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| Dustin Siggins |
Many PR professionals brag about media relationships. They sell entire campaigns on the basis of who they know, conveniently leaving out the fact that public relations is built on much more than deep friendships. After all, your best buddy in the UK tech trades isn’t going to cover your American-based paint company’s new franchise location, no matter how many times you’ve had dinner together.
At my company, we prefer to follow the money and focus on two relationships that are far more important and set the foundation for media friendships as well.
Clients/management
The most important relationship is with the person or organization paying the bills. First, because if they don’t trust you, you’re out of a job. Second, because trust is the foundation to getting the stuff on which PR actually runs: data, subject-matter experts, clear points of contact and access to decision-makers.
Building that relationship starts with setting early expectations. Ask important and insightful questions to gather key information while also being transparent about timelines, likely outcomes and the uncertainty baked into earned media. Once they see you’re part of the team, it’s time to refine core narratives, identify credible voices and secure introductions to subject matter experts.
Only then can you develop and send media pitches that matter. None of it is fast, but all of it is necessary to build the most important relationship in PR. And when any of these steps are skipped, disaster ensues.
“A strong partnership requires both parties to work toward the same goal,” said The Colab CEO Lizzy Harris. “Client relationships deteriorate when one or both parties aren’t aligned, or if either party is working toward a different set of goals. I see this a lot with PR agencies that want to land new business. They overpromise in the pitch and underdeliver down the road, and the relationship falls apart.”
Team
The second-most important PR relationships are those with the team, both inside and outside the communications function. Most professionals can manage a project or two independently. Doing it well, repeatedly and at scale is impossible without the right people around you gathering information that creates impactful narratives.
Strong teams are built by putting the right people in the right roles, not jamming folks into the wrong seats. It also requires a culture that works for you. At my company, we’re fully remote, don’t care when people work and focus on outcomes instead of hours. Because no leader can see all angles, we also encourage dissent, which produces better strategies, fewer mistakes and more relationships among everyone.
Dave Dziok, Managing Director of agency Narrative Strategies, said: “We’re very intentional about protecting the culture that made us successful in the first place. That means clear expectations, transparency and giving people real ownership over their work. Growth only works if your team feels trusted, supported and connected, and that’s something we treat as a strategic priority, not an afterthought.”
Stephanie Roberts, Chief Communications Officer with Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems, takes a similar approach to ensuring that the comms. function is integrated into all other company functions. “PR works best when relationships with allies are built as real working partnerships, not treated transactionally or as checkpoints in a process. Investing in trust before a campaign creates shared ownership, sustaining it during execution supports better decision-making and continuing those relationships afterward can turn a single campaign into long-term impact.”
Media
Once your team has earned the client’s trust, it’s time to think about how you’re treating reporters, editors, producers and other media gatekeepers. Are you a PR pro worth getting to know, or are you a hack?
“Every day, my inbox is bursting at the seams with a lot of spam, newsletters and off-topic pitches,” said Joanna Fantozzi, Senior Editor at Nation’s Restaurant News. “It really helps to be able to scan for names of publicists I recognize and trust. These people know my beat well, read my publication and know what I’m looking for in both daily news stories and long-term interviews and features. Conversely, I can reach out to them with interview or comment requests and know that I’ll get a timely response.”
Chase, head of PR at Metatheory, agrees. “Who you know in the media matters because reporters often include sources they trust as informal sounding boards: people who share useful industry insight beyond their own company or client. Those conversations can shape stories long before a pitch is ever written.”
To restate the opening of this piece: It’s dishonest to sell relationships as the product of public relations instead of the process. All PR professionals know that the three Ts matter far more: the right Topic, at the right Time and from someone with the right Title.
But do media relationships matter? Yup, which is why they make the top three in PR.
Internal and external allies
Many firms talk about their relationships with the media. At Proven Media Solutions, we pride ourselves on knowing sources, experts and authors—the people whose names, expertise and credibility carry weight with audiences. That distinction matters. Rather than positioning organizations as the loudest voice in the room, we help credible authors write op-eds grounded in their own skills and experience, then place those pieces in relevant outlets.
Zoom out, and this approach scales well beyond bylines. Investors, customers, analysts and operators are great business voices. Clinicians, patients and inventors bring trust that hospital administrators cannot. In public affairs, it’s often the policy nerd and the average Jane who make the biggest impact.
“The most effective campaigns create a surround-sound approach that reaches decision-makers through PR, lobbying, grassroots mobilization and strategic coalition-building,” said Katie Boyd, Managing Director at CGCN, an advocacy and strategic comms. firm. “An integrated campaign creates the impetus for action and the credibility needed to shape policy outcomes.”
Follow the money
Media relationship debates are catnip for PR professionals. But the most important relationships follow the money by getting decision-makers to sign off on budget, authority and campaign execution.
“Having led communications inside large, complex organizations, trust comes from showing sound judgment early and communicating directly and honestly from the start,” said Sarah Groves, Marketing and Comms. VP at Concentra. “When executives feel confident that you understand both the strategy and the reputational stakes, partnerships move faster and deliver real impact.”
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Dustin Siggins is Founder of Proven Media Solutions.
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