Great public relations does not begin with a pitch. Or what outlet you want to be in. Or who you know at that publication.

It begins with clarity. About your business, your audience and your goals.

In public relations, there is a powerful and very understandable temptation to chase the biggest possible media placement — a feature in The New York Times, an appearance on The Today Show, or another high-profile national outlet that instantly feels like validation.

These placements sound impressive, present well for internal presentations, and often become the shorthand for “success” in the minds of executives and boards.

But when that desire is driven more by ego than strategy, it can quietly derail an otherwise effective PR program.

There is a simple but revealing test often used when preparing someone for a broadcast interview, and it cuts straight to the heart of how modern newsrooms operate: if a message cannot be delivered clearly and confidently in eight seconds, it is not ready for media.

That idea may sound harsh at first, but it accurately reflects the reality of today’s broadcast environment.

If you’ve watched a little too much Sex and the City or Scandal, you might think Public Relations is all crisis phone calls, dramatic monologues, and clever one-liners delivered in glass-walled conference rooms. It makes for great television. It is also wildly inaccurate.

In reality, PR is about helping clients connect with the audiences they serve. Most often, that means generating publicity and securing media coverage that builds visibility, credibility, and trust. It can also include supporting social media strategy, producing newsletters, helping shape website messaging, or creating content that reinforces a brand’s story.

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.

So much of public relations is rinse and repeat.

And no, that’s not a criticism of our profession. It’s how PR works.

In an industry that constantly evolves—new platforms, new news cycles, new audience behaviors—the fundamentals stay the same. They’re built around how newsrooms operate, what reporters need, and how stories actually get told.

If you understand - and master - those fundamentals, you can communicate with the media more effectively than most people.