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Telum Media sat down with Elan Shou, CEO of Ruder Finn Asia, and Phoebe Shen, General Manager at RF Thunder, to unpack what it really takes to grow with purpose in the Southeast Asia region, from building genuine local connections to staying ahead of shifting market dynamics.
Why local depth now matters more than ever
The region’s economic growth, demographic potential, and evolving media landscape are reshaping how agencies approach their strategies and operations. For communications firms like Ruder Finn, this means a fundamental shift from managing remotely to embedding deeply within local markets.
Elan explains the drivers behind this change, “If you look at GDP growth, Southeast Asia’s markets have remained strong over the past several years. For 2025, the six key Southeast Asia countries are expected to grow between 4.5 to 4.7 per cent, significantly ahead of developed countries like those in Europe. The market size is another factor, as Indonesia is huge, Malaysia has a large population, and overall, these markets have huge growth potential.”
The region’s appeal goes beyond numbers. Elan points out that for many Chinese brands expanding abroad, Southeast Asia is a natural first stop. “It’s culturally familiar, geographically close, and home to many Chinese communities,” she says. This is reflected in Ruder Finn’s own experience, with its ‘Chinese Brand Going Abroad’ (CBGA) practice that has tripled in size over the past three years.
However, she warned against treating the region as a single entity. “Southeast Asia is a highly diverse region, with different languages, religions, market sizes, policies, and political contexts. You can’t approach it with one uniform strategy. You need local knowledge and insight.”
Phoebe echoed the sentiment, noting that the CBGA practice has been a key driver of growth. She describes their approach as a ‘one plus one plus one’ modular model - a China-based team, a Singapore hub to coordinate with Chinese clients and connect markets, and local partners who bring essential cultural fluency.
“Previously, without those local partnerships, strategies sometimes fell flat in-market. Now, involving local expertise from the start ensures relevance,” Phoebe said. “Managing from afar no longer works - we need close management and local investment.”
Evolving client expectations
Just five years ago, Southeast Asia was still considered a secondary priority compared to the Chinese market. Today, that perception has flipped with multinational corporations increasingly allocating resources and attention to the region, driven by growing consumer markets and geopolitical shifts like the US-China conflict.
Elan describes this transition: “The ‘helicopter approach’ doesn’t work here. Success depends on local knowledge, insight, and strong networks. Understanding local languages, emotions, and culture are essential.”
She also observed the rapid rise in the quality of local agencies. “Having judged various awards across Asia Pacific, I’m impressed by their quality and speed of improvement. Many local teams were trained by international agencies and are now excelling independently. This creates a more competitive landscape, requiring international agencies to raise their game.”
Phoebe, who relocated to Singapore three years ago, sees client needs evolving alongside market complexities. "Chinese clients increasingly ask for pre-entry market validation, reputation scanning, deeper localisation of content, and access to relevant local resources. In today’s fragmented media environment, reputation management is also a top request.”
Rethinking the agency model
As client expectations grow more sophisticated and regionally nuanced, agencies are being pushed to adapt - not just in services, but in structure. Historically, many international agencies in Southeast Asia operated from Singapore, setting a regional strategy from there. But that model is shifting. “In the past year, some MNCs have moved their headquarters to other countries, like Malaysia, because a Singapore-led strategy might not suit every market,” said Elan.
Looking ahead, she expects to see more country-specific strategies, which will raise expectations for local operations. “Agencies can’t just implement - they need to think and create,” she said. “Especially in consumer sectors, integrated marketing is highly market-driven and culturally oriented. Agencies must be more locally driven, even while operating at a regional scale.”
For Chinese brands, Phoebe noted, the organisational model is also evolving. "Typically, their China HQ drives vision and strategy, regional offices balance global direction with local relevance, and in-market teams execute but often need more strategic clarity. Our modular team structure mirrors this - integrating local insights into strategic planning from the start. This saves clients time and coordination costs.”
The shifting agency - media dynamics
As agencies localise their strategies and deepen their role in brand building, they are also navigating a fast-changing media ecosystem. The media landscape has changed dramatically - from traditional media to KOLs, now to KOCs. Elan emphasises the need for agencies to stay ahead of their clients in offering creative, integrated media solutions. “It’s an interactive, ever-learning process,” she says. “Sometimes clients are even ahead of agencies.”
Phoebe pointed out that media relationships in Southeast Asia are both platform-driven and trust-based. “Chinese brands often assume they can apply the same media playbook used in China, which doesn’t work here,” she said.
Looking ahead
As the communications landscape in Southeast Asia continues to evolve, Elan and Phoebe anticipate a more competitive, sophisticated communications ecosystem on the horizon. “I expect more strong local agencies and mature, creative communications professionals,” said Elan. “For example, at Ruder Finn, we’re exploring how AI can improve efficiency, freeing up time for more intelligent, creative work. The goal is to lay the foundation for communications so we can focus on high-value activities.”
For Phoebe, one of the most important shifts lies in how Chinese brands are perceived globally. “Every CBGA contributes to shaping Brand China’s global image,” she explains. “We hope to move perceptions beyond just ‘value for money,’ toward being seen as innovative, collaborative, and responsible.”
That evolution, she emphasises, requires more than just good messaging. “It means helping clients become contributors to local societies, not just foreign companies selling products.”
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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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