#WPRD2026 | The real threat to PR Isn't AI. It's complacency.
Slip of standards
A 'fake' journalist lands on a luxury press list. A former reporter is pitched years after leaving a publication. A business journalist receives a beauty launch while the reporter who actually covers the beat hears nothing at all. Journalists are contacted at publications they left years ago or sent stories they were never going to write.
These moments have become so commonplace they're almost expected.
Instead of asking how these things keep happening, perhaps we should ask why some communications professionals are no longer expected to know the media landscape they work in.
As we mark World PR Day under the theme of the "Golden Age of PR", it's worth remembering that public relations has never simply been about publicity. At its heart, it is a relationship business. Relationships require care. They require research. Most importantly, they require knowing the people you're trying to reach. That doesn't mean journalists need to be treated with kid gloves; it means they deserve the same consideration and professionalism expected in any meaningful relationship.
As my colleague Danette Breitenbach wrote in her own World PR Day reflection, the best relationships between journalists and PR professionals are built over years, not campaigns. Those relationships don't begin with a press release; they begin with knowing who is on the other end of the email.
Somewhere along the way, parts of the industry have confused access to a database with media expertise.
The rise of fake journalists is a perfect example. While there will always be people willing to misrepresent themselves, they only succeed when nobody bothers to verify who they are. If a publication has dedicated lifestyle editors, travel writers or beauty journalists, why is someone with no recognised body of work receiving invitations instead? If a quick search would reveal that a person has never written for the title they claim to represent, why wasn't that search done?
The responsibility doesn't end with spotting impersonators.
Too many journalists continue to receive emails intended for people who left years ago. Stories are pitched to political reporters that belong with lifestyle desks. Business journalists receive beauty launches. Science writers get restaurant openings. Even worse, the journalist who actually covers the topic is often overlooked entirely.
These aren't isolated mistakes. They point to a troubling complacency.
Know the media for your own sake
Knowing the media should be considered a core professional competency in public relations. Just as journalists are expected to understand the industries they report on, PR professionals should understand the publications they pitch. That means reading them. Following bylines. Knowing who has changed beats, who has changed publications and how newsrooms are evolving.
The media landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade. Newsrooms are smaller. Beats are broader. Digital publications have emerged while others have disappeared. Journalists move more frequently than ever before. No one expects PR professionals to instinctively know every appointment or newsroom reshuffle. There is nothing wrong with picking up the phone or sending a quick email to ask who now covers a beat if the answer isn't clear. That's diligence. What isn't diligence is assuming, guessing or defaulting to a decades-old media list.
The irony is that the information has never been more accessible. Journalists update LinkedIn profiles. Publications announce appointments.
And most importantly, a reporter's recent work is usually only a search away. Verifying who covers what often takes less time than writing the email itself.
When that work isn't done, journalists notice that you don't really care.
An incorrectly addressed email doesn't just suggest an outdated contact list; it signals that no effort was made to understand who you're speaking to. A wildly irrelevant pitch tells a journalist they were selected because of convenience, not consideration. And every careless interaction chips away at the trust that effective public relations depends on.
If this is to be the Golden Age of PR, then perhaps the industry should spend less time worrying about new tools and more time recommitting to old principles.
Technology can make us faster. AI can help draft a press release. Databases can organise contacts.
None of them can ever replace professional respect.
The best PR practitioners have always known that relationships are earned long before a story is pitched. They know who writes what. They know which publication is right for a story and, more importantly, which person within that publication is best placed to tell it. They don't assume; they verify.
Because in an age where information has never been easier to access, there is little excuse for not knowing the very industry you're meant to be engaging.
If the future of public relations is truly golden, it won't be because our technology became smarter.
It will be because our standards did.
