One of the things students often don’t realise about PR and communications is that there’s no single pathway into the industry. Some professionals begin their careers through the traditional route of a relevant degree, while others arrive from adjacent fields such as journalism, events, hospitality, or education.
With university enrolments and new semesters underway, Telum Media spoke with three communications professionals across Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore to understand how they landed in PR. They share what first drew them to the industry and why they chose to stay - offering insight into the skills, realities, and lessons that shape a career in PR and communications.
Nikole Duong, Media Relations Manager, L’Oréal Groupe Australia and New Zealand
I didn't start my career in public relations, and now corporate affairs - I came from learning and development. That’s where I learnt how adults absorb information, why clarity matters, and how important it is to explain things in a way people understand. It's helped shape the way I work today: simplify the nuance, honour the context, and never assume people know what you mean just because you've said the words.
I've been lucky to have worked for large organisations that invest in their people, and along the way, I've had some amazing leaders who have really backed me. They encouraged me, opened doors, and helped me see the strengths I didn't realise were valuable in corporate affairs - listening, writing clearly, staying calm under pressure, and my favourite part, connecting with all sorts of people.
Working across various local Australian and global brands has shown me how varied and rewarding this field is. For any students thinking about this path, corporate affairs is a great choice if you're curious, steady, and genuinely interested in people. You work with different teams, solve real problems, help leaders communicate honestly, and make sure people feel informed when things are changing. If that sounds like you, it’s a career worth exploring!
Tweety Chan, PR Manager, APAC, Sumsub
I did not set out to build a "typical" PR career. My early years were in hospitality and events, working on experiences that brought people together and made them feel looked after.
When I first joined a PR agency, "PR" itself felt like a vague label, and I had little idea what a practitioner actually did day to day. I took it as a challenge, and it quickly became a crash course in three things: creative thinking, teamwork, and strategy. There was never a textbook answer to any brief. Instead, every campaign demanded original thinking, a team where everyone carried real weight, and a strategic lens that moved from the big picture to the smallest detail.
After several fulfilling years in the agency space, I took on another challenge and moved in‑house. Today, I look after PR for the APAC region at a global RegTech company, where the most rewarding part is seeing communications turn into tangible business impact across multiple markets, not just campaign metrics. It is a daily reminder that PR is integral to how organisations grow, build trust, and navigate complexity.
PR is not an easy profession - it demands adaptability, stamina, and a lot of creativity. But if you enjoy both the process and the outcome, from problem‑solving with your team to watching your work shape real‑world results, it can be an incredibly energising and meaningful career.
Vladimir Guevarra, Head of Communications, Yinson Production
I didn't actually plan to end up in PR. I started in journalism, writing for The Straits Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Dow Jones Newswires. Back then, I loved the chase for the news, finding the signal inside the complexity, and helping the public understand what was really going on.
People won't believe it, but there's an introvert in me. In fact, many reporters are the same. I had to learn to be more of an extrovert to do my job - to interview, to engage, to express. For instance, when I was a student activist, I realised very quickly that our mission was far more important than our fear, or my fear, of public speaking. So I focused on getting the message out - not the fear, not the noise, not the bells and whistles. And I still live by that principle today.
As I moved and grew into corporate communications, I had the conviction that PR isn't spin, or at least, it shouldn't be - it's translation. It's taking finance, technology, energy, regulation, geopolitics, and making them more human, meaningful, and useful. It's helping leaders speak clearly and responsibly.
Across banking, telco, tech, and offshore energy, these industries I've been serving may be varied, but the meaning of the work remains the same: good communication builds trust, good messaging shapes understanding, and good storytelling creates alignment, not division.
And that's why I choose PR. Because when words are used well - with clarity and courage - they become a force for progress and change.
Entries open for the 2026 PRINZ Awards
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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.
Explore Telum Media tools that help PR teams pitch with precision.
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