“Brands are fighting an uphill battle to get coverage these days,” said Sarah O’Grady, svp, marketing at Cision. “It’s not enough anymore to just announce news in a measured way.”

Another contributing factor to the rise of sensationalism is social media. Platforms and their algorithms tend to reward people who push things to the extreme. Strong... See more

About one in 10 PR professionals say their biggest challenge with writing a press release is not having enough newsworthy content to work with.

As D’Angelo put it: “It’s important for PR people to do a clinical assessment of news value before they send something out, because there is so much garbage out there.”

“Look, we’re all humans here—let’s just talk to each other plainly,” said Mark Weinstein, chief marketing officer of Hilton