PR Tactics That Defined 2025: Storytelling, Power Shifts, and the New Media Reality

If 2024 hinted at where public relations was headed, 2025 made it unmistakable: the center of gravity in media and storytelling has shifted—and PR professionals who adapted were far more effective than those who didn’t.

This was not the year of chasing headlines for the sake of visibility. Instead, it was the year PR became more intentional, more owned, and more human. The tactics that worked reflected a new reality about how audiences consume information, who they trust, and where influence truly lives.

Authentic Storytelling Took the Lead—Especially Through Influencers and Owned Content

This year, audiences had little patience for content that felt staged, overly polished, or overly corporate. What broke through was authentic storytelling—often imperfect, unscripted, and delivered by people rather than institutions.

Online influencers evolved from secondary amplifiers into primary storytelling engines, and many of the most effective voices were podcasters, commentators, and creators who built trust by being candid, opinionated, and consistent.

A standout example was the TikTok presence of the I’ve Had It Podcast. Hosts Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan built massive reach by posting blunt, aggressive, unfiltered commentary. Their clips didn’t feel engineered for virality; they felt real. That authenticity carried far beyond their core listenership and demonstrated that tone and honesty mattered more than production value (even though they have that, too).

For PR professionals, the takeaway was clear: influence doesn’t always look polished, credibility comes from lived experience, and alignment matters far more than control.

At the same time, organizations invested more heavily in owned content—blogs, newsletters, podcasts, and social video—not as backups, but as central PR strategy. With earned media harder to secure and slower to materialize, brands that built their own audiences were far more resilient. PR shifted decisively from “pitch and pray” to build, publish, and distribute with purpose.

Video Became the Default, Not the Add-On

In 2025, video was no longer optional. It became the primary language of PR.

Short-form video dominated attention, but longer formats, like interviews and behind-the-scenes content, played an essential role in building trust and authority. News outlets increasingly embedded social video directly into coverage, and many reporters sourced experts by scrolling TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube before opening their inboxes.

PR teams that planned visuals first, capturing b-roll, vertical clips, and usable soundbites, consistently outperformed those treating video as an afterthought. If there was no video, there was no story.

Newsrooms Continued to Shrink—and Pressure Intensified

Perhaps the most sobering reality of 2025 was the continued contraction of traditional newsrooms, compounded by escalating political and corporate pressure.

For years, fewer reporters have been tasked with covering more beats, faster, and with fewer resources. In 2025, editorial decision-making became increasingly cautious as economic strain and outside influence shaped what stories were pursued—or avoided entirely.

The sustained political attacks by the Trump Administration on our news and information industry, including the defunding of The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, assaults on late night talk show hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, and the outright corporate capitulation by Paramount and the MAGA-fication of CBS News, sent a clear signal: our Freedom of the Press is in jeopardy.

For PR professionals, this reality changed the equation. Coverage (especially on controversial issues) became harder to secure, and reporters had less time to spend on investigative journalism, particularly around politically sensitive or corporate accountability issues. Effective PR strategies in 2025 diversified channels and recognized that trust had to be built repeatedly across platforms.

The Rise of Personality-Based News Sources

As trust in legacy media fractured further, personality-driven news platforms surged. Audiences increasingly followed people rather than institutions.

Outlets like Zeteo and the “he’s everywhere” strategy of its founder, Medhi Hasan, reflected this shift, building influence around recognizable voices, transparency, and values. These platforms offered something traditional media often couldn’t: context and trust anchored to individuals rather than corporate brands.

For PR, this fundamentally altered our approach. Pitching people instead of institutions became more effective, hosts and creators were treated as collaborators rather than gatekeepers, and editorial alignment mattered more than sheer audience size. The line between journalist, commentator, and influencer blurred—but influence itself became easier to identify.

What This Means for PR Going Forward

The PR tactics that worked in 2025 shared a common thread: control, credibility, and connection. Success no longer came from chasing attention. It came from owning narratives, building trust over time, and meeting audiences where they already are.

Modern PR is now part content studio, part relationship business, part media strategy, and part truth-telling exercise. The question isn’t whether PR has changed. It’s whether we’re willing to adapt.

Because the future of PR doesn’t belong to the loudest voice—it belongs to the most authentic one.