Reactive PR Agency That Turns Breaking News Into Links

We scan national front pages, sector titles and the Trending now view in Google Trends, which Google says refreshes on average every ten minutes and can show searches from the past four hours up to seven days. That shows which stories are gathering pace. A morning scan is followed by shorter checks through the day, and each story faces three tests: is your spokesperson genuinely expert, can they add something new, and is the story safe for the brand.

Many reactive opportunities arrive as requests rather than headlines. The ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service, now part of Vuelio, sends requests from journalists, bloggers and broadcasters straight to the inbox, and Qwoted lets journalists post requests for expert sources that PRs and experts pitch directly. We review requests every day, answer only those your spokespeople can genuinely add to, and reply in the format and length the journalist asked for, with credentials included.

Not all news is a surprise. The ONS publishes a release calendar and aims to confirm dates at least four weeks ahead where possible, with standard releases at 9.30am. The Bank of England publishes its Monetary Policy Committee announcement dates well in advance, as do most awareness days and sector events. We draft comment the day before, so your reaction to inflation, interest rate or jobs figures is ready to send as soon as the numbers are published.

Journalists often quote an expert without linking, so we log every placement with its URL, date and link status, and ask for a link only where it gives readers useful context, such as a data source or a guide. We never pay for links or trade goods for them, which Google's spam policies class as link spam. Unlinked mentions are reported separately, because coverage in established publications is also what AI assistants draw on when they describe a brand.

When a story breaks that your brand has a genuine view on, we draft a short comment that adds a figure, a prediction or a practical tip, get it approved and send it to the journalists already covering the story. The aim is to add what the story lacks, not restate it. Stories about tragedies, or ones that would pull the brand into a controversy, are left alone however much attention they get.

We monitor journalist request services and social media every day and respond on behalf of your spokespeople where they have real expertise. Each response leads with the most quotable line, includes the credentials the journalist asked for and arrives in the format requested. Quality matters more than volume, because journalists remember which sources were useful and come back to them. Our former Reach PLC journalist explains what editors want in how to pitch a journalist.

We write a brief for each spokesperson covering credentials, the topics they can speak on, approved positions and no-go subjects, and agree a sign-off route with one approver and a deputy. In regulated sectors, positions go through compliance once, up front, rather than on every comment, the same approach our fintech PR service uses to stay quick and compliant. This groundwork decides whether reactive PR works at all.

We build a calendar of predictable news for your sector: ONS releases, Bank of England rate decisions, budgets, awareness days, seasonal moments and industry events. Comment is drafted in advance and sharpened on the day, which gives national, regional and trade journalists a ready source when the figures land. It also gives smaller in-house teams a reactive programme they can plan and staff around.

Some stories need more than a quote. Where a story has legs, we turn your first-party data, a short survey or a public dataset into a regional or sector breakdown that journalists can use in a follow-up piece. Hosted on your own site, these assets give journalists a reason to link rather than only quote, which is how reactive coverage builds links as well as mentions for your link building programme.

AI assistants form a view of your brand from what established publications say about it. Regular expert comment places your spokespeople and brand name in those publications, on the topics you want to be known for. We check which outlets AI assistants cite for your category and prioritise reactive opportunities in those titles, as part of our AI SEO and GEO work.

Each month we report coverage, links, unlinked mentions and the pages they support, alongside the measures that show whether the routine is working: time from story to comment, time to approval, comments sent against comments used, and journalists approaching you directly. We also list the stories we declined and why, so you can judge the decisions as well as the output, and see trends over a quarter rather than a single week.