PR News: PRs, we’ve built something that helps you avoid cluttered journalist inboxes
Industry Trends & News, Synapse News
Synapse Expert Database lets journalists browse experts by topic, so your spokespeople can get found without you doing the same pitch on repeat.
How would that work?
- Add specific topics so your expert matches the right stories
- Add a source link (website/LinkedIn/X) so journalists can quickly verify
- Keep the bio short and useful (save the fluff for awards season)
Now, welcome back to The Loop: scroll on for fresh journo requests, media updates, and the PR trends we’re watching this month.
🔥 MUST READ
…because we want you to hear it from the experts themselves
Saskia Fryer, freelance digital PR consultant, dropped some no-fluff advice for PRs looking to get their experts looking to get noticed by the media this year.
Her key takeaway?
“Be clear on your expertise. If a journalist has to work out what you do, then they’re less likely to work with you. Specialists get noticed.”
From showing up online as a real human to having your commentary ready to go, this one’s a solid reminder that visibility is built before the pitch.
🗞️ PR-Y STUFF
Here’s what we think you should see this week:
- 50 ‘experts’ flagged for misleading or unverifiable claims – Press Gazette has published a list of individuals and linked brands that UK publishers are being warned to treat with caution. A must-read for PRs pushing expert commentary, now that the bar for credibility is higher than ever. read more
- Google traffic is down, and it’s reshaping newsrooms – PG’s 2025 trends report reveals a major drop in Google referral traffic, pushing publishers to rethink distribution and audience strategies. For PRs, it’s a sign to double down on relevance and owned visibility in 2026. read more
- What communications management really means – Stephen Waddington breaks down the difference between doing comms and managing comms. It’s a sharp reminder that leadership in PR isn’t about delivering outputs, but it’s about enabling others to communicate effectively. read more
- Google removes multiple AI health summaries as experts warn ‘misleading’ results put people at risk – The Independent reports that Google’s AI-generated search summaries have been giving inaccurate or even dangerous health guidance, raising fresh concerns about reliability and misinformation. read more
🔎 JOURNO REQUESTS
Here’s what journalists are currently looking for on Synapse:
Reach plc:
- Looking for expert comments on HMRC wrong tax codes and losing out on personal allowance
- Looking for expert comments from foodies or chefs to give their opinion. Writing an article on the best pasta brands to buy
- Looking for expert comments, opinions, tips on Premium Bonds holders going into the new yea
- Looking for expert comments on whether BMI is a good health metric
- Looking for expert comments on £100 contactless card limit lifted
- Looking for comments on energy bills saving tips / winter solstice
- Looking for expert comments on Paul Doyle sentencing and road security at major events
- Looking for comments on changes to ISA allowances / how should ISAs be reformed
- Looking for expert comments on what you should do if you constantly have bad WiFi connection
Triangle News:
Newspage Media:
Or head to the marketplace now to look at requests yourself.
📆 NEXT MONTH’S HOOKS
…because we don’t want you missing out on stuff in February.
🗓️ 1 Feb: GRAMMYs – Taking place at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, with two new categories added: Best Traditional Country Album and Best Album Cover
🏉 5 Feb: Six Nations Begins: France and Ireland will kick off the 2026 Six Nations Championship under the lights in Paris on Thursday 5th February. The opening round continues on Saturday 7th February, with Italy hosting Scotland in Rome, followed by England facing Wales at Twickenham.
🎬 6 Feb: The Strangers: Chapter 3 movie release – Starring Madelaine Petsch
🏔️ 6 Feb: Olympic Winter Games: takes place in Milano Cortina, ending on February 22nd.
🏏 7 Feb: Men’s Cricket World Cup – The 10th edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
🏈 8 Feb: Super Bowl LX – Held in the San Francisco Bay Area with Bad Bunny headlining the halftime show
🔍 10 Feb: Searches for Valentine’s Day gifts peak, according to Google Trends
📊 12 Feb: UK GDP Report Announcement: Monthly GDP estimate for December 2025 and First quarterly estimate for Q4 2025
📦 13 Feb: Searches for ‘next day delivery’ peak
🎬 13 Feb: Wuthering Heights (2026) – starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi
❤️ 14 Feb: Valentine’s Day – According to MailMetro, 47% of people said Valentine’s Day should celebrate all kinds of love
🔍 15 Feb: Searches for ‘late Valentine’s Day gifts’ begin to rise
📚 16 Feb: Half Term Begins
📈 18 Feb: Lloyds Banking Group plc Annual Report published
✝️ 18 Feb: Ash Wednesday (Lent Begins)
🎬 20 Feb: Splitsville (2025) movie release – Comedy starring Dakota Johnson, Michael Angelo Covino, Adria Arjona, and Kyle Marvin
🎞️ 22 Feb: BAFTAs – 10% of MetroMedia’s audience say a BAFTA win makes them more likely to watch a film
🐲 24 Feb: Lunar New Year: Year of the Horse – People born in a Year of the Horse are said to be energetic, independent and charismatic
🍿 26 Feb: Scream 7, UK movie release date – Horror/Mystery starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown
FAQs
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Our team hand-verify every single one of our users. Synapse is designed for journalists, reporters, editors and those in the media sourcing stories. It’s also designed for PR professionals. We have our own verification process, but if required, we’ll always get in touch with you directly to get some more information on your day-to-day role and to make sure Synapse is right for you.
There are over 3000 amazing people on Synapse; all of whom want to revolutionise the media relations industry. Our PR user base is from across the UK and covers a mix of agency, freelance and in-house professionals. Our journalist user base is similarly broad. There are national publications, trades, regionals and freelancers all using the platform.
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We’d love to. But we’re not quite there yet.
Synapse believes that journalists have the right to their own data, and that by giving journalists control over their data, PRs will receive more accurate and timely information that isn’t currently available on any other database.
This means that we need to work with journalists to register them on the platform, rather than adding every UK journalist without permission. This is something our team is working on every single day.
Have a journalist or publication you’d like to see on Synapse? Get in touch and let us know at support@synapse.media
We launched on 21st September 2023 with over 1800 users already pre-registered. Since then we’ve grown to over 3000 users, onboarded national publications and have more news to come. Watch this space!
Our users are so important to us. You literally keep us going each and every day so we’re always here to help. From solving tech issues, demoing the platform to posting pitches and requests on your behalf when you’re just having one of those weeks, we put our users at the heart of everything we do.
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Depending on whether you have a journalist profile or a PR profile, you’ll have access to slightly different AI tools.
For PRs, you can save time by exploring our intelligent recommendations of which journalists to pitch to. Our AI will make recommendations based on proprietary data, saving you hours of research time.
For journalists, our secure AI assistant is there to help you as you write your stories. You’re in control of whether you use the tool and to what extent with options of a bulleted summary through to a full generative article.
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