Who Really Brings the Press?

A Candid Perspective on Media Relations, Political Presence, and What Actually Drives Coverage

Sylvia Marketing & Public Relations • April 2026

Recently, while preparing media strategy for a client’s event commemorating a great and historic athlete, I provided a detailed update on which outlets had confirmed attendance and which had declined due to staffing shortages. The client’s response caught me off guard. He told me he believed there would be a decent press presence regardless, because several local politicians were attending and, he noted with confidence, their people had already requested parking spaces. The implication was clear: the politicians were “bringing the press.”

I have spent twenty-two years in this business. I have secured coverage on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX News, CNN, and just about every credible local and regional outlet in between. I say that not to boast but to establish a simple fact: I know how newsrooms operate, how assignment editors think, and what makes a journalist leave the building with a camera crew. And I can tell you with absolute certainty that no local councilman or councilwoman “brings the media” to an event—not any more than I do. The media decides which stories to cover. City Hall does not make that call. Neither do I. The difference is that I know how to present a story compelling enough that the assignment editor makes that call in our favor.

The Parking Space Illusion

Let me address the parking request directly, because it is a perfect example of how easily perception can be mistaken for influence. Requesting parking spaces for an event is standard operating procedure. It is basic professional courtesy. Any competent communications staffer—whether working for a politician, a corporation, or a nonprofit—will request reserved parking when coordinating attendance at a city event. It would be rude and frankly negligent not to. Imagine expecting a cameraperson to haul a camera, tripod, lighting gear, and audio equipment several blocks under a blistering afternoon sun. That is not how you build goodwill with the press. That is how you guarantee a newsroom never returns your call.

So when a political staffer requests parking, that staffer is doing his or her job—nothing more, nothing less. It is not evidence of media-pulling power. It is logistics. And sometimes, frankly, it is smoke and mirrors, designed to create the impression that a communications specialist has powerful contacts and is orchestrating significant press interest. I have seen it many times. A few reserved spots in a lot, a name on a list, and suddenly the narrative becomes, “We brought the media.” No. You asked for parking. Those are not the same thing.

What City Communications Staffers Actually Do

I want to be fair here, because fairness matters more than winning an argument. Many city communications professionals are among the hardest-working people I know. I would gladly hire several of them if the opportunity arose. They manage relentless schedules, pump out daily press releases, coordinate events under enormous political pressure, and do it all with limited resources. When a high-profile donor or stakeholder is involved, these staffers often work an event exceptionally hard. They are not lazy. They are not incompetent.

But here is the reality of their workload: city communications offices are responsible for generating news every single day. They do not have the bandwidth to follow up on individual pitches the way a dedicated PR professional does. They send a release. If a reporter passes, the staffer moves on to the next item on an endless list. That is not a criticism; it is a structural limitation of the job.

What I do is different. When a pitch is met with a rejection, I do not move on. I renegotiate the angle. I call back. I follow up online. I learn why the editor said no, and I come back with a reason to say yes. When I provided my client with a detailed rundown of which outlets were confirmed and which had declined due to being short-staffed, that information came from direct, ongoing conversations with newsroom decision-makers. The city communications office did not have that level of detail. Not because those staffers are incapable, but because their role does not afford them the time for that kind of sustained, story-specific engagement.

The Dangerous Space Between a Politician and a Camera

There is an old saying in political media circles: the most dangerous place on earth is between a politician and a camera. It has been said about so many elected officials over so many years that it has practically become an industry proverb. And like most proverbs, it endures because it is rooted in truth.

Journalists are acutely aware of politicians who use community events, school celebrations, and nonprofit milestones as vehicles for personal political advancement. Every local councilman or assemblywoman who shows up at a ribbon cutting is, at some level, thinking about the next election. Many of them want to be mayor someday. Reporters know this. Assignment editors know this. And they are deeply wary of it.

Journalists bristle when a politician leans into a microphone and says, “Make sure you write that down,” or “This is the story right here.” They resent being directed. They did not go to journalism school and spend years building their careers to serve as a public relations arm for an elected official’s reelection campaign. And they have long memories. A politician who wastes a reporter’s time at one event will find it harder to attract coverage to the next one.

I have personally witnessed numerous occasions when elected officials arrived late to their own press conferences—sometimes very late—and offered no apology whatsoever to the journalists and camera crews who had rearranged their schedules to be there. The attitude conveyed was that the press should simply wait, as though a local council member’s availability operated on the same protocol as a White House briefing. It does not. And every reporter who has been kept standing in a hallway for forty minutes while a councilman finishes a phone call remembers it the next time that councilman’s office calls with a “great story.”

So Why Is the Press Actually Coming?

When I explained to my client why his event was drawing media interest, I did not have to reach very far. The reasons were clear, and none of them had anything to do with which politician’s name was on the RSVP list.

Not one single journalist or assignment editor looked at a press release from City Hall and said, “We need to be there because Councilman So-and-So is giving a speech.” Not even close.

First, the press is coming because of the students. This school has built an outstanding reputation with media outlets across the city. Events start on time. The programming matches what was promised in the press release. The school’s leadership does not boss reporters around or try to stage-manage every shot the way attorneys and politicians so often do. And the students themselves are lively, energetic, and photogenic. That matters enormously. A skilled cameraperson can walk into that school and come out with footage that makes a producer’s eyes light up. Great visuals are the lifeblood of television news, and this school delivers them consistently. Newsrooms remember that. Reliability is a currency in media relations, and this school is rich in it.

Second, the event commemorates a great and historic athlete—a figure whose legacy transcends sports and carries cultural weight that resonates with a broad audience. That is an inherently compelling news hook. It is the kind of story that writes itself if you frame it correctly, and framing it correctly is precisely what a PR professional does. The historical significance of this commemoration gives an assignment editor a reason to send a crew. A politician’s attendance does not.

Third, the city’s baseball team mascot is on-site. Now, a mascot alone does not attract press—it is a gimmick, and newsrooms see through gimmicks immediately. But paired with an already strong story, that mascot becomes a visual asset. It adds color, energy, and a recognizable image that supports the narrative. It is a complementary element, not a headliner, and knowing the difference between the two is part of what separates professional media strategy from wishful thinking.

The Politician Is Never the Story

Here is a truth that many in political circles find difficult to accept: in a positive news report about a school or a nonprofit, the politician is never the story. Even when an elected official announces a significant grant for an organization, what he or she has actually done is allocate tax dollars—money that belonged to the public in the first place. That is the job. It is not heroism. It is governance. The story is what the organization does with those resources, the lives that are changed, the students who benefit. The politician is a footnote, not a headline.

The best political partners understand this instinctively. I have worked with elected officials and their staffs who are genuinely committed to the causes they support. Their dedication is obvious and their sincerity is unmistakable. And here is what those individuals have in common: their staffs rely on the client’s agency or PR representative to handle the media while they focus on logistics, stakeholder coordination, and ensuring the right people are in place. They share responsibilities. They are not racing to a microphone to claim credit for press attendance they had nothing to do with. They understand that everyone counts—the client, the PR team, the organization’s staff, and yes, the political office—and that the event’s success is a collaborative achievement. Those people are a genuine pleasure to work with.

What Professional PR Actually Looks Like

The work that secures quality media coverage is not glamorous. It is not about who you know at City Hall or how many parking spaces you can reserve. It is methodical, persistent, and deeply relational. It begins with understanding the story—truly understanding it—and then translating that story into language that resonates with specific reporters, specific producers, and specific assignment editors, each of whom has different needs, different interests, and different pressures from above.

It means pitching a story and, when the first angle is rejected, going back with a second angle. It means calling a newsroom at 9:00 AM, learning that the assignment editor is in a meeting, and calling again at 10:30. It means knowing that one outlet is short-staffed this week and another just lost a reporter to a competing station, and adjusting your expectations and your strategy accordingly. It means providing that level of detail to the client—not vague assurances, but a concrete accounting of who is confirmed, who declined, and why.

It means building a track record of reliability so that when your name appears on a pitch email, the recipient knows the event will start on time, the visuals will be strong, the access will be easy, and the parking will be handled. That track record is built over years, through dozens of events, through every interaction in which you respected a journalist’s time and delivered on your promises.

Behind most of the media placements that really mattered was something better and more important than any technical skill I bring to the table: a sincere client who works hard to help others and has done something genuinely great—which became a great story that I was privileged to tell and to sell.

A Final Word

I do not write any of this out of arrogance or professional jealousy. I write it because misunderstanding how media relations work leads to poor strategy, missed opportunities, and wasted resources. When a client believes that political attendance guarantees press coverage, that client may neglect the very things that actually secure it: a compelling story, reliable execution, energetic participants, and a professional who knows how to package and deliver all of it to the right people at the right time.

The event commemorating this historic athlete deserves better than to have its media strategy rest on the assumption that a local politician’s parking request equals press confirmation. The students deserve better. The athlete’s legacy deserves better. And the client, who has built something genuinely worth covering, deserves to understand exactly why the cameras are showing up—and to take the credit he has earned.

The press is not coming because of City Hall. The press is coming because there is a story worth telling. My job—and it is a job I take very seriously—is to make sure the right people hear it.

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