What makes a story newsworthy?

You already have plenty of stories worth telling; you don’t realise what they are.

When I speak to businesses across Suffolk and Essex, many tell me they don’t need PR support because they aren’t launching projects, winning national awards, or signing major commercial partnerships.

Those stories are great, but I promise you have many more interesting stories to tell; you need to recognise them.

Journalists look for stories that are relevant, useful, timely, or interesting to their audience. In this article, I’m going to explain what makes a story newsworthy, so you can work out how to identify opportunities that already exist within your business.

What do journalists look for in a newsworthy story?

Journalists receive hundreds of pitches and press releases every week, and as you can imagine, most will be ignored. That’s not necessarily because the story is bad, but because it doesn’t answer one key question.

Why should their readers care?

If you want to know what makes a story newsworthy, then your news angle should cover at least two (preferably more) of the following ingredients.

• Is it timely and relevant? Your story has a better chance of being picked up if it connects to something happening right now. This might be new legislation, industry changes, seasonal trends, economic shifts or current events. Don’t be afraid to share your opinion because a business discussing how recent changes affect customers is usually more compelling than a business simply promoting itself.
• What is the impact of the story? Your news story will be much stronger if you can explain how it affects customers, businesses, employees or communities. The wider the impact, the more interest it can generate. For example, can you talk about job creation, customer benefits, cost savings, or market trends?
• Can you share your expertise and opinion? Not every story needs a launch, announcement or report. Sometimes the story is your perspective. Businesses that can explain trends, challenges and opportunities clearly often become valuable sources for journalists.
• Where is the human-interest angle? We know that people buy people, and the same is true when it comes to the news we choose to read. Stories involving customer success, business challenges, founder journeys and personal experiences are often more engaging than purely corporate announcements.
• What are you saying that is original? Original information and white papers give journalists something new to talk about. This could be the use of research findings, survey results, customer data, or unique expertise

What is stopping your business from getting media coverage?

In my experience, a few misconceptions might be holding you back from understanding how to get media coverage.

• You’re dismissing client wins, partnership announcements, and customer success stories as ‘business as usual’.
• You know everything there is to know about your specialist expertise, but you’re not sure anyone else is interested in what you have to say.
• You don’t think of your industry insights or business growth as particularly interesting.

But at the same time, you wonder why your competitors can turn those updates into media coverage, thought leadership opportunities, and industry visibility.

The difference is often how you frame the story, not the story itself.

Many businesses think they need a media relations agency to generate coverage. But as a PR agency for small businesses, I know learning how to identify newsworthy stories is often the first step toward successful media relations for SMEs.

If you’ve read my article, “You don’t have a PR problem; you have an angle problem”, you’ll know that too often, businesses use a one-size-fits-all approach rather than questioning whether it’s the right story for that particular outlet.

How “ordinary” business updates can generate media coverage

Many businesses assume they have nothing worth talking about because they don’t have a major announcement planned. But in my experience working with clients across the UK and specialising in media relations for SMEs, some of the strongest PR stories start with everyday business activities.

Here’s a real-world example.

“Sophie” is an in-house marketing manager in a growing SME. Over the last few months, her company has secured several new clients, formed a strategic partnership and expanded into a new region. Because none of these developments feels dramatic internally, nobody suggests approaching the media, and she misses the opportunity to share the news with the local media and trade press.

Instead, the local newspaper reports a story about a much smaller local business securing a major contract and creating new jobs. The story wasn’t the contract itself, but it was picked up for news coverage because it connects to regional economic growth and employment and can demonstrate the impact of that contract win.

Is my product launch a newsworthy story? What journalists want to see

There is a huge difference between a product launch and a news story. Journalists won’t always cover a product launch because they see it as too commercial. Quite rightly, if you are selling the features of your product, they’ll expect you to pay to take out an advert or advertorial feature.

Journalists are usually less interested in new features, updated functionality or technical specifications. They want to understand the impact. Does the launch solve a recognised problem? Does it reflect a wider industry trend? Does it challenge the way things are currently done? Does it help customers achieve a better outcome?

Here’s a real-world example.

“Daniel” runs a software business, and his team has spent six months developing a new reporting feature. He wants the product launch release to focus on the latest improvements, such as new dashboard functionality, additional reporting fields, an updated user interface and technical integrations.

Unfortunately, that approach fails the “so what?” test. A journalist has no reason to care because it’s feature-led, not benefit-led. It doesn’t put customers first at the heart of the story.

In this example, I would recommend that Daniel change the story to focus on how many hours customers will save per month using the new tool. By quoting a confirmed number of hours and attaching an hourly cost, he gives the product a clear financial value, which suddenly passes the ‘so what?’ test.

Instead of leading with new functionality, the story becomes “New reporting feature helps SMEs reduce monthly reporting time from six hours to one hour, saving up to £xxx per year”. Suddenly, that’s a stronger newsworthy story idea and far more relevant to what journalists want to write about.

Thought leadership PR turns expertise into newsworthy stories

I am a huge advocate for thought leadership as part of your PR activity. Sharing your knowledge and expertise is an easy way to become seen as an expert in your sector.

A strong thought leadership story helps people answer questions such as:

• What trends should we be paying attention to?
• What mistakes are businesses making?
• What challenges are emerging?
• What opportunities are being overlooked?
• What does an expert predict will happen next?

The most effective thought leadership doesn’t promote a product or service. Instead, it helps the audience understand an issue that is relevant to them.

Here’s a real-world example.

“Maya” is a senior marketing leader responsible for PR, content and reporting to her senior leadership team. The company hasn’t launched anything new in a while, and it has no new announcements on the horizon, so it assumes it should put its PR activity on hold because it doesn’t think it has anything to say that would get media coverage. However, Maya’s team notices that customer buying behaviour has changed significantly over the past year. The team talks internally about how interesting this change is.

In this scenario, this insight would be valuable to hundreds of businesses facing the same challenge. Instead of waiting for company news, I would recommend interviewing one of the company’s senior leaders to develop a point of view on what these changes mean for the industry.

The resulting article isn’t about the company. Instead, it focuses on why buyer behaviour is changing, the risks for businesses that ignore it, and how companies can adapt. From that article, the company can build an association with expertise rather than promotion.

How consultants and SMEs can get media coverage

Specialist knowledge is often more valuable than company size, so if you’re a solo business owner, a start-up or a small business in Suffolk, you have just as much chance to get your voice out there as bigger brands. In fact, I often find that when it comes to PR for SMEs, your size may work to your advantage because independent experts can often move faster than larger organisations.

Here’s a real-world example.

“Robert” is an independent consultant who wants to win larger contracts and position himself as an expert in his field. He believes journalists care more about agencies, technology companies, and major brands than the perspective of a solo operator. That’s why he focuses all his time on client delivery and puts little effort into raising his profile.

However, while working with clients, he notices a recurring pattern: local businesses make the same mistakes when selecting suppliers. The issue costs organisations time, money, and frustration, yet very few people talk about it publicly.

Instead of treating this observation as routine client work, he turns it into a thought leadership opportunity.

He writes an article explaining why businesses are repeatedly making this mistake and how to avoid it. His approach to PR ideas for small businesses focuses on helping people by addressing a challenge that affects his audience.

What turns research into a newsworthy story idea?

Original research can be incredibly valuable, but it isn’t automatically newsworthy. A journalist will cover it only if it tells them something that their audience didn’t already know.

Research reports are a great way of promoting your business, but a journalist or media outlet won’t give you media coverage just because your report exists. They want to know whether your research has revealed a new trend, challenged conventional thinking, reveals a gap between perception and reality or answers a question people are already asking.

Original research doesn’t need a huge budget to be effective. Small businesses can generate valuable insights just as successfully as larger brands.

Here’s a real-world example.

“Priya” runs her own business and wants to become known as an expert so she can attract larger clients and secure higher fees. She notices that her competitors all seem to have guides and reports, and it feels like they are effortlessly securing media coverage everywhere she looks. But she also knows they are all saying the same thing, and their research data isn’t interesting.

She surveys businesses within her sector and discovers that nearly three-quarters of respondents report a challenge that most industry commentary rarely discusses. Rather than publishing a report titled “Annual Industry Survey Results”, she takes a storytelling approach to her data. She frames the research as “Most businesses are struggling with X, but very few realise the long-term impact.”

Her story is now about the original research she uncovered, and it’s far more interesting to journalists.  As you can see, the report hasn’t changed, but the story hidden within the data has.

My recommendation in this scenario is to work through the data and uncover a wide range of news hooks, website content, and social media output, repurposing it in several ways so she can maximise a detailed content plan for the next 3-6 months, while also using it as a lead-generation magnet.

Your business has more stories than you realise; you need to identify the news angle.

Whether it’s a client success story, a product launch, an expert opinion or original research, I’m sure you already have the ingredients of what makes a newsworthy story. The challenge is identifying the angle that makes the audience care.

Hopefully this article has helped you see that PR for small businesses in the UK isn’t only about the biggest announcements but about framing the story the right way.

The examples in this article all started with information that businesses almost ignored.

If you’re unsure which stories deserve media attention, my media relations services will help you identify the strongest angles, shape them into compelling narratives and turn them into opportunities for coverage, thought leadership and visibility.

Want to explore what’s newsworthy in your business? Let’s have a chat.