Many of these gatherings are doubling down on common themes shaping modern comms strategy, with AI, brand storytelling, digital PR, search and media strategy taking center stage nationwide.

If you’re hoping to refine your skills, make new connections or hear directly from leaders shaping the future of PR, these conferences may be worth adding to your calendar.

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PR & Comms Summit

Marketing and public relations professionals will gather in Orlando for a summit focused on real‑world strategies and conversations about what’s actually working in the industry right now.

Expect sessions on AI search, earned media, crisis communications and how to identify the metrics that matter.

“You’ll leave with ideas you can put into action right away,” according to the event page hosted by the Florida Public Relations Association. Attendees will hear insights from major brands like Virgin Music Group, MSG Entertainment, MGM Resorts International and The Poynter Institute.

You’re also expected to walk away with practical strategies tied to AI, automation and stronger content development, all while connecting with peers and executives. And yes, six meals are included with your ticket purchase.

When: August 9-12, 2026

Where: Orlando, FL

Fierce Pharma PR and Communications Summit

For anyone working in pharma or biotech, Fierce Pharma Week is known to host major annual events.

This year brings several programs together, giving attendees a chance to compare strategies, hear what senior leaders are prioritizing and get a clearer understanding of where the industry is heading.

The Fierce Pharma PR and Communications Summit also expands into two separate events this year, with Fierce Pharma Week serving as the broader gathering for professionals across marketing, sales, scientific communications and PR. It’s built for people who want to network, collaborate and walk away with practical ideas they can actually use.

When: September 14-17, 2026

Where: Philadelphia, PA

Mid-Atlantic MarCom Summit

Last year’s conference in the DMV featured fireside chats on the evolving industry, engaging sessions led by reps from major brands and organizations, and, honestly, some pretty good food.

This year’s Mid‑Atlantic MarCom Summit is expected to bring even more. It’s the region’s largest annual gathering of marketing and public relations professionals, drawing people who want to learn, network and compare notes on where the industry is heading.

Attendees will meet at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library Conference Center in Washington, D.C., where they’ll hear keynote presentations, panel discussions and conversations on forward‑leaning topics shaping the field.

According to Capitol Communicator, the event is built for collaboration and business growth, bringing together more than 400 professionals from leading brands, associations, government agencies, tech companies and emerging organizations. It’s considered a key forum for exploring the trends, technologies and challenges influencing the future of marketing and PR.

When: October 14, 2026

Where: Washington, D.C.

PRSA ICON Conference

PRSA’s flagship annual conference is returning to Orlando, and the organization is calling it “the largest and most iconic PR & Comms event of the year.”

It’s considered one of the broadest gatherings for communications professionals, bringing together people who want to sharpen their leadership skills, stay ahead of media trends and grow in their careers.

Attendees can expect inspiring keynotes from nationally recognized leaders, along with a wide range of breakout sessions designed to elevate skills across strategy, ethics, AI, media and strategic communication. The conference also builds in plenty of time for networking through dedicated events and informal meet‑ups with peers, mentors and partners.

You get a chance to connect with some of the most engaged PR and communications practitioners in the country.

When: October 18-20, 2026

Where: Orlando, FL

Future of Communications Conference

Ragan is behind another big event on this list, the Future of Communications Conference, which serves as the main event of CommsWeek.

The week brings together professionals working in PR, marketing, corporate affairs and internal communications for conversations about reputation, culture, trust and the strategies shaping them.

The conference is the flagship gathering where communicators look at emerging trends, talk through disruption and get a clearer sense of what the future of the profession might look like. Sessions focus on innovation, strategy, leadership and the tools teams need to stay ahead in a fast‑moving field.

If you lead communications or want a sharper view of where the industry is going, you might want to be in the room where direction and momentum take shape. The organization describes it as a forward‑looking event built for people who want trend insights and practical takeaways they can put to work.

When: November 11-13, 2026 (part of CommsWeek Nov 9-13)

Where: Austin, TX

Comment if you’re attending any of these conferences!

Francesco Marconi, an early AI newsroom pioneer, explains how artificial intelligence is transforming journalism and PR. He also outlines why communicators must structure content for AI systems that now read and rank information before humans.

Newsrooms are increasingly embracing large language models (LLMs) to streamline production, support reporting, and reshape how journalists work.

One pioneer who worked at major news outlets led early efforts to integrate artificial intelligence into editorial workflows, helping lay the foundation for how generative AI is used in modern journalism.

Francesco Marconi, a computational journalist who founded AppliedXL, helped The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal bring AI into their editorial processes before these tools went mainstream.

So has AI use in the newsroom become the norm?

Recent global surveys show that a strong majority of news organizations have already experimented with generative AI tools for tasks such as transcription, summarization, data handling and drafting.

About 73% of those news organizations said AI platforms such as ChatGPT present new opportunities in the journalism industry.

But AI is not only being used as a tool in newsrooms. It is also reading content and deciding what gets surfaced online.

In fact, humans are often second in line when it comes to reading online content like press releases, Marconi said in an exclusive interview with EIN Presswire.

That’s why Marconi says communicators should structure content with the most helpful information at the top — for what he describes as the first reader: AI systems. He expands on that subject later in the interview.

Speaking at events and on podcasts, Marconi continues to share how he has helped spearhead AI-driven newsroom tools.

Some of those innovations include automated systems that generate routine, data-based stories such as earnings updates and sports results, and machine-learning models that identify trends in large datasets.

He’s also known for leading early experiments in AI‑assisted reporting.

Still, Marconi maintains that AI should augment journalists, not replace them, by handling routine tasks so reporters can focus on deeper, more investigative work.

Today he leads AppliedXL, a company built on the idea that early signals in public data can be detected long before they become news. Its clients include Bloomberg, Dow Jones, Washington Post Intelligence and more.

His career — spanning newsroom R&D labs, MIT Media Lab research, and books on AI in journalism — has made him one of the most influential voices on AI in modern journalism.

EIN Presswire caught up with Marconi to further explore how AI is reshaping the news industry, why machines are now reading content before humans, and how communicators can “survive machine consumption” by writing structured content.

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Q: How did your time at The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press shape your views on AI and the future of news?

A: At the AP, we were generating thousands of earnings stories a month from structured data before most newsrooms had a coherent AI strategy. Not as an experiment, as production infrastructure.

At the Journal, we took a step further to build data mining and event detection tools that monitored massive troves of data from regulatory fillings, transcripts and press releases to find signals and break stories against the competition.

What that work made clear is that the constraint in journalism has never been writing. It’s knowing what to look for, in which data, at what moment. The harder problem is encoding that judgment, the investigative instinct, the research discipline, the sourcing logic, into systems that can apply it at scale. That’s what we do at AppliedXL. We turn the insight of journalists and domain experts into AI that can run those same steps across millions of data points continuously. The outcome is detection. Signals that would take a team of researchers weeks to surface, found in seconds, before they become headlines. We’ve benchmarked this directly against the leading general-purpose AI systems. General-purpose models produce complete responses. They do not produce high-signal ones. That’s the difference between a system trained on everything and a system built to know one domain deeply.

Q: You recently wrote that AI agents are becoming the primary consumers of news. What does that mean?

A: Most news is still produced as if a human will read it first. Increasingly, that’s not true. For every human a bot sends to a publisher, that bot has already read the publisher’s work up to 70,000 times. The machine isn’t a distribution channel. It’s the primary audience. And it reads differently. A 2,000-word article is less accurate than a 200-word list of facts if the audience is an AI. Agents don’t read. They retrieve fragments and discard the rest. Every sentence that isn’t a clean, extractable claim is noise the machine uses to mis-rank and mis-summarize the source. Narrative flow is exactly what breaks the pipeline. Organizations that understand this early have a structural advantage. The ones that don’t will find their content readable but not usable.

Q: You’ve introduced the concept of “pre-news.” How would you explain that idea to communications professionals in simple terms?

A: Before a story runs, there’s a data trail. A clinical trial registry update. A regulatory filing. A carbon credit issuance. These are public records, just not yet news, because no journalist has connected them to a narrative. The gap between when that signal appears and when it becomes a headline can be hours, days, sometimes weeks.

And it goes beyond detection. We build risk scores and prediction models on top of those signals. Our clinical trial prediction model calls trial outcomes with 88% directional accuracy, higher than any peer-reviewed model in the literature. That’s what happens when you encode genuine domain expertise into the system rather than applying a general-purpose tool to specialized data.

Q: Your company works heavily with public data and signal detection. How can that help communications teams or agencies today?

A: Some of the most sophisticated investors and hedge funds have been doing this for years. Mining regulatory filings, tracking activity patterns in job postings, running linguistic analysis on public disclosures to find risk signals and decode what companies are actually doing versus what they’re saying. That infrastructure exists. It’s being used on your clients right now.

Between 50 and 70 percent of S&P 500 companies in healthcare, energy, utilities and other regulated sectors have material signals sitting in public data right now that their own IR and communications teams aren’t seeing. Not because the data doesn’t exist, but because accessing it requires the right infrastructure. Hedge funds built that infrastructure years ago. Most corporate communications teams are still working without it. We give them access to the same types of signals, the same patterns sophisticated market participants are already reading, so they can walk into any conversation knowing what the data already says about them.

Q: As AI systems increasingly scan press releases, filings and online content before humans do, how should communicators adapt?

A: Structure matters more than prose now. A material fact buried in paragraph six may never get weighted correctly by an automated system. Putting the most important signal at the top, with precision and not marketing language, has always been good practice. Now it has operational consequences.

The deeper shift is about what information needs to become. To survive machine consumption, content needs to be atomic, structured, and retrievable. Not just the facts, but the context that tells the machine what the facts mean. Ontologies. Structured claims. Instructions an agent can follow without distorting the source. Almost none of what gets published today is built that way. The communicators who figure it out first will have a significant advantage over those still optimizing for human readers who may no longer be first in line.

Q: You’ve said the “signal before the story” may become more valuable than the story itself. What does that mean for journalism and media companies?

A: Every era of media gets defined by what it monetizes. Print monetized distribution. Digital monetized data. Social monetized attention. The next era will monetize truth, because demand for it is about to outstrip supply by orders of magnitude.

AI-generated content went from roughly 7 percent of new web articles in 2022 to over 50 percent today. At the same time, US newsrooms have lost roughly half their journalists since 2008. The investigative desks, the regulatory beat reporters, the people whose job was to say “this is true and here is why” have been cut, consolidated, or eliminated. The supply of things to verify has exploded in three years. The workforce capable of verifying them has been shrinking for fifteen.

That asymmetry has a price. A market trading on unverified information misprices risk. A court admitting it as evidence reaches the wrong outcome. A clinical decision shaped by it harms a patient. No hiring wave closes that gap. The math doesn’t work.

Meanwhile, Google is already deciding which information surfaces. OpenAI is deciding what counts as a credible source. None of them have editors. None of them issue corrections. What’s true is becoming an engineering decision. A century of journalism built the infrastructure to verify truth. Nobody has figured out how to sell it at the speed it’s now needed. That’s the market that’s opening up.

Q: What skills do you believe journalists, PR professionals and communicators will need most in an AI-driven industry?

A: Data literacy, not programming, but the ability to read a database, parse a filing, know where primary sources live before they enter the news cycle. Domain depth, because generalist skills are being commoditized faster than specialist knowledge. A communications professional who genuinely understands pharmaceutical regulation or carbon markets is not interchangeable with a general-purpose tool.

It also helps to understand which kind of journalism you’re in. There are two. The first is utility journalism: information whose job is to inform decisions. For that kind, the article is increasingly the wrong container. The machine retrieves fragments and discards narrative. Structure is everything. The second is community journalism, news you feel, identity, belonging, storytelling as the product rather than the packaging. That one doesn’t need to change. The professionals who struggle most in the next few years will be the ones who haven’t figured out which of those two they’re actually doing.

In today’s information age, news is everywhere, from social media to websites, giving journalists countless story ideas and sources to draw from. They can quickly find breaking developments, trends, or quotes to include in their stories.

Still, one tool that has stood the test of time and that many news organizations continue to rely on is the press release.

These news releases often arrive as email pitches sent directly to editors, reporters and producers, or through specialized tools such as press release distribution platforms used by businesses, PR and marketing agencies, entrepreneurs and other organizations. Common tools include EIN Presswire, Cision, GlobeNewswire, and more.

But in what has become a crowded digital media funnel, editors, reporters and other newsroom associates can receive dozens, sometimes hundreds, of press releases daily in their inboxes.

Because of strict deadlines and a constant flow of news, many journalists skim releases to quickly assess what is timely, relevant and credible before deciding whether to read further, follow up, or move on.

For PR professionals, businesses, and brands, that reality raises an important question: What actually makes a press release stand out to the individuals in the media who decide what gets covered or cited?

Earned media and AI visibility

A press release serves many purposes. It formally announces news and gives journalists, AI systems and stakeholders something concrete to reference.

Which brings us to the elephant in the room: When a press release is sent, another major goal is earned media.

That earned coverage can take many forms — a reporter incorporating information from the release into a larger story, requesting an interview, or quoting a source. It might also include a podcast appearance, a broadcast segment, or print placement in a newspaper or magazine.

Still, the good news is that even if a press release does not generate earned media, using PR distribution services can provide other lasting benefits.

For one, news releases are often published online on multiple news platforms through distribution services that have wide-ranging media networks, such as EIN Presswire, Cision and others. These published clips significantly help increase visibility for a company, organization, or a brand.

And now, as AI-powered search tools become increasingly common, news releases can be picked up by systems such as Google’s AI Overviews and referenced in AI-generated summaries or answers, including those produced by ChatGPT.

What editors and reporters look for in a news release

Meanwhile, a quick Google search on how to grab the media’s attention results in plenty of general advice. But perspectives tend to be more useful when they come directly from people who have worked in newsrooms and made those decisions firsthand.

So to find out, we asked veteran editors and reporters who have covered different beats for various media outlets to share the specific elements they look for when reviewing press releases and deciding what to cover or reference.

Their perspectives, many of whom shared that press releases remain sources they rely on, help bridge the gap between the media and communicators.

Several themes emerged in their responses: begin with a strong lead (opening sentences), keep the story relevant, include compelling quotes or data, and do research on journalists and outlets that pitches or releases are sent to. They also flagged common missteps that can cause otherwise newsworthy announcements to be overlooked.

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1. Local News Still Drives Coverage

Community editors, whose small team of reporters often focus on what’s happening in the communities they serve, look for press release content that genuinely adds something to the local outlet, especially when it ties directly to local readers.

Cheri Martin, a former community newspaper editor at The Wakulla News and the Gadsden County Times in Florida with decades of journalism experience, said she always scanned for “press release content that truly enhanced the paper with an eye toward local connections first.”

She pointed to the difference between pushing something that feels like self promotion or advertorial content and offering real news or feature value, saying the latter is what her newspaper preferred.

Her newsroom relied on a mix of outside content, including news releases, to fill gaps in coverage, from gardening tips to home organizing advice to features on regional attractions. “All these basically saved me from paying for extra syndicated content,” she said, adding that one popular feature that “readers appreciated” was the Ringling Museum in Sarasota.

Martin said many of the features she used started as press releases about new books, including several she remembered coming through press release distribution platform EIN Presswire. Most “regional press release content” that made it into her paper came from government agencies or was tied to festivals, cultural events or business announcements with clear relevance.

But she was blunt about the limits. “It’s harder at the weekly community newspaper level unless it’s pertaining to a local event,” she said. “Resources are scarce. Even legitimate community newspaper stories were sometimes relegated to photos and information submitted by community contributors.”

As for general advice for sending news, Martin said tight writing helps, and follow up matters. A quick phone call can surface the missing angle that gets a release published. She recalled a PR rep who wanted coverage of a church’s disaster response efforts. “I said we needed a drop dead local connection and he found it for me and resubmitted.”

One more practical tip: many legitimate releases never reach editors at all. “A lot of legit press releases automatically ended in my spam filter,” she said. That’s another reason to follow up. And once an editor uses your content, Martin said it’s worth asking them to add your organization as a trusted sender.

2. Know the Newsroom You’re Pitching To

One misstep that communicators sometimes make is they don’t do research before pitching a story to a particular newsroom. Joshua Wilson, executive editor of The Macon Melody who serves in a leadership role for the Georgia Trust for Local News, stressed the importance of this.

Wilson, who has spent two decades in community journalism, advises PR professionals to take a moment to understand what his newsroom covers and the geographic area it serves. He had a clear message for PR folks: learn the newsroom before you pitch.

“Local matters,” Wilson emphasized. “I’d venture to guess that about 75 percent of press releases or pitches I get have absolutely no relevance to what we’re doing.”

Taking time to learn the newsroom shows editors that you care about the topic and aren’t just “shopping it around for the widest distribution net possible,” said Wilson, who helped launch the Roy Howard Community Journalism Center at the University of Southern Mississippi and has taught journalism and media literacy courses.

Wilson noted his newsroom looks for pitches that align with their mission to provide original community or “solutions-oriented journalism.”

“If your pitch can’t translate into something that’s useful for our readers, and you can’t quickly make me understand how it could, I won’t spend a lot of time on it,” he said.

When asked whether press releases have been a good source for developing stories, Wilson said they definitely can be.

“A lot of our PR friends write beautiful copy and send a lot of assets that we can easily pick up and share online or in print,” he said. “That’s very helpful, but we strive for original reporting, which is why I value thoughtful pitches — those that are clearly oriented to our mission and coverage area — more than press releases.”

He added that personal touches in pitches “go a long way.”

Wilson said: “If it’s obvious that I’m just one peg in your press distribution machine…give us some exclusivity and pitches tailored to us, and I’m all in. You’ll have a friend for life, and that friendship will be mutually beneficial.”

3. Details Matter: Give Reporters the Pertinent Information

Because of the constant flow of news, press releases can get buried in journalists’ and editors’ inboxes and in the newswires at times. Still, there are key details communicators can include to help their releases stand out.

“There are many avenues of news bombarding media outlets,” some fake or AI generated, said Tammy Joyner, whose four‑decade career in journalism spans a wide range of publications, including a rare experience chatting with former President Jimmy Carter.

Often referred to as the inverted pyramid style, press releases should include the basics at the top: who, what, when, where and why, as well as how about the main subject. “A good press release includes experts who would provide both sides of the argument about the topic being promoted,” Joyner said.

Joyner, a former editor and reporter whose work has appeared in top publications such as The New York Times, said a release that grabs attention “is properly vetted,” with evidence, background and data “that help differentiate the topic being introduced.”

“I want to know how this information is different, what would the audience want to know, how would it impact their lives or more importantly, make their lives better (or worse, if the topic involves harmful issues),” she added.

She also pointed to practical details that can make or break follow‑up. A clear point of contact with a direct phone number can determine whether a newsroom reaches out for more information.

“One of my pet peeves is news releases, websites, organizations and other entities that do not provide a contact person and phone number,” Joyner said. “To me, that is a total disregard for people’s ability to have access to someone to gain more information.”

4. The Story Matters — and So Does Where You Send It

You and your PR team may think the story you’re pitching is a no-brainer for grabbing a journalist’s attention, and often it is. But you still have to make the case in a way that shows it’s newsworthy and aimed at the right outlet.

There are two top elements that help a press release get picked up, one of which is making it about a truly interesting story, something actually newsy and relevant, according to Laura Cassels, a veteran Florida journalist who specializes in state politics, science and economics.

Including access to “source experts” can make a release stand out even more among the masses, she added.

“It should have data and expert quotes to demonstrate what I think of as ‘probable cause’ that the item you pitch might pan out and be worth the writer’s time,” Cassels said.

She also doubled down on an earlier point about targeting the right audience: “The other No. 1 thing is to pitch it to the right outlets. Do the work to know that the writer, editor, or outlet you’re pitching to is the kind that will care about the story you’re pitching. Otherwise, you’re wasting your time and theirs.”

Cassels has spent time on both the PR and journalism sides of the business, handling media relations for Florida’s tourism marketing organization earlier in her career. On the journalism side, she receives numerous press releases as a veteran reporter whose work can be found in the Florida Trident, Florida Phoenix and Florida Trend.

Building relationships with the media can be rewarding, especially when you can offer “pitches that are appropriate for them, with information they can use, if not this time then maybe next time,” Cassels said.

That’s why it’s important to read a writer’s work or watch a reporter’s coverage. “Comment on it in your communications,” she said, noting that referencing their work when you email a pitch can signal you’ve done your homework.

“If you have a good story to tell, if you pitch it to the right outlet, and you offer to assist further, you might see it published in an outlet where the right readers will see it,” she said. “Offer photography and infographics.”

Cassels said a press release should make its purpose clear at a glance, with the core information up top and clean details, including “anchors so the reader can jump to the parts he or she is curious about.” She urged communicators to skip “flowery language” and focus on clarity.

She also warned against assuming that getting a release published in many places means it had a real impact. Some outlets will publish a release almost word for word, Cassels said, but that doesn’t mean it’s reaching the right audience. “Those outlets often publish anything from anybody, so yours may just be lost in the noise,” Cassels said.

5. Keep It Relevant to the Beat

Politics is one of the busiest areas of coverage for many reporters, and press releases often help them track developments, spot trends, or build out larger stories.

That’s especially true when a release touches on hot‑button topics within politics, said Mitch Perry, a veteran reporter covering politics who has worked in both TV and print, including Bay News 9.

“I’m a political reporter, so I like pitches that relate to public policy issues and stories about politics and/or elections,” said Perry, now a senior reporter for the Florida Phoenix. He noted that he also covers gun policy, the environment and other statewide issues, so releases tied to those subjects are far more likely to get his attention than something outside his beat.

Perry, who has covered politics and government in Florida for more than two decades, said the topic is the first thing he looks for — a release should connect “with something I’m familiar with.”

He added that strong quotes and a clear email subject line help a reporter quickly assess whether a pitch is worth opening. “Sometimes a reporter can be so busy that it’s great to have some quotes available right then and there,” he said.

Perry also appreciates when PR teams show they’ve done their homework. “I do get pitches by PR agents who have noticed that I have written on a particular subject, and reference that as a way to raise my interest,” Perry said.

What he doesn’t appreciate are mass‑forwarded emails blasted to every reporter in a newsroom. “I swear there are a certain number of folks who just blanket send messages to every reporter they know — regardless of what the reporter actually covers,” he said.

Still, Perry emphasized that press releases remain useful tools for political journalists. “Press releases have helped me write stories I wasn’t even thinking of, or can enhance a project I’m already working on,” Perry said. “So they are not a waste of time by any measure.”

6. Give Reporters What They Need to Do Their Jobs

John Pacenti, an Emmy‑winning investigative journalist who has covered South Florida for more than three decades, said the relationship between a PR representative and a reporter works best when both sides understand what the reporter needs: facts and access.

That expectation starts with the press release. “If I receive a press release that is missing critical information or doesn’t include contact details, I am suspicious of the release, the agency behind it, and the subject matter in general,” said Pacenti, who is president of First Way Communications.

A release should serve as the reporter’s “elevator pitch” — self‑contained, with all essential information and canned quotes — while still leaving room for follow‑up interviews and additional reporting.

Pacenti pointed to two similar condominium developments in Delray Beach to show how this plays out. One project provided a thorough release, responded quickly, granted a tour, and made business owners available for interviews. The other offered poor contact information, conflicting details, and no returned calls. “To this day, I still have not received any information,” he said.

The difference shaped his perception of each project. The first development “went out of their way to provide information.” The second “acted like the reporter was a bother,” which raised red flags.

“As a reporter, it makes me highly suspicious that there is something wrong with the complex,” Pacenti said. “And it all started with the news release.”

Hello!

We hope you were able to flood media outlets with your news in May!

The team at EIN Presswire appreciates you choosing us as a trusted tool for news distribution that results in both media coverage and AI visibility.

To show our appreciation, we’ve got special savings on press releases coming in June. Keep an eye out for a limited-time promotion on some of our most popular press release packages. We’ll share more details on our socials in early June, including how to claim your offer and lock in your savings.

In the May edition of EIN Essentials, young PR leaders weigh in on how Gen Z is using artificial intelligence in their work, and a marketing expert shares her journey from working in corporate America handling social media and branding to building her own firm that now helps thousands of creatives. There’s more, so keep scrolling!

If you haven’t already, subscribe now to our Substack to stay updated on articles and content about the evolving PR industry.

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Inside this issue:

1. White Paper: What Veteran Journalists Actually Look for in Press Releases in 2026

2. Panel Discussion: How Gen Z Communicators Are Using AI

3. Heard on the Streets: Shelby Leigh on Creativity and Building a Brand

4. Newsmatics Launches ‘Journalists Wanted’ Initiative

5. AGP Spotlight: Health Reporter of Georgia

White Paper: What Veteran Journalists Actually Look for in Press Releases in 2026 📖

Press releases remain a key way to reach people in the media, but how do journalists actually view them when they land in their inbox?

EIN Presswire spoke with veteran reporters and editors to find out what gets a release noticed, published or ignored.

The conversations were turned into a new white paper for communicators, businesses and brands looking to improve outreach.

Inside, journalists stress the basics still matter, such as researching outlets, tailoring pitches and following key fundamentals of press release writing.

Download the white paper now.

Panel Discussion: How Gen Z Communicators Are Using AI 🤖

Is AI best for content creation? Or does it work better as a tool for brainstorming PR campaigns and ideas?

Four early career professionals and PR students tackled those questions and more as they shared how they use AI across a variety of communications tasks. The young professionals panel explored how artificial intelligence is reshaping the industry as Gen Z enters the workforce.

Watch the video here.

Heard on the Streets: Shelby Leigh on Creativity and Building a Brand 🙌

Successful author and marketing strategist Shelby Leigh knows a thing or two about building an audience.

After selling more than 60,000 books and helping thousands of creatives grow their brands, Leigh sat down with EIN Presswire to share lessons on storytelling, authenticity and why creators should stop waiting for “perfection” before putting themselves out there.

Read more.

Newsmatics Launches ‘Journalists Wanted’ Initiative 📍

Have you seen our parent company in the news lately?

Newsmatics, which owns EIN Presswire, just launched “Journalists Wanted,” a new initiative aimed at helping credible journalism reach wider audiences through a trusted publishing platform.

Independent journalists and news organizations are invited to submit original reporting and stories for editorial review. Approved stories can be featured across the global Affinity Group Publishing network while allowing journalists to maintain ownership and control of their work.

AGP boasts more than 3,900 moderated digital publications, so journalists have no shortage of platforms to share their stories on.

Find out more.

AGP Spotlight: Health Reporter of Georgia 📰

Did you know Newsmatics operates a network of more than 3,900 moderated online publications? We’re highlighting one of those publications from Affinity Group Publishing (AGP).

Health Reporter of Georgia is a publication focused on news in the state of Georgia. Top headlines this week include a sushi restaurant in Duluth failing a health inspection, Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms outlining her health care priorities, and Atlanta Public Schools hosting its annual expo for parents.

You can even sign up to receive daily news briefings from an AGP publication, delivered straight to your inbox. All you have to do is subscribe by entering your email.

Craving more PR insights, tips or exclusive content?

Subscribe now to the EIN Presswire Substack to stay updated on the latest in the evolving PR industry. Follow us on our socials: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

The newsroom is shrinking. Since 2005, the newspaper industry has lost nearly two-thirds of its journalists.

Nearly 15,000 media jobs were eliminated in 2024 alone. The reporters who remain are stretched thin, covering more ground with fewer resources.

For organizations that have built their communications strategies around media access, this is a structural shift, and most have yet to reckon with what it actually means.

The instinct has been to pitch harder. More press releases. More follow-ups. More targets on the list. But the average journalist response rate sits at just 3.43%, with lack of relevance as the top reason for rejection. Effort alone does not move the needle.

The deeper problem is trust. Shrinking newsrooms have created a vacuum that audiences are filling with skepticism. They are more fragmented, less anchored to legacy media, and increasingly indifferent to organizations that only show up when they want coverage.

The unit of value in communications is no longer the placement. It is the perception, and perception is shaped long before any journalist picks up the phone.

That is where influence enters. In his landmark work Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert Cialdini identified seven principles that govern how people form judgements and make decisions. Two of them cut closest to the problem at hand.

Authority explains why audiences defer to sources with demonstrated expertise over time. Social Proof explains why credibility compounds: the more an organization is seen, cited and referenced by others, the more its voice carries weight.

Together they describe something that no pitch can manufacture. Influence of this kind is accumulated. It is the product of consistent positioning, not a single well-timed statement.

The organizations that understand this show up differently. They invest in original research. They build executives into credible public voices before a crisis arrives. Journalists rank original research and exclusives among the content they value most from communications professionals.

That is not a media relations tactic. It is an influence strategy dressed in media relations clothing.

Artificial intelligence is already flooding the information ecosystem, lowering the cost of content production while driving the noise level up. Narratives can be generated, adapted and redistributed at a pace that outstrips traditional response cycles.

As content becomes easier to produce, credibility becomes harder to sustain. The role of media relations shifts under this pressure, away from generating outputs and towards maintaining narrative discipline. The question is no longer how to secure attention, but how to ensure attention leads to the intended interpretation.

None of this works in isolation. Media relations needs to sit alongside policy communication, digital strategy and stakeholder engagement. A consistent and credible narrative does not emerge from a press release.

It is built across every channel where audiences form opinions. People trust sources they feel they know. AI can replicate tone and mimic structure, but it cannot build genuine familiarity. The human advantage in communications is not speed. It is the capacity to be known, trusted, and believed by the people who still decide what gets told.

Institutions that treat communications as a reactive function will find the ground shifting under them. Influence does not wait for a campaign budget to be approved.

Coverage was always a proxy. The real prize was always trust.

David Olajide, a communications professional with nearly a decade of experience, is the senior marketing and communications manager at Curzon PR in London. He also runs the firm’s blog, PR Insider.

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These days, the media environment is changing and moving at lightning speed. That’s why it’s important for anyone sending news to journalists to understand the inner workings of newsrooms.

One thing still stands: press releases remain a valuable tool to reach the media. But have you ever wondered how people working inside the newsroom actually perceive press releases?

EIN Presswire, the world’s leading press release distribution platform, spoke with veteran reporters and editors to get their insights on the factors that determine whether a news release is pursued, published or ignored.

You may remember our “Inside the Newsroom” Substack series, where each journalist shared their takeaways.

This time, we turned the full set of interviews into a new white paper designed to give communicators, businesses and brands a practical toolkit for building an effective media outreach strategy that captures the attention of journalists.

Inside the paper, you’ll find core findings from the interviewees, including the importance of researching a news outlet before sending a news release, and tailoring pitches to the reporter’s beat or coverage area.

And the journalists also point out that writing a news release following key guidelines for structure and content can really help improve your chances of a successful pitch.

Download the white paper here.

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To accelerate awareness and participation, Newsmatics is supporting the initiative with a targeted industry marketing campaign in partnership with Editor & Publisher Magazine, reaching tens of thousands of news publishing executives through digital, print and webinar channels.

As the media landscape continues to evolve, “Journalists Wanted” represents a new approach to distribution, one that prioritizes discovery, attribution and the preservation of journalistic integrity.

Journalists and local news organizations interested in participating can submit their work at JournalistsWanted.com for editorial review through the program’s online portal.

Check out a press release and article to learn more.

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How is AI affecting creativity, and how important is it to maintain originality while using AI platforms for PR‑related work? Hear what they have to say in EIN Presswire’s young professional panel discussion.

The panel — made up of emerging PR professionals, PRSSA leaders, and students — included A’Mya Kendrick (Eastern Kentucky University), Kiley Fenn (University of Tennessee), Courteney Sykes (Clark Atlanta University and Florida State University), and Lilibet Kirwan (marketing intern at Newsmatics, parent company of EIN Presswire).

Check out the full panel discussion, which will be posted soon on YouTube. Subscribe below for more Heard on the Streets episodes, exclusive interviews, and additional content.

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One major shift these budding PR graduates and early‑career professionals are navigating is artificial intelligence. To explore their thought process, our intern Lilibet Kirwan hosted a panel discussion for Heard on the Streets, discussing how AI is reshaping the PR landscape for Gen Z.

How is it affecting creativity, and how important is it to maintain originality while using AI platforms for PR‑related work? Hear what they have to say in part 1 of EIN Presswire’s young professional panel.

If you’ve been following our panel discussions from last year, you’ll recognize a familiar face: A’Mya Kendrick, a former intern and PR guru who led a similar conversation during her internship. In the clip, Kendrick shares what she considers “good taste” in comms in the age of AI.

In the full video coming soon, you’ll also see a new face and another familiar one in our latest panel discussion as they share their insights on AI, agency experience, and internships.

The panel — made up of emerging PR professionals, PRSSA leaders, and students — includes A’Mya Kendrick (Eastern Kentucky University), Kiley Fenn (University of Tennessee), Courteney Sykes (Clark Atlanta University and Florida State University), and Lilibet Kirwan (marketing intern at Newsmatics, parent company of EIN Presswire).

The full episode drops soon on YouTube, so stay tuned. Subscribe below for more Heard on the Streets episodes, exclusive interviews, and additional content.

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When Shelby Leigh began sharing her work online nine years ago, she hoped to learn how to market her products and connect with others in her space. What she may not have expected is that she’d go on to inspire hundreds of creatives and sell more than 60,000 books.

That experience led her to launch Marketing by Shelby, a platform that makes her marketing expertise accessible to artists, authors, entrepreneurs, and other creators.

But one thing that sets Leigh apart from many creatives in the marketing space is her advocacy for mental health. She has used social media to reach millions through her poetry, which explores topics such as anxiety, self-love and healing.

The bestselling author has also integrated mental health awareness into Marketing by Shelby, where she helps creatives navigate the impact of social media on their well-being.

Today, Leigh has written four successful books and worked with more than 9,000 students.

With over a decade of experience helping shape brands and a following of hundreds of thousands, she has become a trusted resource for many creatives.

Leigh has built her business around a simple philosophy: “Marketing isn’t a chore, but an extension of your creativity.”

In a conversation with EIN Presswire, Leigh shared how she got started in her career, her perspective on building brands and strategic communications, as well as insights for creatives.

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Q: Tell us a bit about your path. What were you doing early on, and how did that lead to what you’re building today?

A: I studied Communications and PR in college, so marketing was always part of my world. After graduating, I worked in corporate social media and branding while also writing and self-publishing poetry books on the side. I was a marketing professional by day, soaking up everything I could about marketing, branding, PR and social media, and at night, I was an author trying to figure out how to sell books and pursue a passion I’d had since I was a young kid.

From there, I was applying what I knew about branding and social media to my own books, and it was working. Other authors started asking me how I was doing it, and I realized there was a real gap: creatives who were talented but had no idea how to market themselves without feeling like they were selling out. I started Marketing by Shelby shortly after leaving my corporate job to pursue my writing passion, and it just grew from there.

Q: Was there a moment when things started to gain momentum for your brand? Any milestones that stand out?

A: For a long time, it was more like a bunch of small wins that started adding up. As an author, hitting 500K followers was a cool milestone, but what actually felt meaningful was selling over 60,000 books, because I remembered selling two copies the very first week I self-published and spent many months wondering if anyone would ever care.

On the business side, one of my favorite milestones was when I launched my membership, The Creative’s Content Club. I had over 300 creatives join during launch week, which was beyond my wildest dreams. (My goal was 100 members!) I’ve now had over 9,000 students be a part of my programs. That’s a lot of creatives who decided to bet on themselves, and I don’t take that lightly.

Q: Looking ahead, what shifts in media, marketing, or audience behavior are you paying closest attention to right now?

A: A few things, honestly. I’m watching how tired people are getting of content that feels manufactured. Audiences are really good at detecting inauthenticity now, and I think that’s actually great news for creatives who are willing to just be real and show up. A lot of the creatives I work with are hesitant at first. They like to be behind-the-scenes and not be on camera, which I completely understand because I’ve been there. But with the rise of AI content, we need to show up as ourselves to stand out.

I’m also paying close attention to email. Everyone keeps counting it out and it keeps proving people wrong. For the people I work with, owning your list versus renting space on a platform is a conversation I’m having constantly. I love email marketing and I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon.

Q: From your perspective, what do creatives often get wrong when trying to build an audience or make their brand visible?

A: The biggest one is waiting too long to start. They want everything to be perfect before they put themselves out there, and that costs them so much time.

The other thing I see constantly is creatives trying to copy what big brands or influencers are doing instead of leaning into what actually makes them different. Your story, your voice, your specific way of seeing things is what builds a real audience. People don’t follow logos; they follow people. There’s a reason why big brands are now leaning into personal brands. And as small businesses, we have that personal edge that big brands don’t!

The other thing creatives get wrong is overdoing it, thinking they need to be everywhere, doing everything, all the time. They don’t. They need one clear message shared consistently to the right people. Being strong on 1-2 platforms is more impactful than trying to be on 5 platforms at once with a weak strategy.

Q: What’s one approach, habit, or strategy that’s been consistently effective for you as the industry evolves?

A: Storytelling, without question. Before I create anything — a caption, an email, a course lesson — I ask myself what the human moment is behind it. That’s what makes content actually connect, and it’s the one thing that doesn’t change no matter what the algorithm is doing.

Platforms shift, trends come and go, but people always want to feel understood. If your marketing is built around that, you’re going to be fine.

Q: What advice would you give to someone looking to build their audience?

A: Start before you feel ready, and be more honest than you think you’re supposed to be. The content that has actually moved the needle for me was never the most polished or perfect — it was the most honest or vulnerable. Like I said before, humans want to connect with other humans.

And think about your audience as actual people, not a number. Don’t ask, “How do I get more followers?” Ask, “How do I genuinely help the person already reading this? How can I make sure my ideal audience feels understood, inspired, or empowered by our brand?”

Also, and this is the one that a lot of people have a hard time hearing: give it more time than feels comfortable. Slow growth is still growth.

Hello! We’re a little too late for our own April Fools’ prank, so here’s a quick throwback to one of history’s most famous media hoaxes.

In 1957, BBC aired a segment known as the “Spaghetti-tree hoax,” showing Swiss farmers harvesting spaghetti from trees. Thousands of viewers reportedly believed it and even called in asking how to grow their own.

Jokes aside, here’s what’s in April’s edition of EIN Essentials. EIN Presswire sat down with a former CNN journalist who covered crime and now runs her own media company focused on an entirely different beat, and also discussed ethical AI use with a London-based PR leader.

We also wrapped up our Substack series on how the media really thinks about press releases, plus a few more updates worth your time.

If you haven’t already, subscribe now to our Substack to stay updated on articles and content about the evolving PR industry.

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Inside this issue:

1. Inside the Newsroom: What Journalists Really Look for in Press Releases

2. Heard on the Streets: From CNN to UnchainedTV and AI in PR

3. Case Study: How Press Releases Drove Media Pickups and More

4. AGP Spotlight: Greenland Political Report

Inside the Newsroom: What Journalists Really Look for in Press Releases 🧐

If you’ve been following along on the EIN Presswire Substack, you’ve probably seen several posts from our “Inside the Newsroom” series, where veteran editors and reporters break down how they view press releases today. This is the final installment.

Across six interviews representing decades of newsroom experience, these journalists provided several common themes:

• A press release should be relevant to the newsroom’s geographic or subject focus

• Researching a news outlet before pitching significantly improves outcomes

• Press releases with clear leads, data-driven content, and expert quotes can spark the interest of reporters

• Complete contact information is essential

If you missed earlier editions, no problem. We’ll be publishing the full series soon on Substack. There’s also a white paper in the works that can help you develop a media outreach strategy based on journalists’ takeaways.

Read the latest.

Heard on the Streets: From CNN to UnchainedTV and AI in PR 🎙️

Have you checked out what’s buzzing in our Heard on the Streets section?

You might recognize a familiar face from the news world. Jane Velez-Mitchell, who once hosted a primetime crime show on CNN, moved into the entrepreneurial space several years ago. She now leads UnchainedTV, an award-winning vegan news and animal rights network. Some of its nonprofit programming has even earned Taste Awards, including the cooking show Kale Krew. Check out her profile story.

Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is becoming part of everyday work in public relations. David Olajide, who leads the marketing division at Curzon PR, says communicators need to think carefully about how they use it. He also touches on reputation management, a service his firm offers that’s gaining traction with clients. What does ethical AI use mean?

Find out in our latest podcast.

Case Study: How Press Releases Drove Media Pickups and More 📈

What happens when a regional economic development group in North Dakota looks beyond local media for press release distribution?

In our new case study, Marketing and Communications Manager Mark Maliskey of the Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corporation shares how their strategy evolved. He said their news releases were once sent only to local outlets, where coverage wasn’t always guaranteed.

But after using EIN Presswire’s distribution network, the EDC secured media pickups, along with broader online placements, and built backlinks. Using distribution platforms, Maliskey said, also helped increase website traffic and support search visibility over time.

Read the full case study.

AGP Spotlight: Greenland Political Report 📰

Did you know our parent company operates a network of more than 3,900 moderated online publications?

This month, we’re highlighting one of those publications from Affinity Group Publishing (AGP), a product of Newsmatics (parent company of EIN Presswire).

Greenland Political Report is a news site covering Greenland politics and broader developments. This week’s coverage includes Greenland mining updates, infrastructure developments, and geopolitical headlines tied to shifting global dynamics.

A key feature of AGP publications is that your press releases can be placed directly within specific digital publications, helping you reach targeted audiences more effectively. Another standout tool tied to AGP is Perspectify, which labels stories for political bias and lets you filter content based on your preferences.

Craving more PR insights, tips or exclusive content?

Subscribe now to the EIN Presswire Substack to stay updated on the latest in the evolving PR industry. Follow us on our socials: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Industry: Nonprofit/economic development

The Challenge

The EDC works to expand economic opportunity and grow the workforce in Grand Forks in eastern North Dakota by marketing the region for business investment and relocation, and by meeting regularly with business leaders to identify ways to support their expansion. Before using press release distribution platforms, the EDC shared its releases only with local news outlets — and not every story made it into print or online. So Mark Maliskey, the organization’s marketing and communications manager, began looking for a distribution service that could amplify their message. He wanted to use a wire service for guaranteed placement and to boost visibility across internet search platforms.

The Solution

After choosing to use a press release distribution platform, the EDC saw clear benefits in reach, credibility, SEO and media placements. That success prompted the organization to look for more affordable options, which led them to EIN Presswire. Affordability has been a major factor in the EDC’s continued use of the service. The team sends press releases five to 10 times a year, depending on major project announcements or accomplishments they want to share.

Client Testimonial

“I would describe the value for the cost of the release on EIN Presswire as very valuable. As a mid-size nonprofit, we have a limited budget. We have a large audience as well, targeting business decision-makers around the country.”

—Mark Maliskey, Marketing & Communications Manager of EDC

Measurable Gains

Within a series of press releases sent through EIN Presswire, EDC achieved several measurable gains:

✅Building backlinks

The organization built multiple backlinks to its website, helping increase domain authority and improve search rankings related to the Grand Forks community. Some releases also triggered additional media coverage from economic development news agencies and newsletters.

✅Website traffic and visibility increase

EDC saw improvements in visibility, website traffic, media pickup and search performance. For example, when searching for “Agristo US,” a major business expansion project announced in the Grand Forks region, the EDC website ranks No. 4 — directly below the company’s own site. That story was also shared across EIN Presswire, contributing to stronger domain priority.

✅Measurable outcomes

The organization reported that from February 2023 to February 2024, it received 11,500 direct, organic and referral visits to its website. After beginning to use EIN Presswire, traffic increased to 16,200 from February 2024 to February 2025.

In conclusion, by leveraging an affordable and effective press release distribution strategy through EIN Presswire, the EDC successfully enhanced its visibility, strengthened its online presence, and reached a broader audience, ultimately supporting its mission to attract business investment and drive economic growth in the Grand Forks region.

Ready to expand your reach and see measurable results? Discover how EIN Presswire can amplify your message and connect you with the right audience today.

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Some people learn to speak on camera. Karla Ray lived it.

Long before she ventured into the communications side of the business, she was in newsrooms across the United States, chasing stories and anchoring newscasts. At just 19, she got her start in local news, hauling her own gear across dozens of counties as a one‑woman‑band reporter in South Dakota.

Her firm, Unprompted Strategies, which she doesn’t label as strictly public relations, gives clients an edge by focusing on a part of communications many overlook: telling stories both on‑camera and off.

“I don’t really view myself as a practitioner of public relations, but I am a master communicator,” Ray told EIN Presswire. “I’ve been a writer and storyteller for as long as I can remember.”

Unprompted Strategies was born, as she says, “after leaving news unexpectedly in 2024 to help others amplify stories on camera, online or on their behalf.”

The standout service she’s known for is one not every traditional PR shop can pull off: media coaching.

Her areas of expertise are media coaching and media placement, shaped by her extensive newsroom experience and a keen instinct for what reporters look for.

And she’s the ideal person to school you on being interviewed by the media — just look at her background, spending more than a decade investigating, anchoring, and earning Emmy nominations in Florida.

When she was let go from her news role in 2024 — an “unprompted job loss” — everything shifted. What came next wasn’t a backup plan but rather the foundation of the company she continues to build today.

Ray launched Unprompted Strategies to help people and brands show up with clarity, command a camera, and own the room. She ditched the teleprompter to teach others how to think like journalists, pitch with purpose, and deliver when the red light turns on.

In this “Heard on the Streets” feature, Ray shares how she turned a career pivot into a platform, why former journalists are PR’s secret weapon, and what brands get wrong when they wait too long to ask for help.

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Q: Tell us a little more about your journey and how you got started.

A: I think I wrote my first ‘book’ at age 4- something ridiculous that’s no doubt in a box somewhere in my parents’ basement. I started on the print journalism track in college but quickly realized that I was better suited for the pace and style of broadcast. I spent 17 years working as a television investigative reporter and anchor, mostly in Florida.

Q: Describe your firm and the industries and clients you serve.

A: I want to teach people how to fish. My goal is to help people learn how to tell their own brand story so well that they don’t need to pay a retainer fee to a PR firm each month. Unprompted Strategies is run on authenticity and audacity, and the authentic and audacious are the clients I hope to serve. I have a full-time 8-5 as a Community Relations Manager at a law firm, so I am only taking on a few clients at a time under Unprompted. This allows me to really focus on their needs and deliver results.

Q: What specific areas of PR do you specialize in?

A: Media coaching and media placement are my calling cards, due to my extensive work history in TV news. I can write a press release, but my placements have come from knowing how to pitch a good story and preparing my clients for their on-camera or quotable moment.

Q: Could you share some insights into the strategies or best practices that have been key to your clients’ success?

A: It’s all about learning to think like a journalist. Once you know how to identify a good story, feel empowered to tell it, and build relationships with the reporters who can amplify your voice, the pitching part is easy. Too often, brands and businesses focus only on the chance to be featured without doing any of the prep work to make sure they nail it when the spotlight is on.

Q: What is one of the biggest mistakes you see brands, companies, or organizations make in the field of PR?

A: Waiting too long to ask for help. Imagine spending all this time creating your brand or business, only for it to flop because you don’t have the right team helping to get your story out! I also find that PR is often the first budget to get cut when times are tough; this is a mistake because without public interest, even the best ideas can die on the vine.

Q: Anything else you’d like to share about the industry you work in or helpful tips?

A: Don’t overlook former journalists. We know what makes a good story, a strong pitch, we understand production, we are deadline-driven and are incredible multi-taskers! Even if we don’t have an APR behind our names, we know how to play the game.

This is the final part of our Substack series Inside the Newsroom: What Journalists Really Look for in Press Releases, based on interviews with journalists — including veteran reporters and editors — about how they evaluate press releases.

John Pacenti, an Emmy‑winning investigative journalist who has covered South Florida for more than three decades, said the relationship between a PR representative and a reporter works best when both sides understand what the reporter needs: facts and access.

That expectation starts with the press release. “If I receive a press release that is missing critical information or doesn’t include contact details, I am suspicious of the release, the agency behind it, and the subject matter in general,” said Pacenti, who is president of First Way Communications.

A news release should serve as the reporter’s “elevator pitch” — self‑contained, with all essential information and canned quotes — while still leaving room for follow‑up interviews and additional reporting.

Pacenti pointed to two similar condominium developments in Delray Beach to show how this plays out. One project provided a thorough press release, with the media contact responding quickly. The contact also granted a tour and made business owners available for interviews.

The other offered poor contact information, conflicting details, and no returned calls, Pacenti said. “To this day, I still have not received any information.”

The difference shaped his perception of each project. The first development “went out of their way to provide information.” The second “acted like the reporter was a bother,” which raised red flags.

“As a reporter, it makes me highly suspicious that there is something wrong with the complex,” Pacenti said. “And it all started with the news release.”

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Getting and keeping readers’ attention on the internet is more challenging than ever. A website does not get much time to make its case. Visitors scan and decide whether the page feels useful, often in a matter of seconds. That means a strong web content strategy is not just about having the right information, but also about great web design.

Web design focuses on presenting information in a way that helps people understand what matters first, what comes next, and why they should keep going. Research on online reading has found that most users tend to scan rather than read word-for-word. People may read only a small share of the text on a page before moving on.

That is why engaging web design depends on structure as much as style. A page has to create momentum. It needs a clear path, visible priorities, and content that feels easy to move through.

In a digital environment where teams are increasingly incorporating UX designers, the larger challenge is not simply making a site look modern. Instead, it is building pages that guide attention and reduce friction from the first scroll onward.

Build a Visual Hierarchy That Tells Users Where to Look

Visual hierarchy is one of the first things that separates a page that holds attention from one that loses it. It should allow users to tell what is most important without having to think too hard. This requires a visual hierarchy strategy that uses elements such as scale, contrast, and grouping to guide the eye to the right content in the right order.

In practice, that means headlines should do more than label sections. They should communicate value. Subheads should help break a complex topic into logical stages. Calls to action should stand out without overwhelming the page. White space should be used to create breathing room.

This is also where layout and story start to overlap. A homepage, landing page, or long-form article should not feel like a pile of equally weighted blocks. It should feel sequenced. Users should know what the page is about within seconds, see the next useful point without hunting for it, and understand where to go if they want more detail.

In practice, a good hierarchy lowers cognitive effort. It also makes a web page feel more trustworthy because the user does not have to decode it first.

Make Copy Easy to Scan Without Making It Thin

Scannable writing is not the same as shallow writing. It means shaping content around how people actually move through a page. This includes words, headlines, lists, graphics, and any highlighted information.

Some rules in this area mirror those found in journalism. For example, a web page should have a clear message, use facts and uncomplicated writing, and keep paragraphs short.

Section headings should carry meaning, not just clever phrasing. Key points should appear early in sections rather than get buried. Links should be descriptive enough to tell users what they will get before they click.

Readability also depends on presentation. The length of text lines can impact how easily users can process text, with overly long lines creating friction and reducing comprehension. A page can have strong information and still underperform if reading it feels physically tiring. Good web writing and good layout work hand-in-hand.

Use Multimedia to Support the Story, Not Distract From It

Images, video, charts, and other media can deepen engagement, but only when they serve the page’s purpose. Multimedia should clarify, not confuse. Using multimedia assets for their own sake can disrupt page flow and reader comprehension.

Video often works best on the web when it supplements text and images rather than replacing them, especially when users need context. That principle matters because many teams add media for energy while overlooking usability

A short explainer video can help if it answers a question quickly. An image can strengthen a section if it illustrates the point. A chart can improve comprehension if it makes a pattern easier to grasp. But media that autoplays, slows page comprehension, or hides key information can push users away.

Evan Kropp, Ph.D., is Executive Director of Distance Education at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications and a faculty member in the online Master of Arts in Mass Communication program. His work focuses on digital education, media strategy, and the evolving role of journalism in the modern media ecosystem.

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But there’s a caveat, says David Olajide, senior marketing manager at Curzon PR. The Nigerian native supports AI use in the communications industry but stresses the importance of using it ethically.

He breaks down what responsible AI use looks like and discusses reputation management, a core service at the London-based firm where he works.

🎧 We just dropped the audio podcast with EIN Presswire and Olajide — check out the full conversation on our YouTube.

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This is part of our Substack series Inside the Newsroom: What Journalists Really Look for in Press Releases, based on interviews with journalists — including veteran reporters and editors — about how they evaluate press releases. Over the next several weeks, EIN Presswire will publish takeaways from those conversations.

Politics is one of the busiest areas of coverage for many reporters, and press releases often help them track developments, spot trends, or build out larger stories.

That’s especially true when a news release touches on hot‑button topics within politics, said Mitch Perry, a veteran reporter covering politics who has worked in both TV and print, including Bay News 9.

“I’m a political reporter, so I like pitches that relate to public policy issues and stories about politics and/or elections,” said Perry, a senior reporter for the Florida Phoenix.

He noted that he also covers gun policy, the environment and other statewide issues, so releases tied to those subjects are far more likely to get his attention than something outside his beat.

Perry, who has covered politics and government in Florida for more than two decades, said the topic is the first thing he looks for — a press release should connect “with something I’m familiar with.”

He added that strong quotes and a clear email subject line help a reporter quickly assess whether a pitch is worth opening. “Sometimes a reporter can be so busy that it’s great to have some quotes available right then and there,” he said.

Perry also appreciates when PR teams show they’ve done their homework. “I do get pitches by PR agents who have noticed that I have written on a particular subject, and reference that as a way to raise my interest,” Perry said.

What he doesn’t appreciate are mass‑forwarded emails blasted to every reporter in a newsroom. “I swear there are a certain number of folks who just blanket send messages to every reporter they know — regardless of what the reporter actually covers,” he said.

Still, Perry emphasized that press releases remain useful tools for political journalists. “Press releases have helped me write stories I wasn’t even thinking of, or can enhance a project I’m already working on,” Perry said. “So they are not a waste of time by any measure.”

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Before documenting conditions of animal cruelty and streaming award‑winning vegan cooking shows to millions worldwide, Jane Velez-Mitchell was a host of a primetime crime show on CNN Headline News, often appearing alongside or filling in for famed television personality Nancy Grace.

Velez-Mitchell, who has served as a CNN commentator, navigated courtrooms and covered trials that gripped the nation, including the high-profile O.J. Simpson case.

It’s no surprise that, through her extensive TV career, she honed the storytelling skills that would later shape her next venture.

In a video call with EIN Presswire, a large TV screen glowing in the background and a warm smile on her face, Velez-Mitchell explained how to access UnchainedTV, a free vegan news and entertainment channel that she founded several years ago.

She casually mentioned well-known figures she is closely connected to in the industry, including TMZ founder Harvey Levin, with whom she has worked with.

Velez-Mitchell also pointed to celebrities who have embraced veganism and have been featured on her network, some of whom may come as a surprise, such as boxing legend Mike Tyson.

Meanwhile, her decades in television, including a six-year stint covering stories for nationally syndicated shows like Celebrity Justice, laid the foundation for a different path within media, one that was the complete opposite of covering crimes.

Velez-Mitchell’s entrepreneurial venture created space for what seems to be a niche: a streaming network devoted entirely to animal rights, plant-based living, and environmental issues — topics that mainstream media don’t cover much.

Today, the former pescatarian turned vegan leads a team of volunteers and advocates passionate about UnchainedTV, which is a nonprofit.

Their goal is simple, outlined in a mission statement: to entertain viewers worldwide but also “ignite change through stories that matter — for animals, people, and the planet.”

The mission-driven media platform blends original programming with celebrity-driven content, including series like At Home with the Jenners, alongside award-winning shows recognized by the Taste Awards, often called the “Oscars of Food.”

Specifically, the show Kale Krew won “Best City or Regional Program” at the 16th annual awards in 2025, while New Day New Chef previously won two Taste Awards.

Today, much of Velez-Mitchell’s time is spent producing and curating stories that advocate for animal rights, climate change, and veganism — using the same rigor that once brought courtroom drama to living rooms to illuminate a very different kind of justice.

In an exclusive interview, the award-winning journalist and entrepreneur discussed her latest documentary, The Climate Healers, the moment that led her to embrace veganism, and why she says mainstream media has overlooked what she calls “the crime of the century.”

She also expanded on building UnchainedTV, pointing to its growth, award-winning programming, and more.

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Q: You spent years covering some of the most high-profile criminal cases in the country. Was there a moment that pushed you to transition to animal rights and plant-based media?

I’ve reported on the trials of the Menendez Brothers, OJ Simpson, Phil Spector, Robert Blake, Michael Jackson, Casey Anthony, George Zimmerman, Jodi Arias, and others. But, the crime of the century has been ignored by the mainstream media. That is the industrialization of animal production. Every year, more than 80 billion cows, chickens, pigs, turkeys, lambs and goats are raised and slaughtered in conditions that are prison-like. It’s called factory farming. They live in CAFOs, which stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. These animals are just like our dogs and cats. They suffer enormously. The world has somehow decided that their suffering does not count. But, it does. We want to show people the truth.

Q: Was there a specific experience or realization that led you to fully commit your life and career to veganism?

I was raised in a mostly pescatarian household in Midtown Manhattan. Gradually, I became vegetarian. Then, in 1998, while I was working for a Disney-owned Los Angeles news station on the Paramount lot, in walks Howard Lyman, promoting his new book. He was the 4th generation cattle rancher, turned vegan activist, who’d gone on the Oprah show and revealed the horrors of the industry. She famously said his revelations just “stopped me cold from eating another burger.” The cattlemen sued Oprah but she won, declaring “free speech not only lives, it rocks.” After I interviewed Lyman, he and his publicist asked if, being a vegetarian, I still consumed dairy. I reluctantly admitted that I did. “Liquid meat,” they said. And, that was the moment I went vegan. I have not looked back. Best decision I ever made.

Q: UnchainedTV focuses on topics that many say don’t always receive adequate attention in mainstream media. When you launched it, did you feel you were filling a gap others had overlooked?

I started the UnchainedTV streaming and FAST channel network specifically because — having been in mainstream television news for more than 30 years — I saw firsthand that animal rights and the plant-based lifestyle were generally either ignored or denigrated by advertiser-based mainstream media. Why are these issues crucial? Because animal rights are human rights. It’s the key to solving the world’s most pressing problems, like climate change. The New York Times, reporting on an Oxford University study, said, “...vegans are responsible for 75 percent less greenhouse gases than meat-eaters.” That’s a climate solution! However, that story was not picked up by the other big media outlets. Then, there’s America’s leading killer, namely, heart disease. It’s generally caused by plaque buildup from cholesterol. All vegan products have zero cholesterol. Animals produce cholesterol, not plants. Also, most people have no idea that processed meats are carcinogenic, according to the World Health Organization and red meat is labeled “probably carcinogenic.” And, there’s world hunger. Globally, over 600 million people suffer from chronic hunger. We could feed them all if we redirected them to all of the soy, corn and other commodity crops we are currently feeding to billions of factory farmed animals.

Q: You’ve mentioned upcoming documentaries and new releases. Can you expand on any of those projects and what viewers can expect, whether they’ve already been released or are still in development?

We just shot another season of our popular vegan cooking series New Day New Chef, this time co-hosted by vegan movie star Nina Bergman, known for action films like Hell Hath No Fury. UnchainedTV’s latest documentary, debuting during LA Climate Week 2026, is entitled The Climate Healers and is focused on the work of famed systems engineer Dr. Sailesh Rao. Dr. Rao is working to engineer a global transition to a plant-based culture to avoid the oncoming climate catastrophe. The UN Secretary-General has already warned that humanity is in the process of shooting past the 1.5-degrees Celsius climate target set by the Paris Agreement and warned of “devastating consequences.” We are also doing several other series: Green Goddesses, about two actresses/activists on a series of adventures, Kale Krew, featuring fabulous vegan dining experiences and a still untitled new reality series about a lawyer/bodybuilder starting a vegan restaurant franchise.

Q: Describe your experience building a passionate team of volunteers and advocates. How did you go about constructing your team for a nonprofit, and have you brought on less-experienced or experienced journalists and producers?

Having worked on TV shows for some of the biggest names in news and entertainment — from CNN to CBS, Disney and Telepictures — I already knew how newsrooms and networks operate. The challenge was: how to staff ours. While UnchainedTV is known as the Vegan CNN/Netflix, we have a minuscule budget. So, we rely, to a large degree, on volunteers. I’m a volunteer and so are the chefs, show hosts and reality TV personalities we feature. While we do pay a small number of people for their technical expertise, they also work for a fraction of the going rate because they’re passionate about plant-based solutions. We have directors and editors — who have worked for the biggest networks in the world — helping us for a pittance because they, too, want to get the message out.

Q: Your programming has earned recognition from the Taste Awards, often called the “Oscars of Food.” What does that recognition mean for your mission, and where do you hope to take UnchainedTV next?

Awards are a great way to mainstream the plant-based lifestyle. Several of UnchainedTV’s series have won Taste Awards including: At Home with the Jenners, starring Brandon Jenner of Keeping Up with the Kardashians fame. Brandon, along with his wife Cayley, are passionately plant-based. Kale Krew has also been honored by the Taste Awards. Hosted by Nemanja Golubovic, owner of Chicago’s acclaimed Kale My Name restaurant, this series shows how the plant-based movement is growing exponentially. And, New Day New Chef, our celebrity-packed vegan cooking series, has been honored as well. Having been trained as a breaking news reporter, I treat every day like it’s all hands on deck. There is no time for complacency or a “don’t look up” attitude. Everyone at UnchainedTV behaves like we are in a race against time... because we are... for animals, people and the planet.

This is part of our Substack series Inside the Newsroom: What Journalists Really Look for in Press Releases, based on interviews with journalists — including veteran reporters and editors — about how they evaluate press releases. Over the next several weeks, EIN Presswire will publish takeaways from those conversations.

You and your PR team may think the story you’re pitching is a no‑brainer for grabbing a journalist’s attention, and often it is.

But in today’s fast‑moving PR industry and crowded media landscape, you still have to make the case in a way that shows it’s truly newsworthy and aimed at the right outlet.

There are two top elements that help a press release get picked up, one of which is making it about a genuinely interesting story, something actually newsworthy and relevant, according to Laura Cassels, a veteran Florida journalist who specializes in state politics, science and economics.

Including access to “source experts” can make a release stand out even more among the masses, she added.

“It should have data and expert quotes to demonstrate what I think of as ‘probable cause’ that the item you pitch might pan out and be worth the writer’s time,” Cassels said.

She also doubled down on an earlier point about targeting the right audience: “The other No. 1 thing is to pitch it to the right outlets. Do the work to know that the writer, editor, or outlet you’re pitching to is the kind that will care about the story you’re pitching. Otherwise, you’re wasting your time and theirs.”

Cassels has spent time on both the PR and journalism sides of the business, handling media relations for Florida’s tourism marketing organization earlier in her career.

On the journalism side, she receives numerous press releases as a veteran reporter whose work can be found in the Florida Trident, Florida Phoenix and Florida Trend.

Building relationships with the media can be rewarding, especially when you can offer “pitches that are appropriate for them, with information they can use, if not this time then maybe next time,” Cassels said.

That’s why it’s important to read a writer’s work or watch a reporter’s coverage. “Comment on it in your communications,” she said, noting that referencing their work when you email a pitch can signal you’ve done your homework.

“If you have a good story to tell, if you pitch it to the right outlet, and you offer to assist further, you might see it published in an outlet where the right readers will see it,” she said. “Offer photography and infographics.”

Cassels said a press release should make its purpose clear at a glance, with the core information up top and clean details, including “anchors so the reader can jump to the parts he or she is curious about.”

She urged communicators to skip “flowery language” and focus on clarity. Cassels also warned against assuming that getting a release published in many places means it had a real impact.

Some outlets will publish a release almost word for word, Cassels said, but that doesn’t mean it’s reaching the right audience. “Those outlets often publish anything from anybody, so yours may just be lost in the noise,” Cassels said.

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People drawn to creating public interest communication campaigns must hold their campaigns to different standards than those used to manage, for example, the release of a new product or raising brand awareness. The reason is that the goal is not just to reach as many people as possible, but to get them to act on what they learn.

The gap between typical communication and public-interest communication is often where many advocacy campaigns stall.

But that gap also represents an opportunity for those with expertise in strategies for successful public interest campaigns, including the important element of building trust with communities.

Their work shows up in campaigns built for real-world changes, not just drawing attention. It can include outreach that connects underserved communities with healthcare services such as preventive screenings or mental health support.

It can also include advocacy campaigns that push for policy change, such as protections for vulnerable groups, funding for public programs, or reforms that improve access and equity.

Awareness Is Not the Most Important Outcome

People can recognize an issue and still stick with the same habits. They can learn about a cause over the weekend, agree with its goals, and then still do nothing come Monday morning. They can still feel inspired and hit barriers, including a lack of time, access, and even social pressure.

That is why behavior change communication starts with a specific action in mind, along with the concrete, practical steps needed to convince people to take it. The goal is to create an observable and trackable behavior.

Public interest communicators often think in terms of verbs: register, attend, vote, donate, and share. The clearer the verb, the clearer the campaign. It’s also important to remember that the “win” of a campaign is a smaller step, such as getting people to make their first appointment for preventative healthcare or attending a policy meeting.

Build a Theory of Change Before You Build Creative

The theory of change involves a simple promise written down: “If we do X, then Y will happen because Z is true.” It forces a team to define a long-term goal, then work backward to identify all the steps needed to achieve it from the current point.

In advocacy campaigns, the theory of change also clarifies who has the authority to change policy, who influences them, which pressure points exist, and what conditions must shift for a decision to be possible. One practical approach to mapping that out would include:

• Defining the end change, such as a policy passing, a healthy practice becoming standard, or a harmful norm weakening.

• Naming the gatekeepers, such as legislators, agency leaders, school boards, and employers.

• Mapping the steps in between, including areas such as beliefs, current norms, incentives, access, enforcement, and services.

• List assumptions about what must happen for each step to hold.

Once the map exists, creative work becomes sharper, and messaging choices become clearer. Channel choices become pathway choices, and the campaign is focused on the steps needed to make lasting change.

Behavior Targets That Are Specific and Measurable

Campaigns drift when targets are fuzzy. Behavior change communication works best when the target can be seen and counted. Public service communication should emphasize the use of behavioral insights to analyze context and help enable the changed behavior, not just promote it.

A useful target definition starts with the specific segment of the public the communication campaign intends to reach and the action it wants to promote. It takes into account that behavior happens when people have capability, opportunity, and motivation. If one is missing, messaging alone will not save the campaign.

This is where advocacy campaigns get smarter, too. Sometimes the best behavior change does not come from the public but from within an institution.

Learn Fast, Measure Honestly, Stay Transparent

If a campaign aims at behavior change, then the communicators must commit to learning all they can about the people they want to reach and how to determine if the campaign is successful.

A key issue in that determination is trust. Advocacy campaigns often ask people to take risks, share data, or change routines. Transparency helps reduce suspicion and strengthen legitimacy, especially in crowded information environments.

When teams track results and share what they learn, they get better.

Evan Kropp, Ph.D., is Executive Director of Distance Education at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications and a faculty member in the online Master of Arts in Mass Communication program. His work focuses on digital education, media strategy, and the evolving role of journalism in the modern media ecosystem.

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