Why One Media Placement Isn’t a PR Strategy

Posted on September 23, 2026 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

Is it worth hiring a PR agency for just one media placement? This is a real question we got from a business today: “I’m looking for help getting our founder one credible TV interview. Do you take on fixed-scope, one-off broadcast projects?”

The value of public relations isn’t simply appearing on television. It’s what happens when credible media coverage begins establishing a pattern around your company, founder or expertise.

One interview can certainly be valuable. It can introduce an executive to a new audience and give the company an important piece of third-party credibility. But by itself, it doesn’t build a brand.

Brands are built through repetition and association. You want journalists, customers, investors and eventually search engines and AI platforms to repeatedly encounter your company in credible contexts.

Maybe a CEO first appears in a trade publication discussing an industry shift. A few weeks later, a national reporter interviews the executive about breaking news. Another outlet cites the company’s proprietary data. Eventually, a television producer sees that body of coverage and recognizes the CEO as someone who has already contributed intelligently to the conversation.

Each placement reinforces the others. That is very different from saying, We need one TV interview. Who can get it for us?

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Are Your PR Expectations Realistic? How Long Media Coverage Really Takes

Posted on September 15, 2026 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

One of the most important conversations I have with new clients happens before we pitch a single reporter: What should you realistically expect from a PR campaign, and how quickly should you expect it?

Every business wants media coverage quickly. I understand that. Maybe a product is launching next week, a conference is approaching, investors want more visibility or the CEO suddenly decides this is the month the company needs to be in the news.

But there’s an important reality about earned media that businesses need to understand: Just because your company waited until the last minute to start PR doesn’t mean a journalist will suddenly work on your calendar.

Reporters and editors work on their own schedules. And unlike advertising, you can’t buy your way onto their editorial calendar.

That’s why realistic PR expectations aren’t about lowering the bar. They’re about understanding how earned media actually works—and giving your PR strategy enough time to produce the best possible results.

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PR Strategy Behind Finding a Newsworthy Story

Posted on September 13, 2026 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it make a sound? Public relations has its own version of that philosophical question: If your company makes an announcement and no journalist cares, did you really have a story?

Companies make noise every day. They launch products, hire executives, announce partnerships, open offices, release studies and reach milestones. Those developments may be extremely important inside the organization, but importance to your company and relevance to a journalist are two very different things. Getting media coverage isn’t about making more noise around an announcement. It’s about finding the interesting angle that gives someone outside your company a reason to care.

I learned this firsthand during my years as an Executive Producer with NBC and CBS in New York. I was on the receiving end of story pitches, and one of the most common mistakes was surprisingly simple: companies told us what happened without explaining why our viewers should care. A product launched. An executive was promoted. A company expanded into a new market. Those are facts, but facts aren’t automatically stories.

Inside the newsroom, we were making a different calculation. Why does this matter now? Who does it affect? What does it reveal that we didn’t already know? Is this one isolated event, or evidence of something larger happening in business, healthcare, technology or the economy? Those are the questions that can transform a corporate development into an actual story.

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5 Storytelling Tips I Learned in the Newsroom That Can Help You Get Media Coverage

Posted on September 11, 2026 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

Before you can pitch a story to a journalist, you need to understand storytelling.

That sounds obvious, but it’s one of the biggest weaknesses I see in public relations. Companies frequently have something interesting happening inside their business, but they don’t know how to turn that information into a story another person would actually want to hear.

I’ve spent most of my career telling stories in different forms. As an Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York, I helped develop and approve stories for television. My journalism work earned five Emmys across different categories. Outside the newsroom, I’ve written and produced an Off-Broadway play and launched my own digital publication. Today, storytelling is at the center of the media campaigns we develop at MACIAS PR.

The medium changes, but the fundamentals of storytelling don’t.

A great television segment, newspaper article, play and media pitch all need to capture attention and give people a reason to keep following the story. If you can’t do that, the credentials of your spokesperson or size of your media list won’t save the pitch.

Here are five storytelling lessons I’ve carried from the newsroom into public relations.

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Clarity and Focus: The Two Disciplines Behind a Strong PR Story

Posted on September 10, 2026 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

You receive two love letters. One takes an entire page to explain an emotion, while the other uses only five words: “I can’t live without you.” Both communicate affection but only one forces you to immediately understand what the writer is trying to say.

That distinction reminds me of something I learned during my years approving stories as an Executive Producer with NBC and CBS: a story can contain great information and still fail because nobody has identified its center.

I see the same problem today in public relations. Companies have plenty to say. They have data, products, executives, customer stories, research, milestones and industry expertise. The challenge is deciding which piece deserves the spotlight and then framing everything else around it. At MACIAS PR, we call that clarity and focus.

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Are You a Good Candidate for PR? The Answer Isn’t Only About Your Company

Posted on September 9, 2026 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

Several years ago, I wrote an article for Entrepreneur titled “Are You Wasting Your Money on PR?”. The premise was fairly straightforward: contrary to what some publicists might tell you, not every business is a good candidate for PR.

Some companies naturally possess the ingredients journalists want—expertise, compelling data, interesting characters, disruption or insight into a larger trend. Others may get a better return from advertising or other forms of marketing.

After running MACIAS PR for 17 years, I’d add another factor that I didn’t address in that article.

Your company can be a great candidate for PR while you can still be a bad candidate for PR. The difference frequently comes down to how you work with the people you’ve hired.

PR Is a Human Capital Business

Public relations is usually evaluated through outputs: How many reporters responded? How many interviews did we secure? Which publications covered us? But behind every one of those results is a person.

There’s the publicist researching and developing the story. The reporter deciding whether to pursue it. The producer pitching it to an executive producer. The editor deciding whether it deserves space. And frequently a CEO or founder who must trust the process long enough for all those people to do their jobs.

In that sense, PR is a human capital business.

And human beings generally do their best creative work when they’re respected, trusted and motivated—not when every decision becomes a confrontation.

That doesn’t mean clients shouldn’t challenge their PR firms. They should. If you’re paying a monthly retainer, you deserve answers, accountability and a strategy you understand. But there’s a difference between challenging the strategy and fighting the people executing it.

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How PR Makes CEOs and Executives More Interesting

Posted on September 6, 2026 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

There’s a joke in public relations: behind every interesting person is probably a good publicist. The joke works because there’s some truth behind it.

Most successful CEOs have accumulated interesting experiences, industry knowledge and opinions. It’s partially what they learned and saw along the way. But having interesting things to say doesn’t automatically make an executive interesting to journalists.

The difference is often positioning.

At MACIAS PR, much of our work involves identifying the expertise, experiences and insights inside a company that can be developed into credible media stories. The objective isn’t to manufacture an interesting executive. It’s to recognize what is already interesting and position the executive in a way journalists understand.

What Makes a CEO Interesting to Reporters?

Tech CEO tells a reporter what you do but it doesn’t explain why you belong in a story.

Journalists generally become more interested when an executive can bring context to a story or issue. The insight might revolve around data trends or firsthand knowledge of an emerging trend. Whatever the unique perspective is – this is where media positioning begins.

During my years as an Executive Producer with NBC and CBS in New York, I evaluated stories and experts from the newsroom side. I saw plenty of accomplished people with impressive credentials who weren’t necessarily right for a story.

The executives who stood out usually brought something more than a résumé. They brought perspective. And I’m not talking about boring stats or history lessons. Context is needed for stories.

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What Andy Warhol Can Teach Entrepreneurs About PR, Creativity and Business Growth

Posted on August 26, 2026 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

Andy Warhol built his reputation as an artist, but his approach to creativity, collaboration and publicity offers lessons that still apply to entrepreneurs and business leaders today.

I originally explored these ideas in an article I wrote for Forbes, which you can read here. But here is a different take on what we can learn from Warhol in this new era of AI.

Warhol was a great publicist as much as he was a great artist. He knew how to attract attention to his work, and every publicist today can learn from him. He understood how to frame ideas in ways that made people want to talk about them. More importantly, he repeatedly converted that attention into greater value for his work and his brand.

The media landscape has changed dramatically since Warhol’s era but the principles behind his success haven’t disappeared. Here are four lessons entrepreneurs can take from his approach.

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What Makes a PR Agency One of the Best?

Posted on August 25, 2026 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

Companies frequently search for the best PR agency, top PR firm for startups, or a public relations firm capable of securing national media coverage. Those searches tend to focus on what an agency can deliver tomorrow.

A better way to evaluate a PR firm is to look at what it has consistently built over time.

Yes, awards matter and media placements reinforce your ability to secure coverage. Newsroom experience plays a critical role in securing media coverage since editorial drives story flow. But none of these exists independently. The strongest indicator of a PR firm’s capabilities is whether it can repeatedly turn strategy and storytelling into meaningful media coverage across different clients, industries and news cycles.

That’s the foundation we’ve been building at MACIAS PR since 2009.

What Should You Look for When Choosing a PR Agency?

Business owners often ask: How do I choose the best PR agency for my company? Start with the work.

Look beyond promises about media relationships and ask which stories the agency has actually secured. Examine whether the coverage appeared in publications that influence the client’s customers, investors or industry. Review case studies to see whether the firm can explain the strategy behind those results.

Recognition from independent organizations can provide another signal.

City & State New York named Mark Macias to its list of the Top PR Power Players in New York, recognizing the communications professionals influencing the media and political landscape in New York. MACIAS PR has also received multiple industry awards over the years, including recognition from Finance Monthly and ACQ Global Awards.

Those honors are appreciated, but the more important question is what produced them.

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There Is No Template for Great PR: Why Every Strategy is Different

Posted on August 21, 2026 by Mark Macias

By Mark Macias
Founder of MACIAS PR | Former NBC Executive Producer

There is a recurring mistake in public relations that rarely gets discussed: companies often buy a PR process when they should be buying a strategy.

The PR process sounds reasonable. Develop messaging, write a press release, build a media list, pitch reporters, follow up and repeat. Those steps can organize a campaign, but they don’t explain why a journalist would cover one company instead of another.

After working inside newsrooms at NBC and CBS and later founding MACIAS PR, I’ve seen the same principle from both sides of the editorial equation. The path to coverage changes with the company, the story, the audience and the moment in the news cycle.

There is no template for great PR because there is no template for a great story.

Why One PR Strategy Doesn’t Work for Every Company

A healthcare startup, hedge fund, drone manufacturer and consumer brand might all want national media coverage. That doesn’t mean they should pursue it the same way.

Healthcare reporters frequently need evidence, patient relevance, clinical expertise or data that demonstrates why a development matters. Financial journalists are looking for market implications, investment insight, economic trends and credible analysis. A technology company may have an opportunity when its product illustrates a much larger change taking place across an industry.

Consumer PR introduces another set of considerations. Culture, behavior, visual elements and trends can become more important than technical expertise. The mistake is assuming the media outlet is the strategy.

“We want to be in the Wall Street Journal” is a goal. It doesn’t tell you what story the Wall Street Journal has a reason to pursue.

A stronger PR strategy works backward from the editorial opportunity: What is happening in the world right now, where does this company intersect with it, and what can it contribute that a journalist cannot easily get somewhere else?

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