r/PublicRelations

Hey everyone,

Quick question for people working in PR / comms.

When you need to show a client how a headline, image or campaign story could look in an article or online newsroom format, how are you usually mocking that up?

Are you rebuilding pages in Figma / Photoshop / Canva, using screenshots, or doing something else entirely?

I’m working on a small Chrome extension that lets you edit visible webpage text, replace images and export a quick article-style mock-up, but I’m trying to understand whether this is actually a useful PR workflow or just a niche design problem.

Would be really interested to hear how others handle this, especially for pitches, approvals or media planning.

Hi all, I am a founder and creative director of a fine jewelry brand that plans to launch in sept. I strongly believe my brand has an edge in the scandi fine jewelry space and think there could be a compelling story there for vogue. Since my brand is pre launch and our items are largely made-to-order, I'm quite unsure of how to approach our media strategy. A dream would be an organic product placement or feature in VS to build credibility. What advice do you have to approach this given the constraints of my business?

Note: I understand that the traditional route to take would be to hire a PR firm. But id love to do this myself. I'm looking for advice on approach etc given that i dont really have a lot of physical products made as it's a made to order biz and I would ideally like some press cover around or before launch.

Thanks in advance!

When a company, especially a small company in this case, starts working with a PR agency or PR consultant, what kind of materials do PR professionals usually ask the company to provide so they can start working properly?

I’m asking because my boss is giving me a huge amount of materials to prepare, and honestly I don’t think all of them are actually necessary. I want to do a good job, but she keeps coming up with new tasks because she asks Claude what to prepare, and then pretends that “the PR people asked for it.” 🫠🫠

I’m with a small agency, with one of our key service offerings being internal communications and we are self-professed experts on employer culture. The thing is, as a business our culture is terrible and morale is abysmal.

Staff numbers are kept as low as possible to minimise cost, staff are overstretched, part time staff working full time hours, control freak/micromanaging managers, junior staff expected to take on extra responsibility but not allowed to make mistakes, low pay and retaliation for seeking pay rises, no company pension plan, no health insurance, “lucky to have a job in this economy” style approach, etc. etc.

Is this a common theme across PR or am
I just with a bad employer?

Hi everyone,

I have 6 years of experience leading global corporate PR for a B2B tech company (handling standard media, M&As, and corporate crisis coordination).

I am now applying for a Press Office & Issues Management role at a consumer marketplace app.

Since my background is mostly B2B, I’d love to know:

1. What do you think "Issues Management" usually looks like day-to-day for a consumer app? (Is it mostly trust & safety, scams, or regulatory stuff?)
2. What is the absolute key to succeeding in a role like this?...
3. How would you best position a B2B corporate experience as an asset for a consumer brand?

Would love any insights or tips. Thank you!

I'm nervous, haven't interviewd in forever!

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice and honestly maybe some hope from people who’ve been through something similar.

I’m 25, based in the LA area, bilingual (English/Spanish), and currently working at a boutique PR agency while also having newsroom/assignment desk experience in broadcast journalism. My long-term goal is to move more into communications/PR/media strategy, ideally in tech, startups, or in-house communications.

The issue is that while I actually enjoy the work itself and have been doing well in the role, the logistics are becoming unsustainable. I currently have a very long LA commute (up to ~4 hours total some days), and between gas, driving stress, and the cost of simply maintaining the job, I’m finding myself increasingly burned out and financially strained despite gaining valuable experience.
I’m trying to figure out what the smartest next step is without completely abandoning the momentum I’ve built professionally.

A few things I’d really appreciate advice on:

Has anyone successfully pivoted from agency PR/newsroom work into remote or hybrid communications roles?

Are there startups/tech companies/openings that tend to value bilingual communications/media experience?

Any advice for finding more sustainable early-career PR/comms paths in LA?

Is in-house communications generally more stable than boutique agency life?

I’m especially interested in:
tech/startup communications
media relations
corporate communications
bilingual audience strategy

Would really appreciate any insight, networking advice, or reassurance from people who survived this stage of their careers because honestly this transition into adulthood/career life has been rough lol.

When I send emails through Muck Rack I get very few email bounces, but if I export a Muck Rack list and send emails manually I get significantly more bounces. Are they hiding the bounces to make their database appear more accurate?

26 year old woman based in the US currently working in technology and debating going back to school because the future of coding / software engineering scares me and I’m not interested in the work at all.

Question, how do I know PR is the right fit? I am genuinely interested in media, digital publishing, the creator economy, marketing, and internet culture. One of my favorite podcasts covers these topics (Centennial World) and I thoroughly enjoy it and could see myself working in the space. That being said, liking a podcast and actually working in the industry are vastly different things but I don’t know how to determine if I woudl actually enjoy a career in PR / media / marketing.

How did you know PR was right for you? Any people here who entered this industry after a career change? Looking for any and all perspectives

Greetings,

I’m looking for a recommendation or two on a strong European PR agency. We have a major event coming up and need a network or a well-connected independent agency that can handle regional media relations, localized campaigns, and hype generation across the UK, Spain, Germany, and France.

Ideally, an agency capable of running a hub-and-spoke model would be ideal (or with strong wholly-owned offices in those specific markets) rather than a loose affiliate network.

Any groups you’ve had great experiences with would be incredibly appreciated!

If this isn’t supposed to be here, please remove this post.

I went to the University of Alabama at Birmingham where John Wittig taught the PR classes. He was a difficult man to learn under. Students could expect a negative grade on some assignments (like a -20 was the lowest score you could make and even the best students often made negative scores).

The reason he gave for being so challenging was he didn’t want anyone to finish his program who couldn’t write, conduct themselves professionally, or bring a good name to the profession. He said many students chose PR because they thought a communications degree would be easy. He wanted to fail people out of the early PR courses, so that only the best people would go on to work in the industry.

He had such a reputation for being difficult, the people who finished his program were known as Wittig Survivors.

I was wondering if anyone outside of Birmingham/Alabama had heard of him. Or if anyone had a similar teacher/mentor. And if you’re a Wittig Survivor, congrats on making it through.

At the end of the day, I disliked the man. But I respected him.

Been cycling through brand monitoring tools for a while and I'm convinced they all have at least one thing they're quietly terrible at. Missing half of all major social media, sentiment that flips on sarcasm, reports that need a data analyst to decode.

Got frustrated enough that I ended up with something that covers FB, IG, LinkedIn, X, Reddit, YouTube, news, with sentiment that handles context. Not naming it, just genuinely curious what everyone else has accepted as normal.

What's the gap in your current stack?

I need to send out a pitch with pertinent information (the day something is going to happen). But due to laws and regulations, the public can’t be made aware of this date prior to it happening. So what’s the best few words in a subject line to imply:

I AM GIVING YOU THIS INFORMATION BUT YOU CANT WRITE ABOUT IT AHEAD OF TIME AND WHETHER OR NOT YOU PICK THIS STORY UP, YOU CANT TELL ANYONE.

Edited to add:
This is news of a certain famous house going on sale. I want to have all the articles ready to go the week it goes on sale, but no one can write on May 28 that it will go on sale on June 1 because that violates MLS policies.

I started my PR career recently. I'm based in India.I have a few questions and need some advice.

Looking forward to connecting with PR professionals in India.

Thank you for answering my questions. I learn so much from your sub and love your creative way of thinking!

Could you please refer me to the best sources for the following. (I received flawed answers from LLMs):

1. ¨These days the real money is in B2B Trade Publication. Search for industries with high ticket products (manufacturing, medical tech, enterprise saas). Usually I find them by looking where the industry leaders are running their whitepaper ads.¨ Where do industry leaders run these ads? (by extension: sponsored articles - how can I find this)?

Where can I find databases/ lists of B2B magazines/ journals - not trade journals or commercial magazines?

2. How can I find trade journals and/ or writing opportunities through industry associations and conference sponsor lists?

c) Do newsletters pay freelance writers relatively well? Even today? If so, where can I find them?

Research shows me none of the old ¨tricks¨ for finding high-paying writing opportunities work today. Even for trade journals. A shrunk market and hyper-saturated. I need to be creative. I plan to approach emerging publications and publications in foreign countries. (Tracking back from bylines no longer works nor do keyword-insertions in LI and the like). Do you have any other supremely creative ideas that i could try?

Hey guys I have a question I am trying to apply for a media and public relations internship I want to ask what would a portfolio for PR look like if anyone has any samples they can show me .. that would be helpful

Another question I wrote my college newspaper can I use that for my portfolio website for the internship ?

And another question if I am starting off how do I prepare press releases for various companies or journalists what is the process how can I add it to my website or portfolio . Since contacting journalists is part of the job for a PR assistant

Could you please tell me: 1. Where you find these publications? . How do you pitch them? What can I learn from you to succeed as you do?

Thanks!

I have worked in telecommunications for most of my adult life. I am now 43 and I am thinking about going back to school. Do you think 43 is too old to get a communications degree majoring in Public Relations? When most people tell me this idea for them, I think 43 is still so young. However, when I think about myself, 43 feels so old. Help! Thoughts?