How companies get in the news

When you read something in the news about a company or product, unless the news story is overwhelmingly negative because the company has done something awful then the company itself is usually responsible for that story being there.  We have 24-hour news coverage and not enough news available to fill it, so newspapers, news websites, social media, magazines and radio stations all need a constant flow of interesting new stuff to fill their pages and online feeds.  Have you ever noticed that the celebrities on chat shows or those interviewed in magazines are the ones that have a new TV series or book out?  They don’t appear there by accident.  The person needs publicity to sell their book, so their PR agents ‘pitch’ an interview to all the media outlets.  The media need interesting things to say, and we need channels to get our message out to the public; it’s a symbiotic relationship.

You don’t need to be a celebrity or a big company to do PR (public relations).  You don’t even need a PR agent to do it for you – although they will already have the relationships with journalists which make for an easier process.  As vegan business owners we spend all our time thinking about the product we’re making and getting the business running, but don’t always think beyond that.  PR is the way to get your product in front of thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of people.