Shrinking newsrooms

How many journalists do you know who in any given week are covering the UAE’s property market, the local education sector, personal finance or even reviewing hotels? Far from unusual, this is becoming the norm in the MENA journalism world, where newsrooms are shrinking and multiple beats are being absorbed by one in-house staff member or freelancers like me.

Regional newsrooms were already under pressure before the current crisis, but the combination of war-driven economic uncertainty and operational restructuring has accelerated cuts significantly across the UAE’s industry. Major publishing houses, including ITP Media Group, have now also moved to four-day working weeks.

For PRs, this means you need to make a few adjustments to pitching methods – it could make all the difference when scoring coverage.

Checking who’s covering what on a more regular basis is a good place to start. Gone are the days where you’ll find the same reporter on the same beat for decades. Where dedicated personal finance journalists or property correspondents may have existed before, now you might find these stories are being covered by one generalist or even shared out across the team. It has never been more important to keep your media lists updated.

Influence is shifting from specialist reporters and editors to freelancers, who are stepping into beats vacated by staff journalists, writing more but also wielding very real budgets for commissioning. If a freelancer is producing multiple features a month for a major outlet in your sector, they have more influence over what gets covered than you might assume. So, PRs who build relationships with the right freelancers – before needing a favour – are ahead of the ones still working from a staff-only contact list.

You’re also now contending with a four-day work week – and you’ll want to know who’s doing what. For many outlets, from Arabian Business to Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, a pitch sent on Friday may sit buried until Monday at best, so Tuesday and Wednesday are becoming your go-to days for sending them out. It might be a small timing adjustment, but the difference in open rates could be big.

Ideally, you also don’t call or follow-up on those press releases on a Friday either, especially if you’re contacting via mobile or WhatsApp. Work talk on a weekend is a surefire way to annoy an editor or journalist who might also recently have had their pay cut.

Sensitivity is key in navigating this ‘new normal’ within the UAE’s media landscape. Find out who’s covering what, how stretched they are and when they’re actually working – and it’ll make all the difference. The media relationships PRs have invested in are still valuable, but the operational realities around those relationships have changed – and so should our approach.