedly:
- Irrelevant pitches
- Generic outreach
- Mass distribution
- Weak story angles
- Excessive follow-ups
In other words, this is less a rejection of media releases and more a rejection of poor media relations practice.
The strongest message from journalists can be summarised in a single phrase:
"Understand what I cover."
Relevance remains the most important factor in successful media engagement. In fact, our journalist surveys over the past two years have seen a sharp increase in a desire for both relevance and personalisation in pitches.
Journalists increasingly assess pitches within seconds. If the connection to their beat, audience, or current priorities isn't immediately obvious, the opportunity is often lost before the email is even opened.
The pitch and the release have different jobs
One of the biggest misconceptions in modern media relations is treating the pitch and the release as the same thing.
They are not.
The pitch exists to earn attention; the release exists to support the story.
The best pitches are:
- Brief
- Human
- Relevant
- Contextual
- Conversational
The best releases are:
- Structured
- Factual
- Complete
- Reusable
- Easy to reference
At a recent Telum Media event, a senior journalist described the fastest way to kill a pitch with a single word: “Respect”. Or a lack thereof.
A generic greeting. A story unrelated to their beat. A mass-produced email that demonstrates no understanding of their audience.
All signal a lack of respect for the journalist's time and expertise.
High-performing PR teams increasingly write pitches and releases for different audiences. The pitch is written for the journalist. The release is written for the journalist's audience.
That distinction matters.
Why journalists still value media releases
Despite predictions of their demise, journalists continue to actively request media releases.
But they want releases that help them work more efficiently.
The most common requests include concise writing, clear headlines, strong news angles, supporting data (with downloadable images and assets), spokesperson access, and easy-to-use formats.
These preferences reveal the modern role of the release: it functions as a workflow tool.
A strong release helps journalists:
- Understand the story quickly
- Verify information
- Access supporting materials
- Build content efficiently
The best releases reduce friction. And in today's newsroom environment, reducing friction is often more valuable than generating hype.
Think beyond media coverage
Another major shift is that media releases are increasingly serving multiple audiences.
A modern release doesn’t just support journalists; it might also support clients and prospects, employees, investors and analysts, partners, and search visibility.
Rather than creating a single-use document, leading communications teams are building content ecosystems.
The release becomes the foundation for:
- Media outreach
- Newsroom content
- Executive communications
- Social media content
- Email campaigns
- Sales collateral
- Thought leadership activity
This approach not only improves consistency but also increases the return on investment from every announcement.
The role of the modern media release
Not every story needs a release
Perhaps one of the most important lessons is recognising when a media release is the wrong tool.
Releases tend to perform best when there is:
- Genuine news value
- Multiple stakeholder audiences
- A need for factual consistency
- Strong supporting assets
- Broader business significance
They are often less effective for internal milestones framed as major news (or self-congratulatory announcements), generic thought leadership, and untargeted mass outreach.
In some situations, a targeted pitch, LinkedIn strategy, executive commentary programme, or direct relationship-based outreach may be more effective.
Good communications strategy isn't about defaulting to a media release; it's about choosing the right tool for the objective.
A framework for modern media releases
If there is one word that captures what journalists are asking for today, it is respect.
At Telum Media, we summarise this through the RESPECT framework:
R – Relevance
Make it relevant to the journalist, their audience and the moment.
E – Efficiency
Help journalists work faster through clear, concise, and usable content.
S – Substance
Provide genuine value through expertise, data, insight, or access.
P – Personalisation
Demonstrate that you've done your homework.
E – Ecosystem
Think beyond the release and consider how it supports broader communications goals.
C – Clarity
Make the key message immediately obvious.
T – Timing
Reach out at the right time, not simply any time.
What journalists are asking for in a pitch / media release: RESPECT
The future of the media release
The debate over whether media releases are dead misses the point.
The more useful question is how do we make releases work better in today’s media environment?
Journalists still value relevant information, credible sources, strong story angles, and efficient communication. Media releases continue to play an important role in delivering those things.
But success today depends less on the existence of the release itself and more on how strategically it is used.
The media release remains a valuable communications tool.
Just not in the way many of us were taught to use it.
FAQs
Are media releases still useful in 2026?
Yes. Journalists still value media releases, but these days want targeted outreach, relevance to their beat, alignment with their audience, and contextual pitching.
What makes a media release useful to journalists?
Journalists are looking for releases in a format that helps them work efficiently. Which means releases that are concise, factual, with a clear angle, contain usable quotes, and come with downloadable assets and supporting data.
What is the difference between a pitch and a media release?
A pitch earns the journalist’s attention in their cluttered Inbox. A media release supports the story by providing structured, factual, and reusable information relevant to their audience.
With more than 30 years’ experience spanning journalism, corporate communications and media intelligence, Reuben Aitchison is Telum Media’s Head of Insights and Communications.
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