Why Your Brand Isn't Getting Media Coverage (Even If Your Product Is Great)

The problem usually isn't your product. It's that you're telling the wrong story.

"We've got a great product. Why isn't anyone writing about us?"

It's one of the questions I'm asked most often.

Sometimes it's a product launch.

Sometimes it's a founder with an inspiring journey.

Sometimes it's a meaningful cause the company genuinely believes in.

Sometimes it's an award they've worked incredibly hard to achieve.

And honestly?

It's a fair question.

The easy answer is to blame shrinking newsrooms, commercial pressures and the rise of paid media. While there's some truth to that, I don't think it's the whole story.

I think what's really changed is the way stories earn attention.

Three shifts every brand needs to understand

Shift 1: Media companies no longer compete to publish stories. They compete for attention.

The media landscape has changed.

Newsrooms are leaner.

Journalists are producing more content than ever before. Many are no longer just writing articles—they're expected to create videos, publish on social media, produce newsletters and keep pace with a relentless news cycle.

At the same time, publishers are under increasing commercial pressure. Advertising revenue has shifted, audience habits have changed and branded partnerships now play a much bigger role in sustaining media businesses.

Does that mean earned media is dead?

Not at all.

It simply means the bar is much higher.

Journalists have become more selective because they have to be.

Every story they publish has to compete for one thing: Attention.

Shift 2: Brands massively overestimate how interesting they are.

This is probably the hardest truth to hear.

One thing I've realised over the years is that almost every client believes their announcement is interesting.

Not because they're arrogant.

Because they're immersed in it every single day.

When you've spent months developing a product, planning a campaign or organising an event, it's almost impossible not to see it as significant.

The closer you are to your own business, the harder it becomes to judge what the outside world will actually find interesting.

I experience this myself.

Whenever someone asks me to write a press release, before I think about headlines, key messages or media angles, I instinctively ask myself one question.

Who cares?

Not because I'm trying to dismiss the announcement.

Because that's exactly the question every journalist—and ultimately every reader—is asking too.

The "Who Cares?" Test

Over time, I've realised this is probably the most valuable filter in communications.

Every announcement has to pass what I call the "Who Cares?" Test.

Whenever a client shares exciting news, I ask myself:

If I removed the company's logo from this announcement, would anyone still find it interesting?

If the answer is no, then what we have is company news.

Not media news.

There's an important difference.

A product relaunch isn't automatically a story. An award isn't automatically a story. A new office isn't automatically a story. A partnership isn't automatically a story.

Those are announcements.

The story usually sits underneath.

Maybe the product solves a growing consumer problem. Maybe the founder represents a larger shift happening within an industry. Maybe the award reveals changing customer expectations. Maybe the partnership signals where an entire sector is heading.

That's the story.

The announcement is simply the vehicle.

This is where communications creates value

One of the biggest misconceptions about engaging a PR agency is that our role is to churn out press releases and pitch them to the media.

In reality, that's almost the furthest thing from it.

Today, almost anyone can draft a competent press release with the help of AI.

But producing a press release has never been the hardest part of communications.

The hard part is deciding whether there's actually a story worth telling.

One question that occasionally comes up when discussing PR retainers is whether that means sending a press release every month.

My answer is always the same.

A press release isn't the deliverable. It's the outcome.

It's the outcome of identifying a story that genuinely deserves attention.

AI can help draft the announcement. It can even suggest headlines, key messages and media angles.

What it can't replace is the judgement required to decide whether the announcement is the story—or whether the real story lies somewhere deeper.

That's why one of the first questions I ask isn't, "How do we announce this?"

It's, "Is this actually the story?"

Because more often than not, it isn't.

A company's latest product update, partnership or milestone is rarely what captures attention on its own.

The real story usually sits underneath.

It might be a shift in consumer behaviour. A problem the industry has been struggling to solve. A broader cultural conversation. A founder's perspective that challenges conventional thinking. My role isn't to make an announcement sound more exciting than it is.

It's to uncover the story hiding inside it.

To translate company or brand importance into public relevance.

That's the difference between publicity and strategic communications.

One focuses on getting an announcement out.

The other starts by asking whether the announcement is even the most interesting story to tell.

Shift 3: You're not competing for media coverage. You're competing for relevance.

This is the shift that changes everything.

Many brands believe they're competing against other companies for media attention.

They're not.

They're competing against everything else happening in the world that day.

Politics. Technology. Business. Culture. Sport. Breaking news. The latest viral moment.

Your announcement isn't being judged against another press release.

It's being judged against every other story fighting for the same reader's attention.

That's why asking, "How do we get more media coverage?" is often the wrong question.

A better one is: Why should someone who has never heard of our company care about this?

That's a much harder question.

It's also the one that matters.

Think like an editor, not a brand

One exercise I often use is to temporarily remove the company from the story.

Forget the logo. Forget the brand name. Forget how much effort went into the project.

Now ask yourself:

Would this still make me stop scrolling?

Would I send this article to a friend?

Would someone outside my industry find this interesting?

Does this tell us something new about how people live, work or think?

Or is it only important because it's important to us?

That shift in perspective changes everything.

Because editors don't wake up wondering which companies deserve coverage today.

They wake up wondering what stories their readers will care about.

The closer your thinking resembles theirs, the stronger your communications becomes.

So, what actually gets covered?

The brands that consistently earn media coverage usually have one thing in common.

They don't simply announce what's happening.

They explain why it matters.

They connect their news to a wider trend.

They offer an opinion.

They challenge conventional thinking.

They present new data.

They solve a problem people recognise.

In other words, they stop talking about themselves.

And start talking about something bigger than themselves.

That's what makes a story worth sharing.

Final thoughts

Every company has news.

Very few have a story.

That's the difference.

The next time you're preparing to announce something, don't start by asking: "Will the media cover this?"

Start by asking: "Who cares?"

If the answer only points back to your own organisation, keep digging.

Because somewhere beneath the announcement is probably a story that deserves to be told.

Your job isn't to make the announcement louder.

It's to uncover why it matters in the first place.

That's where great communications begins.