Did you know you can add your experts to our Expert Database? In case you missed the memo, it’s where journalists browse verified experts and find the right people to speak to for their stories.

It’s also very simple! Create a profile for each of your clients or spokespeople, add their areas of expertise, and give journalists another way to find them when they need a source.

There are already plenty of experts on Synapse, and it’s your turn to make sure yours are among them.

Right, onto “The Loop” 👇

👀 WHAT JOURNALISTS WANT

Your weekly look at what journalists are asking for on Synapse

TRENDING SECTORS THIS WEEK

  • Home & Garden – 32%
  • Beauty – 16%
  • Health – 16%
  • Food & Drink – 12%
  • Travel – 12%

Something we spotted:

Home & Garden is yet again on top, appearing in almost a third of this week’s requests. Gardening came up again and again, while journalists were also after stories around heating, energy bills and getting homes ready for the colder months.

Based on journalist requests posted on Synapse from 14-21 September.

See all live journalist requests

🔥 MUST READ PR TIP

 …because the best PR advice comes straight from the people who know

Daily Express journalist Steph Spyro deals with around one op-ed a day, and one of her biggest tips for PRs is simple: give journalists a reason to publish it now.

“An opinion piece shouldn’t just be ‘here is what I think about X topic’. Give journalists a timely reason to run the piece.”

A strong opinion alone isn’t enough. Tie your op-ed to something already happening in the news, new research or a timely issue, and think carefully about who you’re putting forward. As Steph points out, the biggest job title doesn’t always make the best author, someone with first-hand experience and an actual point of view can make a much stronger pitch.

👉 Read Steph’s Substack

🗞️ PR-Y STUFF

 The PR and media bits worth knowing this week

  • Fake ‘expert’ quoted by major media titles exposed – Press Gazette has found that a supposed art therapist quoted by Vice, Forbes, Glamour and other publications appears to be AI-generated and could not be verified as a real person. The case is another reminder of the growing headache around source verification, particularly when experts are supplied through journalist request platforms. read more
  •  Is AI actually creating more work for senior PRs? – New research highlighted by Stephen Waddington suggests AI is pushing some tactical work up the chain rather than removing it. Senior practitioners are increasingly having to fact-check and edit AI output, raising questions around efficiency, governance and how junior PRs learn the basics when AI does more of the first draft. read more
  • Google tests paying publishers for content used in AI results – Google is trialling an ‘AI contribution’ scheme that pays participating websites when their content significantly contributes to AI-generated answers in products including AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini. The early pilot involves dozens of publishers and could mark a shift in how publishers are compensated as AI search sends fewer people directly to their sites. read more
  • Junior PRs are feeling the pressure of ‘always-on’ news monitoring – New research shared by PRWeek found 72% of junior PR professionals feel overwhelmed by news monitoring, while 64% of all respondents find something they can actually use for a client just once a week or less. read more

🔎 LIVE JOURNO REQUESTS

Here’s what journalists are currently looking for on Synapse:

Mirror Online:

Reach PLC:

Freelance:

Want to dive deeper? Have a nose through all the live requests on the marketplace

📆 NEXT MONTH’S HOOKS

…a little head start on what’s coming up in October.

💻 7 Oct: Open Source Summit Europe 2026 – It’s where maintainers, technologists, and community leaders come together to share knowledge, collaborate on solutions, and push open source projects forward.

🎬 7 Oct: BFI London Film Festival – The 70th edition brings 12 days of premieres, international films, Screen Talks and events to London and cinemas across the UK. It opens with Elsinore and closes with The Debut.

🎬 9 Oct: “Other Mommy” (Universal) – It adapts Josh Malerman’s novel Incidents Around the House from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl.

🎬 9 Oct: “The Social Reckoning” (Sony) – A companion piece to the 2010 film The Social Network, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin.

💻 13 Oct: TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 – At Moscone West in San Francisco, California. The three-day event gathers over 10,000 founders, VCs, and operators.

📈 15 Oct: GDP monthly estimate, UK: August 2026.

🎬 16 Oct: “Street Fighter” (Paramount) – Directed by Kitao Sakurai, the film is set in 1993, starring Jason Momoa.

🎬 16 Oct: “Whalefall” (Disney) – Directed by Brian Duffield, the film stars Austin Abrams as a scuba diver who is swallowed by a sperm whale, leaving him with just one hour of oxygen to escape.

📊 20 Oct: UK Labour Market: October 2026.

📊 21 Oct: Consumer price inflation, UK: September 2026.

💰 22 Oct: LSE Group Q3 Trading Statement

💡 23 Oct: River of Light – Liverpool’s free outdoor light festival returns to the waterfront with large-scale illuminated installations.

🕐 25 Oct: Clocks go back – British Summer Time ends, with the clocks going back one hour at 2am.

🎬 30 Oct: 4K cinema restorations – Pan’s Labyrinth celebrates its 20th anniversary with a 4K restoration from StudioCanal, while Donnie Darko gets a 25th anniversary 4K release from Arrow Films.

🎃 31 Oct: Halloween

 …and if October isn’t far enough ahead for you… 👇 

📆 PR CALENDAR 2026

 …for the PRs who like to be three pitches ahead. 

Your next PR hook might already be in here…

September might already be flying by, but there’s still plenty to plan for. Our free PR Calendar has all the key dates through to December, ready for when you need a timely reason to get a story out there.

Get planning today!

Got something worth pitching?

 Got a story, expert, case study or bit of data journalists should know about? 

Head to the marketplace now or simply send it to pitches@synapse.media (or add us to your media list) and we’ll make sure it reaches the right journalists.

This week, we’ve got fresh journo requests, the PR and media news worth knowing, and a look at what journalists want right now.

Got a story that fits one of this week’s trending sectors? Send it to pitches@synapse.media, and we’ll get it in front of journalists on Synapse.

Plus, your FREE PR Calendar is waiting further down, packed with dates to get you through the rest of 2026.

Right, onto “The Loop” 👇

👀 WHAT JOURNALISTS WANT

Your weekly look at what journalists are asking for on Synapse

TRENDING SECTORS THIS WEEK

  • Home & Garden – 36%
  • Food & Drink – 18%
  • Health – 14%
  • Technology – 9%
  • Travel – 9%

Something we spotted:
Home & Garden was the clear winner this week, appearing in more than a third of all requests. Journalists were particularly keen on expert commentary, with everything from gardening and roofing to preparing your home for colder weather on the list.

Based on journalist requests posted on Synapse from 7-15 September.

See all live journalist requests

🔥 MUST READ PR TIP

 …because the best PR advice comes straight from the people who know

Journalist and media consultant Nick Huber has written 50+ articles for the Financial Times, and one thing stands out when it comes to getting into top-tier media:

“The best way to get featured in the Financial Times, or any top-tier media title? A good case study.”

But having a case study isn’t enough. Nick says many corporate examples aren’t clear or detailed enough, particularly when it comes to showing the actual benefits. Give journalists a real person or business, a clear result and enough detail to understand why it matters. In other words, make the story easy to see.

👉 Read Nick’s full LinkedIn article

🗞️ PR-Y STUFF

 The PR and media bits worth knowing this week

  • Don’t overcomplicate GEO – PRWeek’s Beyond the Noise podcast looks at how brands and agencies are approaching GEO as AI discovery becomes a bigger part of PR. TUIfly and The Remarkables argue PR teams don’t need to get bogged down in the technical side, but they should take ownership of making brands more visible in AI search. listen to the episode
  • Press Gazette launches tool to stop AI fakes before publication – Press Gazette has launched a newsroom verification tool designed to help publishers spot potentially AI-generated or fake content before it goes live. It comes amid growing concern over fabricated journalists and AI content making its way into established publications. read more
  • Media trained? It’s not a one-and-done job – Guy Clapperton argues that a spokesperson saying they’ve had media training shouldn’t automatically mean they’re ready for an interview. A forgettable interview might not cause a crisis, but if the message doesn’t land, the PR team can still end up answering for the lack of results. check out the article here
  • Digital PR campaigns are starting to look a bit samey – Brave Bison’s Olivia Wiltshire says familiar formats like surveys, indexes and ‘most Googled’ campaigns still work, but repeating them risks becoming forgettable. Her advice is to start with the genuinely interesting stat or insight, then decide what format tells the story best, especially as AI citations become another measure of PR success. read more
  • Should your pitches be getting shorter? – In her newsletter Get Featured, journalist Rosie Taylor says shrinking newsrooms, more platforms and endless demands on journalists’ attention mean long pitches are becoming harder to justify. She shares advice to get to the point quickly and cut anything that isn’t earning its place – without losing the detail that makes the story worth covering. read more

🔎 LIVE JOURNO REQUESTS

Here’s what journalists are currently looking for on Synapse:

Mirror Online:

Reach PLC:

Freelance:

Want to dive deeper? Have a nose through all the live requests on the marketplace

📆 NEXT MONTH’S HOOKS

…a little head start on what’s coming up in October.

💻 7 Oct: Open Source Summit Europe 2026 – It’s where maintainers, technologists, and community leaders come together to share knowledge, collaborate on solutions, and push open source projects forward.

🎬 9 Oct: “Other Mommy” (Universal) – It adapts Josh Malerman’s novel Incidents “Around the House” from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl.

🎬 9 Oct: “The Social Reckoning” (Sony) – A companion piece to the 2010 film “The Social Network”, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin

💻 13 Oct:TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 – at Moscone West in San Francisco, California. The three-day event gathers over 10,000 founders, VCs, and operators.

📈 15 Oct: GDP monthly estimate, UK: August 2026

🎬 16 Oct: “Street Fighter” (Paramount) – Directed by Kitao Sakurai, the film is set in 1993, starring Jason Momoa.

🎬 16 Oct: “Whalefall” (Disney) – Directed by Brian Duffield, the film stars Austin Abrams as a scuba diver who is swallowed by a sperm whale, leaving him with just one hour of oxygen to escape

📊 20 Oct: UK Labour Market: October 2026

📊 21 Oct: Consumer price inflation, UK: Sep 2026

💰 22 Oct: LSE Group Q3 Trading Statement

 …and if October isn’t far enough ahead for you… 👇 

📆 PR CALENDAR 2026

 …for the PRs who like to be three pitches ahead. 

There are soooo many reasons to pitch.

From September to December, our free PR Calendar rounds up the dates worth having on your radar, just so you can plan ahead instead of spotting the perfect hook when everyone else is already pitching it.

Get ahead of the inbox rush

Got something worth pitching?

Got a story, expert, case study or bit of data journalists should know about? 

Head to the marketplace now or simply send it to pitches@synapse.media (or add us to your media list) and we’ll make sure it reaches the right journalists.

Journalists are back, and there are plenty of reasons to get to work. Don’t worry, of course we can help.

So this week, we’re giving you a fresh look at what journalists actually want right now, the live requests worth knowing about, and the PR and media bits you might’ve missed.

Oh, and if you’re already thinking further ahead, we’ve still got your FREE PR Calendar packed with hooks for the rest of 2026. Why? Because December will somehow be here in about five minutes.

Right, here’s a brand new “The Loop” 👇

 

🔥 MUST READ PR TIP

 …because the best PR advice comes straight from the people who know

PR consultant and MAVN founder Courtney Cole has spent years submitting FOI requests, and her biggest lesson is a useful one for anyone running data-led campaigns: start with the story, not the data.

“I start with: ‘What would a journalist actually care about?’ Then I work backwards to find the data.”

It’s easy to start an FOI campaign by thinking about what data you can get. But a big number doesn’t automatically make a good story. Courtney advises starting with the headline you’d actually want to see published, then work backwards to figure out the data you need to make it happen.

👉 Read Courtney’s full LinkedIn post

🗞️ PR-Y STUFF

 The PR and media bits worth knowing this week

  • Tech sites remove articles after questions over journalists’ identities – Press Gazette has raised questions over four prolific finance and tech writers whose identities publications have been unable to verify. Hacker Noon and Information Age have since removed articles, adding to growing concerns around fake profiles, questionable earned media and the need to verify who’s actually behind a byline. read more
  • Quotes now need to survive two edits – AI summaries are adding another layer between what your client says and what audiences actually see. Guy Clapperton says that quotes now need to survive both human editing and AI summarisation, making short and clear soundbites more important than ever. read more
  • Farage funding scandal puts political comms under the spotlight – PRmoment looks at the fallout from Channel 4’s Reform UK funding sting, with Angie Moxham and Mark Borkowski debating whether Nigel Farage can bounce back. They also give Andy Burnham’s first six weeks in Downing Street a comms review, from his social media presence to his “man of the people” style. listen to the episode
  • Entertainment PR is moving beyond press coverage – PRWeek’s Beyond the Noise podcast looks at how entertainment PR is shifting away from traditional media coverage as the main goal. Gaby Jerrard and Lawrence Francis discuss the rise of streaming, social-first fandoms like BookTok and why reaching audiences in the right communities can matter more than landing another press mention. listen to the episode
  • How many PRs vs journalists are there in the UK? – New BuzzStream research estimates there were around 52,400 journalists and 78,800 PR professionals in the UK in 2025. The journalist figure appears to have fallen 11% since 2021, although issues with the underlying ONS data mean the trend isn’t quite as clear-cut as it looks. read more

👀 WHAT JOURNALISTS WANT

Your weekly look at what journalists are asking for on Synapse

TRENDING SECTORS THIS WEEK

  • Lifestyle – 31%
  • Home & Garden – 23%
  • Health – 19%
  • Arts & Entertainment – 15%
  • Real Life – 12% 

💡Something we spotted…

Lifestyle takes the top spot this week, appearing in almost a third of requests. Home & Garden and Health weren’t far behind either, with journalists looking for everything from expert comments to real-life case studies. Based on journalist requests posted on Synapse from 31 August – 7 September.

See all live journalist requests

🔎 LIVE JOURNO REQUESTS

Here’s what journalists are currently looking for on Synapse:

Newsquest:

Mirror Online:

Reach PLC:

Freelance:

Want to dive deeper? Have a nose through all the live requests on the marketplace

📆 NEXT MONTH’S HOOKS

…a little head start on what’s coming up in October.

💻 7 Oct: Open Source Summit Europe 2026 – It’s where maintainers, technologists, and community leaders come together to share knowledge, collaborate on solutions, and push open source projects forward.

🎬 9 Oct: “Other Mommy” (Universal) – It adapts Josh Malerman’s novel Incidents “Around the House” from the perspective of an eight-year-old girl.

🎬 9 Oct: “The Social Reckoning” (Sony) – A companion piece to the 2010 film “The Social Network”, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin

💻 13 Oct:TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 – at Moscone West in San Francisco, California. The three-day event gathers over 10,000 founders, VCs, and operators.

📈 15 Oct: GDP monthly estimate, UK: August 2026

🎬 16 Oct: “Street Fighter” (Paramount) – Directed by Kitao Sakurai, the film is set in 1993, starring Jason Momoa.

🎬 16 Oct: “Whalefall” (Disney) – Directed by Brian Duffield, the film stars Austin Abrams as a scuba diver who is swallowed by a sperm whale, leaving him with just one hour of oxygen to escape

📊 20 Oct: UK Labour Market: October 2026

📊 21 Oct: Consumer price inflation, UK: Sep 2026

💰 22 Oct: LSE Group Q3 Trading Statement

 …and if October isn’t far enough ahead for you… 👇 

 

📆 PR CALENDAR 2026

 …for the PRs who like to be three pitches ahead. 

Five months and a lot of reasons to pitch.

From September to December, our free PR Calendar rounds up the dates worth having on your radar, just so you can plan ahead instead of spotting the perfect hook when everyone else is already pitching it.

Get ahead of the inbox rush

Got something worth pitching?

 Got a story, expert, case study or bit of data journalists should know about? 

Head to the marketplace now or simply send it to pitches@synapse.media (or add us to your media list) and we’ll make sure it reaches the right journalists.

Not another group chat or someone asking what time you’re getting there, but a journalist looking for exactly the expert, case study or comment you happen to have.

We’re sending fresh journalist requests straight to WhatsApp, so you can spot opportunities while they’re still live to grab.

WhatsApp SUBSCRIBE REQUESTS to 07466 536564 to join.

Now, onto The Loop.

 

🔥 MUST READ

…because we want you to hear it from the experts themselves

Shiona McCallum, Senior Tech Reporter, BBC News, shares a weekly glimpse into her life as a journalist, giving her followers an insight into what her day-to-day life is like in a newsroom.

From expert interviews to recording voicenotes, writing briefings and team meetings, the series is a fantastic reminder for experienced PRs of exactly what journalists actually do in a day and a great insight for newer PRs. 

👉 See Shiona’s latest LinkedIn post here

🗞️ PR-Y STUFF

Here’s what we think you should see this week:

  • Reach restores dedicated business sections- Reach plc has created four new business editor roles as part of its restoration of dedicated business sections across its leading websites, including WalesOnline, Daily Record, Manchester Evening News, Liverpool Echo and BirminghamLive. read more
  • Prince Harry and others ordered to pay interim £9.5m to Daily Mail publisher – The Duke of Sussex and six other claimants must pay towards DMG’s legal costs after losing their high-court case over allegations of unlawful information gathering. read more
  • Death (or evolution) of the soundbite – Guy Clapperton shares his view on why the soundbite is dead, explaining what PR’s and media trainers should consider instead. read more
  • PR’s new ‘dark arts’ kill off corporate scandals before they break- According to The Times, we’re in a golden age of ‘spin’ however, they question if that’s going to last. Regardless of your personal opinion on the article, it’s an important one to read with contributions from plenty of PR professionals. read more
  • BBC News remains the biggest newsbrand on Instagram in terms of follower count – While the Daily Mail and GB News saw the biggest percentage growth in Instagram followers in the last two years according to analysis from Press Gazette. read more

🔎 JOURNO REQUESTS

Here’s what journalists are currently looking for on Synapse:

Newsquest:

Daily Mail:

Reach PLC:

Or head to the marketplace now to look at the full list of requests yourself.

📆 NEXT MONTH’S HOOKS

…because we don’t want you missing out on stuff in September.

🏛️ 3 Sep: Reform UK Conference – Reform UK holds its annual conference at the NEC in Birmingham.

💻 4 Sep: IFA Berlin 2026 – The world’s largest consumer electronics and home tech event, will take place at the Messe Berlin exhibition grounds in Germany.

🍁 7 Sep: Labor Day (US) / Labour Day (CA)

🏈 9 Sep: NFL Regular Season Kickoff – The reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks hosting the New England Patriots at Lumen Field in Seattle.

👗 9 Sep: New York Fashion Week

📈 11 Sep: GDP monthly estimate, UK: July 2026

🎬 11 Sep: “Practical Magic 2” movie release date – The highly anticipated sequel reunites Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman as the iconic Owens sisters.

🛣️ 13 Sep: Road Dahl Day (UK)

💻 15 Sep: Dreamforce 2026 – Exploring the future of technology. 1,600+ sessions and expert-led training taking place in San Francisco, CA.

📊 15 Sep: UK Labour Market: September 2026

📊 16 Sep: Consumer price inflation, UK: August 2026

🎬 16 Sep: “Slow Horses” Season 6 premieres – The six-episode season will kick off with its first episode, followed by weekly releases every Wednesday until the finale on October 21, 2026.

🏦 17 Sep: Bank of England MPC Summary

👠 17 Sep: London Fashion Week begins

🎬 18 Sep: “Resident Evil” (Sony) – Based on the Japanese video game franchise by Capcom.

🎬 18 Sep: “Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom” – A stop-motion animated family comedy from Aardman Studios.

🌼 19 Sep: Liberal Democrat Conference – The Liberal Democrats gather in Brighton for their annual conference.

👜 22 Sep: Milan Fashion Week

🍂 23 Sep: Autumn Equinox – The equinox occurs at approximately 1:06am BST.

🎬 25 Sep: “Sense and Sensibility” (Universal) – Adaptation of Jane Austen’s classic novel, directed by Georgia Oakley, officially releases in UK cinemas.

🌹 27 Sep: Labour Party Conference – Labour’s annual conference takes place in Liverpool.

🗼 28 Sep: Paris Fashion Week

📈 30 Sep: GDP quarterly national accounts, UK: Apr-Jun 2026

 

📆 PR CALENDAR 2026

…because we want you to stay on top of the game every time

Five months and a lot of reasons to pitch.

From August to December, our free PR Calendar rounds up the dates worth having on your radar, just so you can plan ahead instead of spotting the perfect hook when everyone else is already pitching it.

Get ahead of the inbox rush

Have something worthy?

Head to the marketplace now or simply send it to pitches@synapse.media (or add us to your media list) and we’ll make sure it reaches the right journalists.