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?
The Best Media Strategy Often Starts Outside the Company
Companies naturally look inward when developing publicity campaigns. Executives see a new product, funding round, hire or expansion and assume the announcement should become the story. Journalists are looking outward.
Their starting point is what is changing in the economy, an industry, consumer behavior, technology, regulation or culture. That difference in perspective explains why many corporate announcements struggle to generate meaningful earned media.
At MACIAS PR, we frequently look beyond the client’s immediate announcement to find the larger story surrounding the business.
A company developing drone components, for example, isn’t limited to stories about its latest product. Its expertise might contribute to reporting on American manufacturing, defense procurement, supply-chain dependence, autonomous technology or competition with China.
The company remains central to the campaign, but the story becomes larger than the company.
That distinction is where PR strategy begins.
PR Strategy Should Start With the Editorial Problem
During my time as an Executive Producer at NBC, I wasn’t evaluating stories based on whether the company pitching us deserved publicity. I was evaluating whether the idea deserved airtime. Editors and producers still make versions of that decision every day.
A useful way to develop a media strategy is therefore to identify the editorial problem first. A business reporter may need credible data demonstrating a trend. A television producer may need a compelling character and strong visuals. A healthcare journalist could need a physician who can explain a complicated development without turning the interview into a commercial.
Solve that problem and the company has a legitimate role in the story. This is also why a database of reporter contacts isn’t a PR strategy. Knowing the right journalist can help a strong idea reach the right person, but the relationship doesn’t manufacture news value.
Healthcare PR Requires More Than a Product Story
Healthcare is a useful example of why template PR breaks down.
A digital health startup might be technologically sophisticated, but the technology itself isn’t necessarily the most compelling story. Patient outcomes, changing healthcare behavior, affordability, access, clinical data or an emerging treatment trend may create a much stronger editorial opening.
The spokesperson matters differently in this category as well. Reporters covering health frequently need someone who can translate complicated medical information into language consumers understand. That requires a campaign built around credibility rather than promotion.
The same story angle that might work for a software publication can fail completely with a health editor because the journalist is evaluating different questions.
Financial PR Is Driven by Interpretation
Markets generate an extraordinary amount of information every day. Simply having an opinion on interest rates, stocks or the economy doesn’t distinguish an investment executive from thousands of other potential sources. The opportunity often comes from interpretation.
What is the market overlooking? Which assumption appears wrong? What does historical data reveal that current consensus isn’t recognizing? Where is investor behavior diverging from economic fundamentals?
Those are potentially useful editorial contributions because they give a journalist something to investigate, challenge or develop.
A financial PR strategy should therefore identify the intellectual property inside the firm—not merely the products it sells.
Startup PR Changes With the Company’s Stage
A startup without widespread recognition usually can’t rely on its name to attract editorial interest. The underlying idea has to carry more of the weight.
Funding can help establish legitimacy, but the amount raised isn’t automatically the story. A stronger campaign might connect the investment to a newly emerging market, demonstrate unusual customer behavior or explain why capital is suddenly moving into a particular sector.
Later-stage companies have different assets. They may possess proprietary data, recognizable executives, substantial customer behavior or years of operating experience that can support more sophisticated stories.
PR strategy should evolve as those assets evolve. Running the same campaign at Series A and Series D ignores much of the value the company accumulated between them.
National News, Trade Media and Television Serve Different Purposes
Trade publications can establish deep credibility with industry insiders and potential customers. National business media can introduce a company or executive to investors and a much broader business audience. Television provides reach, personality and visual authority. Digital publications can create searchable third-party information that remains discoverable long after the initial story appears.
The strongest outlet isn’t automatically the publication with the largest audience.
A specialized publication read by 20,000 decision-makers can be more commercially meaningful than a consumer outlet reaching millions of people who will never purchase the product. Effective media strategy asks who needs to see the story before deciding where the story should appear.
Proprietary Data Can Create a Media Category Competitors Can’t Copy
One of the most underused PR assets is internal data. Companies accumulate information through customers, transactions, operations, searches, calls, applications and product usage. Much of it is viewed internally as business intelligence.
Journalists may see something different: evidence. When anonymized and analyzed responsibly, proprietary data can reveal behavioral changes or industry trends that aren’t visible in government statistics or public research yet.
This can give a lesser-known company an advantage over a larger competitor. Brand recognition is difficult to replicate quickly. Original information creates another path into the conversation.
Competitors can copy messaging. They cannot necessarily copy your dataset.
Thought Leadership Should Give Journalists Something They Don’t Already Have
Executives are frequently told they need “thought leadership.” The term has become so broad that it can mean almost anything. Useful thought leadership has a narrower purpose. It should contribute an observation, argument, analysis or expertise that advances a conversation.
Repeating that AI is transforming business isn’t thought leadership. Explaining which jobs inside a particular industry are changing first—and supporting the argument with operating data—might be.
Saying healthcare is becoming more personalized adds little. Showing how patient behavior changed following a specific development gives reporters something concrete to examine.
Originality matters because journalists already have access to conventional wisdom.
What Should a Customized PR Strategy Include?
The customization shouldn’t begin with how many press releases will be written or how many reporters will receive an email. It should begin with an assessment of the company’s actual media assets.
What does the organization know that others don’t? Which executives possess genuine expertise? Is there proprietary data? Where does the company intersect with current events? Which customers or users can humanize the issue? What can be demonstrated visually? Which audiences matter commercially? Where are competitors dominating the conversation, and what territory have they overlooked?
Those answers determine the campaign.
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ABOUT MACIAS PR
MACIAS PR was founded in 2009 by Mark Macias – Executive Producer with NBC and Senior Producer with CBS in New York. City & State Magazine named Macias one of the top 50 PR Power Players in New York while Finance Monthly named MACIAS PR the 2017-2020 Strategic PR Firm of the Year, and PR Firm of the Year.