How National College of Ireland are adapting their media relations for a changing landscape

The changing face of media relations

As digital media has become more prominent in journalism, communications professionals have had to adapt to a media landscape where traditional roles are changing.

Teresa has seen that shift first-hand throughout her career.

“The big nationals like The Irish Times and Irish Independent no longer have education editors. It makes it harder to hit people with a professional interest in your development and impact as a higher education institute and knowledge of where you fit in a wider and evolving landscape.”

She has also seen increasing crossover between journalists’ areas of responsibility.

“A health and lifestyle correspondent is often the same person, and they often also cover education. Journalists are no longer given the chance to become sectoral experts.”

For PR professionals, that makes finding the right journalist for a story more important, and more challenging  than ever.

Brand awareness vs reaching the right audience

For NCI, media relations serves two key purposes: reaching prospective students and the people who influence them, while also building broader awareness and understanding of the NCI brand.

“It’s about letting people in commutable areas know where we are and, nationally, that online or on campus, NCI has the perfect qualification for you whatever your age or ambitions. We also need to build general brand recognition, so that people seeing our name can place us and immediately think of our cutting-edge courses and innovative teaching.”

Part of that work involves challenging misconceptions about NCI and communicating what the institution stands for.

“One of the things NCI struggles with is people’s perception of it as a private college. We’re a not-for-profit and receive HEA funding. In building brand, we focus on education, business and technology but, because of our strong community engagement, we sometimes target lifestyle or health sections.”

GEO, SEO and the importance of original stories

While the channels used to discover information are changing, Teresa believes original news and content will remain fundamental to public relations.

“With GEO even more than with SEO, what is winning out is authentic, consistent storytelling.”

For NCI, that means continuing to create credible stories and expertise that are useful to journalists and relevant to the audiences the college wants to reach.

NCI and MediaHQ

Having used MediaHQ across multiple organisations throughout her career, Teresa knew MediaHQ was something she wanted in place when she joined NCI.

“MediaHQ was my first ask the minute I got in the door. As soon as you open the app, you open access to every media contact you could want and the tools to filter that information into the lists you need.”

Eighteen months ago, NCI added another member to the communications team. With more capacity, they have been able to make greater use of MediaHQ, spend more time refining their targeting and increase the volume of media activity.

“One of the things I love about MediaHQ is the speed with which you can identify the person you need and be absolutely certain their information is current and correct.”

For Teresa, the value is in how quickly the platform becomes useful.

“The second you go in, you can use it. There is no friction. There’s very little learning process. There is great customer support if you do need help, though you’ll more likely hear from them when a new feature has added value to the app.”

Teresa has regularly reviewed other media databases as part of her due diligence, but says MediaHQ’s understanding of the media landscape is a major differentiator.

“As soon as you open MediaHQ you just know that a PR person created it. It’s intuitive. It’s someone from the sector saying, ‘We need an app,’ and building it knowing the most frequent action you’ll take, as well as the deeper research you require to build strategy.”

“I have recommended MediaHQ to many people over the years and would continue to recommend it. And if I had a UK audience, I would be using MediaHQ to expand into the UK. I don’t think you’ll find a system, in my experience having researched widely, that does as well for the money.”