How to get into the local press without hiring a PR agency

Most small businesses assume that press coverage is for bigger companies. That it requires a retainer with a public relations agency, a dedicated communications team or a product launch significant enough to warrant a journalist’s attention.

None of that is true. Local and regional media needs content constantly. Journalists covering Thames Valley business, hospitality, food and drink, professional services and community news are actively looking for stories. The businesses that appear regularly in that coverage are not necessarily bigger or more interesting than yours. They are simply better at getting in touch.

This is a skill. It can be learned. And for a local business trying to raise its profile in the Thames Valley without spending heavily on advertising, it is one of the most cost-effective marketing tools available.

Understand what journalists actually want

The single biggest mistake businesses make when approaching local press is thinking about what they want to communicate rather than what a journalist needs to publish. These are rarely the same thing.

A journalist covering local business is looking for stories that are relevant to their readers. That means a local angle, a human element and ideally something timely or unexpected. A new product launch is not a story. A local business owner who has spent three years developing a product inspired by a specific problem in the Thames Valley hospitality sector, and who is now launching it with early results to share, might be.

Ask yourself: why would someone who has never heard of my business care about this? If you cannot answer that question, the press release is not ready.

Find your story angle

Every business has stories worth telling. The challenge is learning to see them.

Here are the angles that consistently work well for small businesses in local and regional media:

• Business milestones with a local dimension. An anniversary, a significant new client in the area, a team expansion, a new premises or a community partnership.

• Seasonal relevance. A hospitality venue sharing its approach to a key season, a retailer responding to a trend affecting local shoppers, a professional services firm offering timely advice around a regulatory or economic development.

• Human interest. The owner’s story, a long-serving member of staff, a customer whose life the business has materially changed.

• Local expertise and comment. When a news story breaks that touches your sector, a business in your area can offer genuine informed comment. This is one of the most underused routes to press coverage.

• Awards and recognition. Entering and winning regional business awards is excellent for press coverage, and the entry process itself forces you to articulate your value proposition clearly.

The story does not need to be extraordinary. It needs to be relevant, real and told with a clear local connection.

Write a press release that gets read

Most press releases are deleted within seconds of being opened. They lead with a company name, contain several paragraphs of corporate language about being ‘delighted’ to announce something and bury the actual news in paragraph four.

A press release that gets read does the opposite. It leads with the news, in plain English, in the first sentence. It answers the five questions a journalist needs to answer for their readers: who, what, when, where and why it matters. It includes a direct quote from a named, real person. And it is short, usually no more than 400 words plus a brief notes section.

The structure that works:

• Headline: clear, factual and in sentence case. No puns unless they are genuinely clever and relevant.

• Opening paragraph: the whole story in two sentences. A journalist should be able to write their piece from this paragraph alone.

• Body paragraphs: context, detail and a direct quote from the owner or a relevant spokesperson.

• Notes to editors: company background, contact details and any embargo information.

Send it in the body of the email, not as an attachment. Journalists open what is easiest to read quickly.

Know who to contact and how

Local and regional media in the Thames Valley includes outlets such as the Windsor Observer, Berkshire Live, the Reading Chronicle, regional BBC coverage and a range of trade and sector-specific publications that cover hospitality, professional services and business more broadly.

Identify the specific journalist or section editor who covers stories relevant to yours. A business story goes to the business editor, not the features desk. A hospitality story about a local restaurant might go to the food and drink correspondent. Personalised emails to the right person consistently outperform mass-sent releases.

Build a simple media list and keep it current. When you have a genuine story, you have the right contacts ready to use. Most journalists can also be found and approached on LinkedIn or X, and engaging genuinely with their published work before pitching builds familiarity.

Timing matters more than you think

A press release about a summer event sent the week before it happens is almost always too late. Local print media typically works on lead times of one to two weeks. Online outlets are faster but still need time to commission, write and publish.

For planned announcements, aim to send your release three to four weeks in advance.

For reactive comment, where you are responding to a news development in your sector, speed matters. A well-written comment piece sent within 24 hours of a relevant story breaking can secure coverage that a more polished piece sent days later will not.

Think beyond the press release

Press coverage does not only come from press releases. Offering yourself as an expert source for ongoing comment in your sector, contributing a column or opinion piece to a local business publication, or partnering with a journalist on a longer feature are all legitimate routes to coverage that many small businesses overlook.

If you are a member of the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber itself publishes content and promotes member news to a significant business audience. That is earned visibility at no additional cost.

FAQs

Do I need a PR agency to get press coverage?

Not necessarily. A PR agency adds genuine value for complex campaigns, sustained programmes of activity or situations where media relationships are critical to the outcome. For regular local and regional coverage, a well-crafted press release sent to the right journalist at the right time is often enough. The skills involved, identifying a story angle, writing clearly, building a media list and following up professionally, are all learnable. Many small business owners manage their own PR effectively once they understand how the process works.

What makes a good press release for a local business?

A good local press release has a genuine story at its heart, a clear local connection and a human element. It leads with the news in the opening sentence, uses plain English throughout, includes a direct quote from a real person and is no longer than it needs to be. The test is simple: would a reader of the local paper care about this? If the honest answer is no, the release needs a different angle.

How do I find the right journalist to send a press release to?

Start with the publication’s website. Most regional titles list their editorial team with their areas of coverage. For digital outlets, the bylines on published articles tell you who covers what. LinkedIn is useful for finding direct contact details and for understanding a journalist’s areas of interest before you approach them. Where possible, send to a named individual rather than a generic editorial address. A personalised, relevant email to the right person is far more effective than a mass send to an info@ address.

How often should a small business send out press releases?

There is no fixed rule, but quality always beats frequency. A business that sends one well-crafted release per quarter with a genuine story will build better media relationships than one that sends a release every two weeks about minor internal developments. A good discipline is to identify your genuinely newsworthy moments at the start of each year, such as an anniversary, a new service launch, an award entry or a seasonal campaign, and plan your PR activity around those fixed points.

What local media should Thames Valley businesses target?

The key outlets for businesses across the Thames Valley include Berkshire Live, the Windsor Observer, the Reading Chronicle and regional BBC radio coverage across Berkshire and Oxfordshire. For B2B businesses, the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce magazine and sector-specific trade publications like Insider Media are also worth targeting. The most important thing is to identify the specific outlet that reaches your target customer and focus your effort there first.

Just Add Sauce Marketing has a track record of securing press coverage for businesses across the Thames Valley, from local news placements to regional radio. If you want to raise your profile but are not sure where to start, get in touch for a conversation about your options.