Using Data to Improve Relationships With Journalists

Understanding key PR metrics is no longer optional—it's essential for any forward-thinking brand. Our recent analysis of thread performance across various industry topics revealed a number of compelling patterns that can help communications leaders make more strategic decisions about where and how to focus their PR efforts and foster closer relationships with journalists.

The best way to build relationships with journalists is by being personable and a useful and relevant source of high quality information, which makes your assessment of this relevance essential.

Understanding which PR Metrics Matter

The AI PR platform that supports our agency client services team - automatically tracks three essential PR metrics across different topic categories, to provide insights that mean we can optimize campaign effectiveness:

• Open Rate: The percentage of journalists who opened the communication

• Response Rate: The percentage of journalists who replied to the outreach

• Coverage Rate: The percentage of journalists who published content on the topic

Let's dive into what the data tells us and how you can leverage these insights to elevate your communications strategy.

Key Findings: Which Industries or Topics Perform Best?

Driving Initial Engagement: Champion Topics for Open Rates

The data shows that certain topics consistently capture attention at the outreach stage:

• AI and Consumer Technology: With open rates exceeding 45%, AI-related topics and Consumer Tech demonstrate their continued power to grab attention in crowded journalist inboxes

• Financial Innovation: Fintech topics are performing exceptionally well with similarly high open rates

• Business Strategy: Venture Capital and Logistics topics both show strong initial engagement

This insight shows us that for companies that are able to leverage horizontal topics like AI, business model innovation, financing, or consumer stories - the chances of your pitches being opened and read increases.

Fostering Dialogue: Response Rate Leaders

Opening an email is one thing; generating a response requires much deeper engagement and personalisation. Our data shows a wide range of results, which may also indicate which industries have publications with fewer resources. The top performing industries for journalist responses though were:

• Venture Capital: Media engaging with Venture Capital topics had the highest response rates, demonstrating close to 20% response rates

• Engineering and Education: These topics show the strongest response rates, hovering around 15-20%

• HR and Workplace: Human-centered workplace stories are driving conversations (17%+

• Other high performing topics & industry areas include: Enterprise Software, Climate, Financial Services, Artificial Intelligence and AI

These topics appear to trigger something more than passive interest—they prompt action. For Communications leaders looking to initiate conversations rather than simply disseminate information, these categories offer promising opportunities to build deeper and more personal relationships with journalists.

Securing Coverage: Topics That Convert

The ultimate goal for many PR professionals is media coverage. Here, the standout performers are:

• Gaming: Despite moderate open rates, gaming-related topics lead to coverage approximately 10-15% of the time

• Enterprise Software: SaaS, Cloud and AI outperform here

• Healthcare: Health-related stories also demonstrate strong conversion to published content

This disconnect between what gets opened and what gets covered is particularly noteworthy. Our reading of this data point is that when open rates and publish rates are at parity with each other - it indicates the topic niche is narrow, but media targeting and storytelling is spot on. This type of hyper-personalisation is often the best tactic for securing National and Tier 1 media coverage, and building close relationships with journalists at the world's top outlets.

Strategic Applications of this Data for Communications Leaders

So - how can you use this data to create new PR strategies for your team:

1. Topic Hybridization: The Sweet Spot Approach for Brand Communications

One of the most powerful strategies emerging from these PR metrics is topic hybridization—combining elements from different high-performing categories to create compelling, multi-dimensional narratives that align with your brand story:

• AI solutions for healthcare or biotech challenges (combining two high-performing topics)

• Technology innovations in education

• The engineering aspects of gaming development

• How your brand is using AI to transform customer experiences

• How your company is innovating with its business model

These intersections not only leverage the strength of multiple high-performing topics but also create distinctive angles that stand out in crowded media environments.

2. Seasonal and Cyclical Adjustments

Public Relations leaders should recognize that topic performance isn't static. Consider:

• Tracking these metrics quarterly to align with your brand's product roadmap and marketing calendar

• Adjusting your topic emphasis based on seasonal media interests and industry events

• Building a communications calendar that rotates through high-performing topics for different objectives

3. Testing and Refinement

The data provides a starting point, not a definitive roadmap. Implement a structured testing approach:

• A/B test subject lines that emphasize different topical elements

• Experiment with hybrid topics in limited outreach batches

• Regularly reassess which topics are gaining or losing traction

Conclusion: AI-Enhanced PR Metrics Inform Brand Communications

While these PR metrics offer valuable guidance, they should inform rather than dictate your brand's communications strategy. The most effective in-house communications teams will use this data as one input among many, combining it with:

• Deep knowledge of your brand's authentic story, values and differentiation

• Understanding of journalist preferences in your industry

• Awareness of the broader news environment and competing competitor narratives

• Strategic application of AI tools to further refine targeting and messaging in a way that allows you to personalise communications at scale in a way that supports your team best

By balancing data insights with these other crucial factors, brand communications leaders can craft outreach strategies that not only perform well according to metrics but also build meaningful connections and generate impactful coverage that strengthens your brand positioning. As AI continues to transform how we operationalise PR work, forward-thinking brands that embrace these tools will gain significant competitive advantages in the marketplace.

This analysis is based on aggregated thread performance data across multiple industry sectors, analyzed using advanced AI PR tooling. For customized PR metrics specific to your brand or industry, contact the MVPR team.