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PR in the Real World
Shaping the News for Millions - Inside Reach plc with Chief Content Officer David Higgerson
How do you land a story across a network of 130+ media titles reaching millions of people daily? In this episode of PR in the Real World, David Higgerson, Chief Content Officer at Reach plc, pulls back the curtain on the modern newsroom to reveal how the digital transformation has rewritten the PR playbook.
David Higgerson oversees the content strategy for some of the UK's most iconic national and regional brands, including The Mirror, The Express, the Manchester Evening News and the Liverpool Echo. Moving beyond the traditional print-first path, David tracks the seismic changes that have redefined modern reporting over the last two decades. He shifts the conversation from the static "press release distribution list" to real-time, cross-platform audience engagement, highlighting how regional title newsrooms have decentralised out into the communities they serve.
The conversation addresses the modern realities of trust and fact-checking, diving into Reach plc's robust structural response to the proliferation of "fake experts" and AI-generated fabrications. David shares a powerful look at the mechanics behind high-impact campaigns, such as the Manchester Evening News's coverage of the Awab Ishak housing scandal, and explains how automated newsroom workflows and internal AI tools like "Guten" are deployed to free up journalists for deep investigative work. For any PR or communications professional trying to break through the digital noise, this episode provides a vital framework for delivering useful, reliable and memorable narratives.
From a PR and communications perspective, this episode covers:
- The Transition to Multi-Platform Distribution: Why modern journalism focuses on packaging content for spaces where audiences live (like TikTok and Facebook) rather than relying solely on direct website homepage traffic.
- The Crackdown on "Fake Experts": Reach plc’s proactive deployment of a centralised, crowdsourced verification database to protect readers from AI-generated credentials and bad-faith PR pitches.
- Designing Stories for Digital Retention: Crafting multimedia assets that assist editors by answering the core reader criteria: Is this piece useful, memorable and reliable?
- AI Tool Integration in the Newsroom: Deploying natural language processing tools to parse complex council agendas and cross-platform duplication, maximising field reporting capacity.
David shares the extraordinary operational insight that the Manchester Evening News contributes more to its regional economy than Manchester United and Manchester City football clubs combined. He also reflects on his early career starting as a reporter, the structural tension between platform algorithms and direct audience loyalty and his proudest legacy project: a campaign that successfully prevented the closure of local care homes in Clitheroe.
This episode is relevant for professionals working in:
- PR Agency Directors & Account Managers: Seeking to construct reliable media relations strategies that survive rigorous editorial verification tiers.
- In-House Corporate Communicators: Looking to understand newsroom asset workflows, including B-roll, digital data packages and expert profiling.
- Journalism Students & Researchers: Analysing the evolution of media monetisation models, digital ethics and automated content workflows.
- Public Sector Public Affairs Leads: Evaluating how localised newsrooms preserve regional community cohesion and civic engagement.
Links and References
Reach plc – https://www.reachplc.com
Manchester Evening News (MEN) Awaab Ishak investigation – https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/death-two-year-old-awaab-25740113
Nottinghamshire Live – https://www.nottinghampost.com
Press Gazette (fake experts investigation) – https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/fake-experts-seo-journalism/
IPSO (Independent Press Standards Organisation) – https://www.ipso.co.uk
BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service – https://www.bbc.com/lnp/ldrs
Shelter – https://www.shelter.org.uk
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