Study Highlight: A New Age of Influence: Navigating the News You Don't Choose

Emma Lowde has started as Senior Communications Manager at Diraq, a Sydney-founded quantum computing company developing silicon-based technology to make quantum computers scalable, economical, and widely accessible. She joins from Intuit, where she was most recently Senior Communications Manager for the APAC region.

Emma has built up 15 years’ experience as a communications professional, including leadership roles at eBay Australia and New Zealand, following agency roles in Australia and the UK. 

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:

1. Journalists still value useful PR content
2. Relevance matters more than reach
3. The pitch and the release serve different roles
4. The best releases reduce friction for journalists
5. 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.

Explore Telum Media tools that help PR teams pitch with precision. 

PR and communications agency, Wrights, has promoted Rika Rufina to Communication Manager, strengthening the agency’s integrated communications, issues management, and Asia Pacific capabilities.

Rika will help steer corporate and consumer retainer accounts, bringing together PR, social, and creative campaigns. She will also work with Chief Executive Officer Douglas Wright and General Manager Reena Llanillo to develop and implement issues management strategies.

Rika joined Wrights in August 2025 as a Senior Communication Consultant, bringing experience from PR agencies, as well as from in-house roles across APAC, particularly in the Singapore market.

Douglas said Rika’s promotion reflected the contribution she had made to the agency and its clients.

“Rika has delivered strong results. I look forward to working closer with her and the Wrights team as we continue to deliver ingenious and impactful communications, anchored in authenticity and positive change,” he said.

“Our secret sauce is simple: ingenious thinking, brought to life by a talented and ambitious team. Rika’s promotion is another important step in strengthening our team and setting Wrights up for its next phase of growth.”

The promotion forms part of a broader period of growth for Wrights, with the agency also promoting Charlotte Dickson to Communication Consultant and will welcome Annabel Chambers as PR and Social Coordinator.