So, you want to be a PR? Here’s how to do it well in 2025.
Like journalism, PR is a tricky ol’ fish to tackle these days but here are some good tips that can help you get your foot in the door.
Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome!
I officially left journalism some 13 years ago now. I loved writing back in the old days when money was plentiful, events were extraordinary, and you got to meet the biggest names in the business. As we know, those days are long gone.
Whereas I was able to get the gossip pretty much from the horse’s mouth back then, these days it’s all about following up online and writing the ‘goss’ from what happened on social media the night before. That wasn’t fun to me.
So, we moved into the world of PR. Truth be told, I didn’t have clue what I was doing at first. But it was hardly rocket science – and I knew so many journalists across the board. I quickly had a gaggle of personal PR clients on the books and eventually moved into working with brands and wellness destinations. It sort of happened naturally and I went with it to see if I could make a success of it. Eleven or so years later (after a couple of years freelancing as a writer across numerous publications) I’m still here and managing to make it work.
It's changed a lot – no doubt about that. Even in the past five years the PR industry has changed tenfold. Whereas print press would sell a retreat, sell a product or end up lifting the profile of a personality back at the start, these days it’s a tough world out there. I can get a full-page review in The Times, and it does nothing. I can get a product placed in a magazine and it does very little. I can have an influencer post about a product, and it leads to hundreds of sales. The PR world is like a bucking bronco you literally must ride and try not to full off – continually trying to learn from the tests you do with press and PR.
I’ve given tips on the PR world before but with this piece I wanted to try and offer my expert advice in how to make becoming a publicist work for you coming into the industry. Hopefully you’ll find it interesting – do share with the next wave of PR folks and hope it offers some guidance.
Please do share! Here goes…
KNOW YOUR TITLES
This is a fast-moving time to be alive and working in the media industry. Titles are closing, titles are merging, journalist roles are merging, editors that cost too much are being given redundancy, editors cover multiple titles and it’s hard to keep up to date on what’s happening. Well kids, you must try – simply because you need to know what your target titles are looking like.
The easiest way of looking for the current list of employed folks at a title is to buy or get hold of the magazine title and look at the masthead. That should be up to date, and you should have a way of contacting the writers and editors from there too.
It’s a tricky job being able to keep up to date on all the titles out there BUT it is becoming easier due to the fact so many of them are closing their doors and being axed. When I was there at Closer there were 10 or so other weekly women’s titles to follow. That was a head fuck and a half.
But you need to have an idea of each genre, what titles are out there, who is doing well with the ABCs and getting good sales, who has shit paper quality and is facing huge budget cuts. You need to know it all. Having knowledge on what the titles are doing and how they’re fairing is a real Godsend. There’s simply no excuse for a PR who works across brands or people not knowing that is going on in the industry.
KNOW YOUR JOURNALISTS
I’m not talking about just knowing the names and the masthead titles of the writers and editors at a publication. I’m talking about KNOWING your journalists. To start with, you ought to introduce yourself. You ought to try and meet them. I detest young PRs in their 20s who think they can sit at their desk all day and do everything to a high standard – you can’t. The only way you’re going to be able to make a real mark in PR is if you have some great knowledge about the likes and dislikes of the writers you’re wanting to court with your feature ideas, releases and products.
You need to know the Vogue girl who loves retinols, you need to know the butch writer at Grazia who will love your new shoe client that makes excellent brogues, you need to know which journalist at The Sun will support your new female music client, or the editor in wellness who will come on your fitness retreat and crucially doesn’t have kids so she can be available really quickly for the client. It’s essential you work hard to understand your journalists. These people are your key to being a good PR. So do your due diligence.
KNOW A TITLE’S AUDIENCE
You want a female in their 40s/50s/60s? Good Housekeeping or Woman & Home. You want female a little trendier and possibly in their 30s and 40s? Stylist or Grazia. You want a man that cares about fashion? GQ or the newly relaunched Esquire. You want a London title? You only have one print option on a Thursday with the Standard. Or Metro. But how many are even being printed right now? You need to look at all options and work out if it’s actually worthwhile to have your small business brand invest lots of money into a publication that is going down the plughole with declining sales and readership numbers.
You need to know which of the female weekly magazines is still thriving and which is flopping badly so it’s not worth reaching out to them.
USE THE RIGHT CELEBRITY AMBASSADOR
Using a celebrity ambassador for a brand can often be the best move for getting the attention of the media. But it’s something you have to ensure is done correctly when you engage with talent for a campaign.
If the PR job or brand job involves a celebrity, then you need to work out which title will be keen on said celebrity and who will be a firm pass.
When I was a writer, I’d often have PR friends running celeb names past me to see if they would work as a story that Closer would want to cover. I’d literally help decide whether a celeb was going to be earning a £50,000 pay cheque. But that was clever of said PR. Often the judgement on who would be good to use for a campaign will come down to a PR. You must put your personal opinion aside. I’d hate to work with some girls but if it works for the client then you must take one for the team.
The only thing I wouldn’t recommend is working with pricks you know are terrible human beings. A shitty celebrity will bring down the whole vibe of a campaign. If they’re turbo twats, then try to avoid. If they’re simply little pricks but they’re able to be professional and make it work then sure, sign them up.
KNOW WHAT IS WASTING YOUR TIME
I’m exceedingly good when it comes to a client and knowing that is achievable and what exercises are going to be a huge waste of my time.
With that in mind, it usually means I’ll split my press release or announcement emails into two sections. One will be the ‘all round’ email with a release to go to all titles that I’m not expecting much from. The second will be the emails that are bespoke to the correct editors with a view to actual press being picked up from the email conversation.
There’s a lot of power in knowing exactly which titles are going to be keen and which aren’t going to be that bothered by your release.
Oh, and on the release try not to make it too wordy or businessy – I write my releases to be two pages absolute max (one pager for bonus points) and I write it with a view to the journalist being able to pick out quotes and top line facts for their article immediately and with ease. The reality, young journalists are having to write so much these days and they get HUNDREDS of releases. So make it as simple as you can for them to get a piece up on your project.
DON’T BLUFF YOUR CLIENTS ON THINGS YOU CAN’T ACHIEVE
It’s way better when you speak to a client to be honest about what is achievable. I’ve been in meetings where I’m working alongside other PR folk and they’ve promised the earth to the client. The reality? They don’t deliver and it’s embarrassing, and the client gets seriously pissed by the end of the project.
I’ve got to the point where I’m very clear about what’s able to be achieved with a PR project. If it’s a low-end product you’re not going to get Vogue so don’t mention it. But you could find a title that will give just as much uplift. I mean, the reality of this conversation, aside from a Chanel jacket there’s not a huge uplift from a Vogue article.
What do the higher-end titles do – I will usually say we can get something featured in them but rather than the client thinking it’ll lead to huge sales they should think of the mention in Style, Vogue or HTSI being something that will thoroughly please the investors of the business. Anything more is a bonus point.
DON’T THINK THE BIGGEST AGENCY IS THE BEST – THEY OFTEN AREN’T
Genuinely, I’m having clients coming to me all the time saying they were with a big agency, and it didn’t work. Whether it’s a music star who wasn’t happy with their PR folk’s achievements, or the fashion brand who came to me after spending a ridiculous £28,000 on engaging a huge fashion agency or even recently when a jewellery brand came saying they’d tried six agencies, and it always failed.
Big agencies have their benefits, sure. But often being with one means you’re in a huge pool but you’re a small fish. Where do they go wrong? Smaller less important clients are handed to young inexperienced PR juniors to handle their campaigns. This nearly always goes wrong. They drop the ball, they have too much on to focus on a brand that’s smaller and they won’t put the effort in when they have such a huge workload.
If you want to start looking for a job in PR – the smaller agency the better to learn, get the best training and to learn all the best tactics to thrive.
FIND YOUR NICHE
Business, banking, sport, celebrity, accessories, fashion, art, beauty or crisis – find your genre. It’s way easier for you as a PR to find your way in a more niche genre. It means you can build your contacts into a much stronger list and know the editors and writers within that sector.
If you have one client from each genre, you’re going to have to work a lot harder to keep afloat and stay sane. Channeling in on one genre can be hugely beneficial.
LEARN TO SAY NO
If your gut tells you it’s not the right project for you, just say NO.
Recently – with the restaurant genre that I’ve been working within – I’ve learnt to say no firmly if the venue or the food aren’t up to scratch. You just can’t take on a client that you don’t believe in. Sure, some PRs take on any old shite to keep the pennies coming in. But whether it’s a musician with a shoddy album or a restaurant with a terrible interior I think you need to keep things real.
Worth noting saying no will usually drop you in the shit somehow. How do I manage that? Well, I’m honest in the nicest way possible. Essentially, it’ll help the client in the long run. It’s also ended some working relationships on a sour note. But that’s something that just has to happen at times. It’s business.
Like, could I put VIPs into a restaurant that has a fully wooden mismatched furniture interior? I said no. Said restaurant closed four months later when the penny dropped and it’s now a brand-new venue and doing way better. It’s just how things work.
It would have been a whole lot worse if I took on the shitty restaurant and spent months flogging a dead horse. The client ends up being unhappy and your reputation always has to come first – especially in hospitality.
DON’T WORK WITH SUPER RICH PEOPLE
From my own personal experience rich people are lazy, self-absorbed tits. The more money the less sense they have. I done oligarchs to heiresses – a total nightmare from start to finish. Sure, some OK moments. Well, the heiress got a PA to fire me days before Christmas with no excuse. That was after I spent two years ENDLESSLY getting her top tier press moments. A cover would come out and there wasn’t a thank you. There was a “what’s next” text on a Sunday.
When I worked recently with a well-known businessperson I ended up resigning on month two of a three-month trial period after I’d secured the best piece of press they’d had for a decade with a broadsheet. The ultimate polite fuck you. I finished the three months like a good boy and the relief of being free was palpable after I was released from that scenario.
The reality of rich people. You get paid well, you sort of enjoy the work but you’re constantly thinking “God, if this person had a work ethic and wasn’t so obnoxious they’d be smashing life”. Your anxiety also goes through the roof. It’s boring babysitting rich folks without a clue. Sure, you can ignore me and take the pay cheque. But trust me, it’s a 24/7 pain in the ass and you’re serving the most thankless of tasks for people you can’t relate too. #justsayno
AND FINALLY…
Obviously, I decided to illustrate this entire feature on PR with my favourite and ultimate PR Samantha Jones. I often think what she’d be doing now and where her career would be.
Have a comment on the PR world? Leave me a note below.