Many tech marketing professionals have been flat-footed by the changes in tech journalism. Trade titles have thinned out and at the very same time that tech-related stories have boosted coverage in broadcast and national titles.

There’s been a lot of journalist movement, something most press databases can’t or won’t keep up with. More than ever, relationships matter.

Today’s the way journalists choose to interact with story-suggestors, be it in-house or agency, communications had evolved from email and phone calls to social media posts and comments. So is there any point in IRL, or In Real Life, meetups?

We say an emphatic. YES. And we put our social budget where our mouth is.

The top tech media in one place

Every year Positive invites the good and the great journalists to share a glass, nibbles and safe-space industry gossip at a client-free Mayfair venue. This year saw two dozen of the top press working in tech for the BBC, The Telegraph, The Spectator, the i-Paper, Verdict, Management Today, ITPro and others join us to share insights as to how post-pandemic, mid-recession, peak tech layoff professional life is treating them. 

As always, the Positive team, young and older mixed and mingled with a very diverse crew of writing talent and heard tales of political intrigue, under-resourced editorial teams and an increased reliance on third parties to gather news. This has implications for our business and how we, as PR pros, interact with the media whom we rely on completely to convey client news.

Since the UK’s lockdown and post the WFH debate, meeting in person always feels just a little more privileged and intimate. That’s because it is. Spending time out of office is a big commitment for hard-working journalists and we treasure their attention.

A thousand Journalists over three weeks

Perhaps the most humbling and basic lesson though this year was how incredibly difficult it is just to gather a group of like-minded experts. Behind the scenes the call-down principles, which our teams put to work for clients was on overdrive. Just to share some data we canvassed nearly 1,000 media over a three-week period to ensure our success.

We are, as always, extremely grateful for the support of our editorial professional colleagues for taking the time out of their busy schedules to come to meet and understand our press-friendly approach. The word partnership is overused and undermined in many cases, yet it describes perfectly the friendly and very social interactions, some for the very first time, we had on the night. 

If you are involved in tech journalism, blogging or podcasting, please do reach out about attending our next press social and thanks to all our clients for their continued support as we stay close to the frontline of today’s press corps.