Communications, answered

By having something only they can say. Proprietary data from their own operations, a contrarian position they can defend, a customer outcome with real numbers, or a shift they are seeing before the market has named it.

Usually pitching to a large list, leading with the company name rather than the finding, and making the journalist do work to understand why their readers would care.

Weeks to months, and the first placement is by far the hardest. Journalists work months ahead on features and hours ahead on news, so the timing that suits them rarely suits your launch calendar.

No, and be wary of anyone who does. Editorial decisions sit with editors, and a guarantee means either paid placement, which is advertising rather than coverage, or a promise the seller cannot keep.

Sometimes, and rarely for the reason people expect. Outdoor works for repeated exposure to a defined route or area, not for direct response, and measuring it is hard.

Novelty, conflict, a number nobody has published, a human consequence, or timeliness against something already being discussed. Ideally two of those at once.

Not to start. A founder with a genuine story, twenty well-chosen names and fast replies will outperform a mid-tier retainer, because the founder is the interesting part.

Then the story is in your data or your opinion. What do you see across your clients that nobody outside your business can see, and what do you believe about your industry that most of it would dispute.

Rarely as the pitch, occasionally as a reference document. A short personal email explaining why the reader would care outperforms a formal release almost every time.

Use it properly. Reference it on the site, send it to clients, put it in proposals, give the sales team the line. Most coverage produces one day of traffic and is then forgotten by the company that earned it.