STRATEGIES BEYOND TRADITIONAL PR: THE NEW MEDIA PLAYBOOK FOR 2025
By Jeanne Meyer, Corporate Communications Coach & Strategist, former Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
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The dramatic shifts in the media landscape mean the ways brands gain organic awareness has changed. More channels, but fewer traditional "newsrooms." Different gatekeepers. And most conventional rules don't work anymore.
Media Means Something Else in 2025. Here's A New Playbook To Navigate It.
Generating the kind of authentic editorial endorsement in 2025 (the first half of it, anyway) requires the realization that 'media' no longer refers only to organizations that employ professional journalists to write or produce stories. Media now more broadly encompasses other voices, other kinds of content creators and other organizations -- from podcasts and Substacks to CEOs sharing their POVs on Medium, Bluesky, TikTok or Twitch.
How can brand leaders still generate that powerful, top-of-funnel, word-of-mouth magic that can transform a commodity brand into a relevant, valuable phenomenon in a post-PR age? While some traditional tactics have their place, communicators have to change how they view "PR" and "news" and "earned media." There are other ways to engage audiences. Here are five ways to begin doing that.
1. CONSIDER GOING FROM OUTSIDE-->IN
The number of newsrooms are shrinking and the number of journalists working there are too. Legions of writers, once on the masthead of institutions like major daily papers, broadcast or cable news and trade publications, have jumped ship (or were pushed) and are setting up their own media brand-lets and building impressive readerships. Embrace them. Give them access. Amplify their work. Agree to go on their podcast. Increasingly, what they write or put out there is inspiring what the remaining major media outlets are covering. Some of them may have a fraction of the audience that they used to, but what they publish or produce can create a truly authentic ripple effect.
2. GO SOCIAL-FIRST
Those newsrooms and journalists used to have more bandwidth and real estate to pay attention to things like new product launches, partnerships or new hires or promotions. Some outlets relegate those subjects to sponsored content sections. In 2025 and beyond, the vast majority of those initiatives would benefit from being directly published on social media. You can still engage the right audiences and even create the right kind of in-bound activity by posting that announcement about your new General Counsel or VP of Product directly on LinkedIn, or that new Spring color palette on TikTok. And then you can save your team's bandwidth for media relations on subjects journalists care more about.
3. BE GENEROUS WITH DATA AND INSIGHT
Help journalists tell what's going on in the world with more content like meaningful data (and less self-serving subject matter) and you can often get rewarded with positive news coverage. Reporters are often now doing the job it used to take three people to do, so if you can play a role in helping them explain what's happening on their beat, it will not go unnoticed.
4. HUMANIZE YOUR STORY
Reporters aren't looking for experts or thought leaders; they're looking for stories that can be brought to life with real people, real customers and real impact, backed up by credible sources who can back those stories up. So offering up the customer or academic expert can often be more powerful than offering up the CEO.
5. RE-THINK THE PRESS RELEASE
Press releases have never been the way to generate solid earned media (at least not in the last 30 years). But they have their place. It's critical for publicly-traded companies to comply with financial disclosure rules. And beyond that, press releases are an instrument to memorialize an initiative, and to put down a public marker in a brand's own language in a way that is searchable, archivable and yes, ingested by large language models that are training what generative AI tools think is relevant.
Media will keep fragmenting, newsrooms will continue to shrink. Leaders must dispense with old frameworks and evolve their communication strategies beyond conventional public relations to a more agile approach. Take independent content creators more seriously. Leveraging social media for direct storytelling. Give journalists useful data and insights. Prioritize human stories over corporate messaging. And reimagine how to use standard tools. Communicators who will win the biggest share of voice will understand how to ride and redefine this dynamic, multi-platform media environment.
Jeanne Meyers’ firm, Authentic intelligence, makes people and businesses more valuable through enhanced communications. Book an OFFICE HOUR with Jeanne!
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