As cities evolve and communities grow, the way we think about urban development has transformed to meet modern needs and navigate risks and opportunities. Modern placemaking, a growing field in urban development, goes beyond architectural design and urban planning. It extends to focus on creating meaningful spaces that resonate with communities while meeting contemporary challenges such as climate change and competition for space.
Wingki Kwok, Head of Public Relations and Engagement from ARUP shared how storytelling and community engagement shape placemaking projects, from conceptualisation to implementation.
Placemaking and place branding have become increasingly common in urban development conversations. How have these concepts taken shape in Hong Kong, and what role does communications play in bringing them to life?
Urban development jargons can be confusing. Terms like placemaking, place branding, city marketing often seem interchangeable, but each serves a distinct purpose.
To put it simply, place branding is a strategic marketing approach for a location. As a city, Hong Kong has made significant efforts to promote a global image, aiming to attract international business and tourists. Place branding can also be applied at the district level. Projects like Energizing Kowloon East and Kai Tak Fantasy are great examples. With the Northern Metropolis on the horizon, we’re seeing place branding being used not only to attract investment, but also to draw in new residents and talent.
Placemaking, on the other hand, focuses on shaping public spaces to improve community well-being. Notably, good placemaking often contributes to the place brand, naturally strengthening the overall identity of a place.
But here’s the thing: place branding differs from product selling. You can't declare a city welcoming and vibrant without friendly people and infrastructure that supports diverse communities. Similarly, claims of sustainability fall flat without green spaces and proper waste management. The brand must reflect authentic experiences shaped by people, culture, cityscape, history, and economic activities.
That’s where communications come in, and its role is twofold: first, it helps build the brand or place through engagement, collaboration and storytelling, and second, it tells the story to the world. These are not things you can achieve with just a single campaign. When I trained with the International Place Branding Association, one key takeaway was that a successful place brand isn’t something you invent on the spot and never look back, but something you discover and nurture over time. Making a meaningful place requires more than slapping on a logo or tagline; those are merely finishing touches.
What’s the key to good storytelling for a placemaking project, while staying true to your company’s values?
At Arup, our approach to placemaking revolves around capturing the essence of a community and translating that into design solutions that enhance public spaces and improve the quality of life.
The best stories that communicate this approach are always based on voices that reflect the authenticity of a place. In place branding or placemaking, the most compelling stories emerge from its residents and their lived experiences. It could be a local who’s lived in the area for decades, a small business owner who’s shaped the local economy, or a young athlete who proudly represents their district. Their voices bring depth and credibility to our storytelling, and good stories demands collective effort. Therefore, we need to dig out authentic narratives and empower storytellers through engagement.
A core part of your current role focuses on public engagement. What does community engagement for a placemaking project look like, and why is it important?
Community and stakeholder engagement are not simply boxes to tick off but fundamental in building a shared vision. We believe that any placemaking or branding strategy must be grounded in deep understanding – something that is impossible to achieve from behind a desk. You have to go out, speak to people, listen to their stories, and understand their aspirations.
I'm currently working on a placemaking project at San Tin Technopole, where we're exploring ways to enhance village public spaces and promote urban-rural integration. Naturally, the first step is to talk to the residents, but urban-rural integration is a broad and sometimes abstract concept, and people can interpret it in very different ways.
Instead of jumping straight into asking 'What do you like?', we first focused on building a shared understanding around some core principles. It’s much more meaningful when we work together toward a higher common goal that also brings tangible benefits to the local community.
Trust-building, fostering a sense of ownership, and participation are key in this process. When people feel they’ve had a hand in shaping their environment, they’re more open to collaboration and more invested in the outcome. That’s why we focus so much on inclusive engagement to bring in diverse voices and make sure everyone feels heard – to make placemaking truly impactful.
How do you come up with communication strategies for placemaking developments that typically span several years, particularly given the potential for shifts in market conditions and public interest?
When developing long-term placemaking projects, communication strategies need to balance ambition with practical considerations.
We begin by mapping out stakeholders to understand the full spectrum of interests and influences. For placemaking and place branding, the local community usually carries the most weight, followed by other actors who will drive implementation.
One thing I’ve learned is that people are great at telling you what they want, but not always why. When dealing with various stakeholders, you can’t design based on preferences alone, you need to get to the bottom of what is driving the views they hold. Asking the right questions, setting the scene carefully, and preparing for conflicting views are all means to achieve this end, as well as ensuring that developments do not waver under external pressures.
Placemaking through co-creation helps build ownership, and the results are often tangible, with visible changes in the environment that reflect the community’s input. These outcomes also feed back into the place brand, reinforcing its authentic identity.
How do you see sustainability and ESG messaging impacting public perception of a placemaking project?
ESG is gaining more visibility in project communications, and I think that’s a really positive shift. It serves as a reminder of the values we want to bring to the audience, and more importantly, it helps people understand and feel more connected to the spaces being developed by showing how a project contributes to environmental and social benefits.
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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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