How to Build Media Relations: 10 Observations from an ITCOMMS PR Specialist with a Journalism Background

Most advice on media relations comes from PR professionals who have never sat on the other side of the desk — in a newsroom, wading through a flood of pitches with a deadline an hour away. Diana Jumagulova has worked as a reporter, a news desk editor, and an editor-in-chief before joining the PR team at ITCOMMS. We spoke with her about what caught her off guard after the switch, which PR mistakes irritate journalists the most, and why the advice to «befriend a journalist» is best forgotten.

From a Non-Stop News Flow to Constant Waiting

The first thing Diana noticed after moving into PR was the completely different pace. «When you work in media — especially breaking news — there is a constant stream of stories. You are either writing a piece or hunting for one. You almost never just sit and wait,» she says. PR works the other way around: the PR person is never the newsroom's top priority, and the whole process hinges on a chain of other people's decisions — the client's sign-off, copy approvals, the editor's reaction.

Right behind that came the second surprise — losing control over the outcome. As an editor, Diana decided herself whether a story ran. In PR, that call always belongs to the publication: «You can suggest things that raise the chances of coverage, but you are never the person who makes the final decision on whether it gets published.»

What Annoys Journalists Most About PR Professionals

Drawing on her time as an editor, Diana points to two systemic mistakes PR people make. The first is a lack of personalization: «If you know a journalist covers lifestyle, don't send them a release packed with business metrics — and vice versa. It won't help your cause; you will just annoy them. And the day you finally send something relevant, they may ignore it too, because they'll assume it's more of the same junk.»

The second is faceless messages with zero compelling facts: «Hello Diana, here is a release from our company, please take a look.» The right approach, she says, is to lead not with a formal greeting but with the strongest fact in the release: «When a journalist's eye catches something interesting, the chances they will actually read the whole release go way up.»

Diana has also rethought her stance on follow-ups. She used to treat silence after a release as a rejection, but seeing things from the PR side changed that logic: «Now I understand that a follow-up matters, because sometimes a PR person knows this is a really important release and it is better to send a reminder — the journalist may have simply been swamped or forgotten to publish it.»

How Journalists Decide in Seconds Whether a Pitch Is Worth Opening

In Diana's experience, a journalist decides almost instantly whether to keep reading — and that decision hinges on specifics. «You can tell right away: this was a study with real numbers, or a company sharing concrete plans. The pitch contains facts worth reporting. If it is a release for the sake of a release, you feel that too — there is nothing specific to hook you.» Her practical advice mirrors what she says about cold messages: open the pitch not with three paragraphs about the company, but with a strong fact or figure, then move on to the details.

Media Relations Is Not a Mailing List — It Is Systematic Work

Asked what she would do differently if she were building media relations from scratch, Diana is blunt: «Most PR professionals don't actually build relationships with journalists. They have a contact, and they just send press releases.» That model works, she says, but it is limited: it gets press releases published, yet it will never land you exclusives or in-depth features.

To earn more than perfunctory coverage, you need to learn what each journalist finds interesting, pitch topics proactively, and avoid rushing them for a reply: «You should know what a particular journalist cares about, which topics resonate with them. Say: let us prepare answers for you, arrange a tour, offer a personalized story or a dedicated special project.» Diana compares it to courtship: small gestures — congratulations on a professional milestone, a thoughtful gift, positive feedback on a story — work when they feel genuine rather than like an attempt to buy coverage: «This is not bribery — you are simply showing the person that you care.»

Do Journalists Only Read Messages from People They Know?

The common belief that cold pitches never work is something Diana neither fully confirms nor denies. Familiarity does raise the odds of being read, but a message from a stranger has its own, narrower window of opportunity: «Everything comes down to the first few lines. If nothing catches your eye, the message will most likely go unanswered.» The practical takeaway: the shorter the path to the point, the higher the chance the pitch gets read to the end.

What Transferred from Journalism to PR — and What Had to Be Learned from Scratch

A journalism background, Diana says, gives a PR specialist in Kazakhstan a rare advantage: the ability to see a news hook through the eyes of a newsroom. «I can picture which element of a press release will interest a journalist, and I always try to lead with that in my pitch.» She also counts her understanding of how newsrooms operate internally, her warm contacts with publications, and her ability to write copy that reads like journalism rather than advertising.

What she had to learn, though, was less about hard skills and more about sitting with uncertainty: «I had to learn to be in a state where you know nothing and have no idea whether you are doing the right thing. Being a beginner all over again is tough.» On the practical side, she highlights pitching, working with metrics and reporting, and the ability to assess a news hook from multiple angles at once — the client's, the market's, and the newsroom's.

How the Media Landscape Has Changed in Recent Years

Diana identifies three parallel shifts reshaping newsrooms. First is the growing influence of social media and Telegram channels, which now compete with traditional outlets on speed and reach: «Most newsrooms today have dedicated people for social media — several for Telegram, several for Instagram. These are critical content-distribution specialists.» Second is journalists' shrinking bandwidth for reworking material: publications increasingly need ready-to-publish copy that requires only minimal editing to match their style guide. Third is AI's impact on traffic: «When people google something, they first see an AI-generated answer, and there is no guarantee they will scroll down to the article in the search results. That is a major challenge for journalists.»

Mass Distribution or a Personal Touch: How to Choose the Right Approach

Diana believes mass press-release distribution still makes sense — but only for neutral, broadly relevant news: a product launch, a company opening, a deal between brands. For sensitive or niche topics, only a personal approach works: «If the topic is sensitive, it is better to first reach out individually to outlets that have a dedicated section on the subject and for whom that topic truly matters.» The optimal model, she says, is a combination: start with an exclusive offer to the outlets most interested in the topic, then follow with a general distribution.

How PR People Make Their Own Lives Harder

Diana recalls how a stream of weak pitches gradually eroded her attitude toward press releases when she was still an editor: «I was constantly receiving weak or irrelevant press releases. When most of the pitches you get are like that, you lose the sense that releases are a valuable source of news. They stop being something worth paying attention to. The next time a PR person sends a pitch, a journalist may either skim it or not open it at all.»

Now, working in PR herself, Diana sees the other side: sometimes a client insists on a weak release, and specialists are reluctant to push back. «This often backfires and reduces the chances that journalists will take our press releases seriously at all,» she notes. The damage, in her view, is not limited to a single person or agency — it hurts the entire industry.

Two Pieces of Media-Relations Advice That Need to Be Retired

The first outdated tip, according to Diana, is to keep following up until you get a response. One follow-up is fine, but constant reminders backfire: «If you see that a journalist has been putting off a reply for three or four days, stop pestering them. The story probably isn't going to run, and all you are doing is being annoying.»

The second is the classic advice to «befriend a journalist.» Forced informality is spotted instantly and works against the PR professional, Diana says: «If the rapport feels strained and isn't clicking, don't force it — it will irritate both you and the journalist. But if a warm relationship develops organically, that is wonderful.» The real lever is not personal friendship but the quality of the stories you bring: «If you bring a journalist and their newsroom genuinely interesting news hooks — high-quality, non-promotional, compelling — the story will get published even without a friendship. Mutual courtesy is enough.»

The Bottom Line

Diana's experience shows that effective media relations rest not on the size of your contact list or personal closeness with journalists, but on understanding their world from the inside — deadlines, editorial priorities, and what makes a story worth covering. A PR professional who can look at their own pitch through the eyes of a newsroom earns not a one-off mention, but lasting trust.

If you want to build a systematic media-relations practice instead of one-off press-release blasts, get in touch with ITCOMMS.

Translated with an AI translator