Media relations: definition, tasks and example

A company controls its own website, newsletter and social channels. What a newspaper, trade magazine or podcast says about it is decided by an editor. Media relations is the work at that interface. Its result is editorial coverage, or earned media: not paid for, and therefore not guaranteed.

Media relations as part of PR

Media relations and public relations are often used as if they meant the same thing. PR, however, addresses all of an organisation's publics. The CIPR's definition of PR names customers, employees, investors, government, suppliers, opinion-formers and the media. The Public Relations Society of America lists media relations as one discipline of PR alongside internal communications, crisis communications, investor relations and social media.

Media relations reaches its real audience only indirectly. The German DPRG/ICV framework describes it as indirect communication that is directed first at gatekeepers, opinion leaders and multipliers. Only when a newsroom reports does the message reach the people it was meant for.

Core tasks

• Selecting news: deciding what is genuinely new and relevant for journalists, and what belongs in a newsletter or on the website instead.
• Writing press releases: preparing information so that a newsroom can check and use it quickly. See press release.
• Pitching: offering a story to individual journalists, tailored to their beat.
• Organising interviews and press conferences: briefing spokespeople, coordinating dates, agreeing quotes.
• Answering press enquiries: fast, accurately and through one named contact.
• Providing material: photos, facts and background in a press kit or online newsroom.
• Building relationships: keeping an up-to-date media list and knowing who covers what.

What journalists expect

Newsrooms receive far more pitches than they can use. The ones that get picked up usually meet four conditions:

• Relevance: the story fits the outlet and its audience, not just the company's goals.
• Exclusivity: offering a story to one outlet first, or only to that outlet, improves the odds. Any embargo must be stated clearly.
• Reliability: figures are correct, promises are kept and spokespeople are available.
• Speed: an answer that arrives after the deadline does not make it into the story.

Measuring results

The number of press releases sent says little about success. More useful metrics come from the coverage itself, collected through media monitoring and evaluated in a media content analysis:

• Coverage: how many relevant articles appeared, and how many in target outlets.
• Reach: the estimated opportunities to see those articles.
• Message pull-through: whether the planned key messages appear in the coverage. The AMEC/IPR Dictionary of Public Relations Measurement and Research describes message analysis as measuring which planned messages are actually contained in the media. See key message pull-through.
• Share of voice: the brand's share of coverage within a competitive set. See share of voice in PR.
• AI visibility: whether and how AI assistants such as ChatGPT or Gemini mention the brand. Their answers also draw on editorial sources. In Muck Rack's What Is AI Reading? study (May 2026, more than 25 million cited links from ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini), journalism made up 27% of cited sources. More in earned media and AI visibility.

Example: media relations for a product launch

The following example is fictional. A software company from Leipzig launches a heating cost billing tool for property managers.

1. Three weeks before: the team agrees two key messages and selects 40 contacts on property, energy and business desks.
2. Two weeks before: a property trade magazine gets an exclusive interview with the managing director and an exclusive customer case. This exclusive material runs on launch day.
3. One week before: the general announcement, with press release, photos and fact sheet, goes to all contacts under embargo, including the trade magazine. The embargo terms, meaning date and time, are agreed before the material is sent. Personal pitches go to five business desks.
4. Launch day: the embargo lifts, the release goes live in the online newsroom and enquiries are answered the same day.
5. Four weeks later: 14 articles, 6 of them in target outlets. 9 articles contain at least one key message. Share of voice in the competitive set rises from 12% to 19%. When asked about heating cost billing software, AI assistants still rarely name the brand, which becomes the goal for the next quarter.

How aclipp supports media relations

aclipp media monitoring, with global online monitoring across more than 150 million sources, captures the resulting articles, so you can evaluate coverage, key messages and share of voice in the same workspace. AI visibility shows whether your topics also reach AI answers.