What Actually Gets Your Startup Into the News in 2026

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-26

You've got the map. Now you need to read the territory. In part one, we covered the strategy side: why PR matters, which stakeholders to chase, and which channels to pursue. But before you fire off that first pitch, three things still stand between you and coverage. What actually earns a journalist's attention, which activities deserve your limited time, and how to carry yourself without burning bridges. Let's dig in. ### Newsworthiness: The Gate You Can't Skip Can you pitch anything you want? Sure. Will it land? Almost never. Journalists have their own mental filters, and those filters shift by outlet, by person, and by the week. Newsworthiness breaks down into five moving parts. **Timeliness** comes first, and it runs on two clocks. Short-term timeliness is yours to control. You decide when a funding announcement goes out, and it usually gets covered that same day. Long-term timeliness is out of your hands. It depends on breaking news, regulatory shifts, or cultural moments that happen to align with your story. **Impact** really means scale. A staggering revenue figure or a jaw-dropping round makes the cut because the numbers speak for themselves. But impact isn't only about money. A piece of technology that saves a life that couldn't otherwise be saved is just as newsworthy as a $50 million Series B. **Geography** trips up more founders than you'd think. A national desk may shrug at what a regional outlet treats as a real event. Trade titles care about their own patch above all. Starting close to home is the easiest way in, and it's the lever most startups forget to pull. A small team in mainland Europe dreaming of US or UK headlines is usually wishful thinking. European startup outlets often have the door open wider. **Name recognition** carries real weight. A well-known investor, a notable advisor, or a marquee client can lift an entire story just by showing up. A journalist who'd pass on an unknown startup will look twice when a familiar name appears. Real celebrity helps too. The legal AI platform Legora hired the aptly named Jude Law as a spokesperson, and that's the kind of detail newsrooms don't ignore. **Conflict** is the most volatile factor of the five. Newsrooms lean toward tension and disagreement, but picking fights can backfire on a young company trying to build goodwill. There's a narrow exception: a clear, defensible stance on where your industry is heading. Mudslinging at competitors? Skip it. That's not a strategy, it's a liability. Before you pitch anything, take an honest look at your company, your tech, your product, and your people. Ask yourself whether it's genuinely newsworthy or just interesting to you. Then study your target channels and what they actually cover. That tells you what's newsworthy, to whom, and where. > "The best pitch isn't the loudest one. It's the one that fits the outlet's world, not just yours." ### Activity Tracks: Play the Long Game Stop thinking in one-off hits. Think in sustained activities across your channels. Three tracks are worth knowing. - **News** is the obvious and easiest track. For an early startup, a funding announcement is usually the entry point. It's controllable, timely, and comes with built-in validation. - **Thought leadership** builds slowly. Consistent commentary on your industry's direction earns trust with journalists over time, so when you do have news, you're a familiar name rather than a cold email. - **Relationship building** is the quiet work. Regular, useful contact with reporters who cover your space pays off in ways a single press release never will. Three practical considerations remain before you're ready to pitch. Get newsworthiness right. Pick the activities worth your effort. And conduct yourself in a way that keeps doors open for the next announcement, not just this one.