Can You Reverse Engineer Earned Media Coverage?

Posted on September 26, 2026 by Mark Macias

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

I think there must be a new piece of startup advice circulating among venture capitalists. Three different founders approached me this week with essentially the same request: they didn’t want a PR campaign. They wanted one legitimate media placement. And they all used the same terminology – they wanted to “reverse engineer” it.

Three unrelated founders making nearly the same request in one week makes me wonder whether someone in the VC ecosystem is telling startups that this is how they should approach public relations.

I understand the logic. Startups have limited budgets. Founders are constantly being told to preserve runway. One article in Forbes, Fortune or another recognizable publication seems like a discrete investment with a tangible result. Secure the logo, put it on the website, share the article with investors and customers, and move on.

There’s just one problem. Earned media doesn’t work that way.

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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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Case Study: Leveraging PR and Media Coverage for Sales

Posted on February 16, 2026 by Mark Macias

How a Creative Publicist Turned a Medieval Dinner Show Into Free Media Coverage and Sales. It’s a story model every brand should study.

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

A seemingly quirky story — about NYC singles ditching dating apps to flirt with knights at Medieval Times — captured the internet’s attention this week.

When I read the article, I knew it was created by a smart, savvy publicist. The article didn’t just report a trend – the article gave the illusion of an emerging trend that is sweeping New York City. As a former executive producer with NBC and CBS, I can tell you marketing leaders can learn from this.

Here’s a closer look at what the publicist did right and how you can leverage this strategy for your own brand.

1. Create the Trend, Don’t Just Report It

The backbone of this coverage wasn’t Medieval Times itself — it was the story the publicist helped shape: an old-school entertainment experience becoming the antidote to dating-app burnout.

That positioning is strategic on several levels:

It casts the event as part of a broader cultural moment — dating fatigue in modern life — not just a venue looking for customers.
It captures movement momentum: “Singles are ditching swipes for swords.”
It made the story newsworthy beyond the event’s usual pitch angles.

A smart publicist doesn’t just sell a product — they sell the trend the product is part of. And that’s what turned this local dinner show into a national conversation. The story even landed on Yahoo’s lifestyle pages, one of the widest possible audiences for this topic.

PR Takeaway: To generate coverage that moves the needle, don’t sell what you do; sell what it means in the culture right now.

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