Why Journalists Ignore Your Content (And How to Fix It)

Many brands make the mistake of designing most Digital PR campaigns around what brands want to say, not what journalists need to publish. This brand blindness damages chances at generating coverage. To truly make headlines, you need to make news.

Luckily, digital PR strategists have learned how to apply the 8 news values to your brand to generate interesting, newsworthy content that earns coverage, builds backlinks, and informs LLMs while still tying back to your brand space to ultimately improve your brand’s digital presence. 

News values (in order of importance to Digital PR):

Impact: Develop Insights That Matter

Mistake: Brand blindness occurs when a brand thinks its brand is the most interesting thing in the world. Trust me, it’s good that you think that; it shows your dedication to your brand mission and goal. However, journalists don’t think any brands are interesting unless they’re paying them. If you want organic coverage, you need to provide something the journalist is looking for. Journalists want a good story. 

Digital PR’s Solution: Provide something so impactful that the journalist can’t skip over it in their inbox. Consider in what contexts your data and content would matter. What would be the story? How many people are talking about that story? How many people would care about that story? Does this grab attention immediately? Is this content irresistible? Could you have a lengthy discussion about it? What’s the takeaway? Let those thoughts guide your content direction.

Example: The Most Common Shelter Dog Breeds in Every Major U.S. City – Hartley Law, TX

Timeliness: Work Your Content Into the Known News Cycle

Mistake: Brand-focused content is often evergreen and lacks an urgency or immediacy for coverage. The news moves too fast for extended timelines, production, etc. This can make reactive content (or trying to jump on trends happening right now) very difficult. 

Digital PR’s Solution: While the news cycle is very unpredictable on a day-to-day basis, there are many events throughout the year that are predictable from far away. There’s always going to be coverage about huge national holidays (Valentine’s Day, July 4th, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas), as well as seasons (summer vacation destinations and warm comfort foods for winter), and niche national days that might spark interest due to Novelty. The best strategy for annual events/holidays is to produce unique content.

It’s no surprise that journalists have written hundreds of stories over their careers about Halloween. It’s a holiday that gets coverage every year. Give them something scary they’ve never seen before! They’re hungry for unique content about a big event they have to write about every year. You can also do campaigns for one-time or less frequent events as long as you know the dates, it’s a big deal, and you naturally fit into the story. 

Example: High Risk Pay – Do Americans Have Their REAL ID Yet? [2025 Survey]

Human Interest: Be People-First at the Center of Your Story

Mistake: By nature, brand-forward content doesn’t fit super well when speaking to people because it comes across as an ad or makes people feel like you’re trying too hard to sell them something, especially to journalists. They can get paid a lot of money for an ad, so if you’re not paying them and pitching organic content, they’d rather have a really good story that appeals to the average person. 

Digital PR’s Solution: Ensure your content applies to a wide audience, variety of perspectives, allows for some public opinion/debate, appeals to human emotions, senses, memories, experiences, etc. 

Example: The Most Popular Diner Foods in Every State – Coventry Direct

Close to Home: Localize Your Angles to Make Coverage Feel Relevant

Mistake: Branded content is often very generally consumer-focused and doesn’t specifically apply to people from different locations.  

Digital PR’s Solution: Add a local angle to your data! Go Fish utilizes state-by-state surveys to compare qualitative data from respondents in different states, naturally giving each reader localized data to compare themselves to. We also use Google Trends search data to discover what each state is most commonly searching about a topic, such as their top-searched restaurant chain. There’s a natural draw there. Readers want to know if they agree with their state’s results! This also opens up pitching opportunities to local journalists in different cities and states. 

Example: States With the Longest Coffee Orders – Surety First

Unexpected: Subvert Assumptions to Create a Strong News Hook

Mistake: Branded content is the epitome of expected; it’s not surprising that you’re talking about your brandspace. It can get boring and force you to reach out to the same journalists with very similar, repetitive content. 

Digital PR’s Solution: Broaden your content to reach new journalists, audiences, and publications. Do something unique! Surprise them! Shocking, eye-catching content can get the attention of journalists. 

Example: Every State’s Favorite OREO – MRO Electric

Conflict: Don’t Be Afraid to Spark Debate

Mistake: Many brands play it safe, afraid to make waves, but the news LOVES conflict. There’s a way to lean into conflict and opinions without actually harming any audiences.  

Digital PR’s Solution: Be okay with naming places as best or worst. Most of the time, localities will not take it personally. Even if they do feel a certain way, the data absolves the brand. This is a phenomenal way to spark conversation without generating flak.

Example: The Priciest U.S. States to Drive Through on a Road Trip — Murphy & Prachthauser

Current: Move Fast and Pay Attention to Trends

Mistake: The longer it takes to post content, the less relevant it is. Windows of opportunity in the news cycle can close quickly, and the competition may beat you to the punch if you’re not quick enough.

Digital PR’s Solution: Plan content with reasonable schedules and anticipate when you can move fast and when you need more time. Prioritize moving timely content to the next stage quickly and sticking to timelines that align with the initial plans for the campaign.

Example: Is Your State On the Naughty or Nice List? [Survey] – Sera Capital

Prominent: Leverage What’s Already Recognizable

Mistake: Most brands think their business is the most important thing. This makes sense; it’s your job to think that. In reality, the news is more concerned with, well, the news. Newsworthy topics need to be interesting and relevant to readers.

Digital PR’s Solution: Make content that means something beyond your brand. It needs to be important, heavy-hitting, and widely-discussed. This could come in the form of leveraging trending topics and recognizable data sources or creating discussions around the news’s biggest topics.

Example: The Most and Least Affordable Neighborhoods for Renters in Major U.S. Cities – Joybird

Conclusion

There are a few key things to remember when trying to generate newsworthy content:

While this can sound tricky and complicated, the Digital PR team at Go Fish is full of experts on designing content tailored for the news. If you’re ready to generate newsworthy content to land editorial backlinks, we’re happy to help get your name out there in the publications that signal Google to trust your site.

Check out Digital PR at Go Fish for more information, and contact us today to get started.