How to Get Press Coverage for Your Small Business in the UK: A 10-Step Guide for 2026

How do you get press coverage for a small business?

Most small businesses that never get coverage are not short of stories. They are pitching the wrong thing (a product announcement), to the wrong person (a general inbox), in the wrong way (a long press release with no personal note). Fix those three and your chances change completely.

This guide is written for UK small businesses, sole traders and start-ups, with UK newspapers, BBC Local Radio, trade magazines and UK journalist request services in mind. The same method works for businesses anywhere in the world.

What has changed since 2014 (and what has not)

Much of the advice small businesses find online was written a decade ago, when Twitter was the place to meet journalists and AI search did not exist. The fundamentals still hold: know your audience, research your journalist, leave your ego at the door. But how coverage is found, used and valued has shifted.

Why press coverage still matters for a small business

Advertising tells people you are good. Press coverage means someone independent agrees. For a small business without a household name, that independent voice does three jobs at once:

• Trust. “As featured in” the local paper or a respected trade title reassures a customer who has never heard of you.
• Search. News sites are trusted by Google. An article that names and links to you helps people find you, and often ranks for your name.
• AI answers. When someone asks ChatGPT for “the best florist in Bath”, it leans on articles and lists that name businesses. We explain this in our guide to how to get ChatGPT to recommend your business.

And the door is open. Journalists rely on the people who pitch them far more than most business owners realise:

Sources: Muck Rack, State of Journalism 2026 (first three figures) and Cision, State of the Media 2025, a survey of more than 3,000 journalists in 19 markets.

The same Cision study found 86% of journalists will reject a pitch that is not relevant to their beat or audience. That one number explains most failed pitches, and it is why the steps below focus so closely on choosing the right story and the right person.

12 story angles any small business can use

“We have launched a new website” is not a story. “We are 10 years old” rarely is, on its own. Journalists need a reason their readers will care today. These are the angles that most often turn a small business into a news story. The examples are illustrations, not real clients.

Notice that most of these are not about what you sell. They are about people, places, numbers and change. Your business is the source of the story, not the subject of an advert.

Start with the six-question test at the top of this page. Then make a list of every possible story in your business over the next three months. Most small businesses find five to ten once they look properly.

• Look for numbers. Bookings, orders, enquiries, waiting lists, customer surveys. A simple survey of 200 customers can produce a headline.
• Look for people. Your founder story, a long-serving employee, an apprentice, an unusual customer.
• Look for timing. What is in the news this month that you know more about than most?
• Look for the local angle. What does your story mean for your town or county?

Then ask the hardest question: who, apart from me, cares? If the honest answer is “my customers might”, it may suit your newsletter better than a newspaper. If it is “anyone in Sheffield who owns a home”, you have a story.

A small business rarely needs the front page of a national newspaper. It needs coverage where its customers are. A wedding photographer in Devon gains more from a regional wedding magazine than from a national tabloid. A software company gains more from its trade press than from the evening news.

Write down 10 to 20 outlets across two or three of these groups. Read, watch or listen to each one before you pitch it, so you know the sections, the tone and the journalists. Our media list shows the range of UK and international outlets where a story can appear.

Pitching a newsroom’s general inbox is like posting a letter to “The Manager”. Find the person who covers your subject.

1. Read the bylines. Search the outlet’s website for your topic and note who wrote similar stories in the last six months.
2. Check their profile. Most journalists list their beat and preferred contact method on LinkedIn, X, Bluesky or their author page.
3. Find the email. Many outlets use a standard format such as firstname.lastname@ and some journalists publish theirs. For local papers and BBC Local Radio, the newsdesk or programme email is fine.
4. Note what they wrote. Mentioning a recent article, briefly and honestly, shows you are not sending the same email to everyone.

Media databases such as Muck Rack, Cision and Vuelio speed this up for larger campaigns, but for most small businesses a careful hour of reading works just as well. For ideas, see our list of UK journalists to pitch.

Before you contact anyone, read our guide on how to get a journalist’s attention. The same Cision study found 85% of journalists say the best way to build a relationship is a simple introductory email, even without a story to pitch.

A pitch is a short, personal email that offers a story. It is not your press release pasted into an email. Journalists receive many pitches a day and decide in seconds, so the subject line and first two sentences do most of the work.

• A subject line that reads like a headline
• A personal, specific opening
• The story and the number in the first lines
• What you can offer: data, interview, photos
• About 150 words in total
• A clear, easy question to finish

Keep it short. In Muck Rack’s 2026 survey, 69% of journalists preferred pitches under 200 words, and they valued clear relevance to their beat (70%), access to interviewees (58%), original data (40%) and high-resolution images (37%). Put the press release below your signature or attach it, but never make the journalist open an attachment to find the story. Our PR pitch template and guide on how to pitch a journalist go further.

A press release is the formal version of your story, written so a journalist can lift facts and quotes from it. You do not need one for every pitch, but for announcements, data and events it saves the journalist time, and time is what gets you covered.

• Headline: the news in under 12 words.
• First paragraph: who, what, where, when and why, in two or three sentences.
• Body: the detail, the numbers and one or two quotes that sound like a real person.
• Notes to editors: a short paragraph about your business, how the data was collected, and contact details.
• Length: usually 300 to 500 words.

Follow our step-by-step guide to writing a press release in the UK, or start from our free press release template.

Your press kit checklist

When a journalist is interested, they want everything quickly, often within the hour. Keep these in one folder or on a press page on your website:

• High-resolution photos of you, your team and your premises or products
• A short and a long description of the business
• Founder or spokesperson biography
• Key facts: founding year, location, number of staff, customers served
• Logo in high resolution
• Previous coverage, if you have any
• Contact details, including a mobile number that is answered
• Any data, with a note on how it was gathered

A good story sent too late is a missed story. Two kinds of timing matter.

Lead time

Monthly magazines plan three to six months ahead, so Christmas gift guides are often put together in summer. Weekly papers and trade titles usually work one to four weeks ahead. Daily papers, news websites and radio can move within hours, which is ideal for reaction and expert comment. Plan your seasonal stories backwards from the date they need to appear.

Time of day

According to Muck Rack’s 2026 survey, 78% of journalists prefer to receive pitches before noon. Half do not mind which day, but of those who do, Monday was the most popular choice at 18%. Avoid Friday afternoons and the hour before a newspaper’s deadline. For more detail, see our guide to the best time to send a press release.

Silence is normal. Journalists cannot reply to every pitch, and no reply rarely means no forever. A single short follow-up, two or three working days later for news and a week later for features, is acceptable. Add something new if you can, such as a fresh number, a photo or a date when your spokesperson is free.

• Do: reply in the same email thread so they can see the original.
• Do: keep it to two or three lines.
• Don’t: call to ask “did you get my email?”
• Don’t: follow up more than once on the same story.

If there is still no reply, offer the story to the next journalist on your list. Keep a simple spreadsheet of who you contacted, when, and what happened, so you build a picture of who responds to which kinds of story.

Pitching is only half of it. Every day, journalists publicly ask for experts, case studies and data for stories they are already writing. Answering these requests is one of the quickest routes to coverage for a small business, because the journalist has already decided to write the story.

The rules for replying are strict. Answer only requests you are qualified for, reply fast (often within the hour), answer the exact question in a few quotable sentences, and include your name, job title, business, location and a photo link. We compare the options in more depth in the best HARO alternatives.

The moment a journalist replies is when many small businesses lose the story, because nobody answers the phone or the photos take three days. Be ready to move the same day.

• Answer quickly. Reply within the hour if you possibly can. Deadlines are often the same day.
• Prepare three key points. Know the three things you most want to say and one example for each.
• Be accurate. Only give numbers you can stand behind, and say “I don’t know, but I’ll find out” if needed.
• Assume everything is on the record. Unless you have agreed otherwise beforehand, anything you say can be quoted.
• Do not ask for copy approval. UK journalists rarely show articles before publication. You can offer to check facts or figures.
• Send what you promised, such as photos, data and names, straight away.

For radio and TV, practise your answers out loud and keep them short. Our media interview service helps business owners prepare for their first interviews.

An article is not the end of the work. It is something you can use again and again.

• Thank the journalist. A short thank-you email builds a relationship for next time.
• Share it. Post it on LinkedIn, your social channels and your newsletter, and tag the outlet and the journalist.
• Add an “as featured in” section to your website, with links to the articles.
• Use it in sales. Add it to proposals, email signatures and your shop window or counter.
• Keep your details consistent. If the article gets your business name or website wrong, ask politely for a correction.
• Watch AI answers. Coverage on trusted sites is one of the strongest signals AI tools use to describe and recommend a business. See what ChatGPT says about your business to check how it describes you.

Coverage also compounds. A journalist who has written about you once is more likely to call you next time they need a comment, and an article in a local paper often leads to radio, then to trade titles, then to national interest.

How to get your small business in the local newspaper and on local radio

Local media is where most small businesses should start. Local journalists need local stories every day, they are easier to reach, and local readers are often your customers.

• Local and regional papers. Most towns and cities have a daily or weekly title, in print and online. Find the business or news editor’s email on the website’s contact page or in the paper itself, and keep your story firmly local.
• BBC Local Radio and commercial stations. Breakfast and drive-time shows need guests, especially experts who can explain a local issue in plain words. Contact the programme team directly.
• Regional TV. BBC and ITV regional news want stories they can film. Think about the picture before you pitch.
• Community magazines and hyperlocal sites. Parish magazines, village newsletters and local news websites are read closely and are often looking for content.
• Business groups. Chambers of commerce, Federation of Small Businesses branches and local enterprise networks often have newsletters and links to local journalists.
• Local awards. Business awards run by local papers and councils bring coverage at the shortlist, the ceremony and the win.

Use the calendar too. Small Business Saturday UK takes place on the first Saturday of December (5 December in 2026), and local media look for small business stories in the run-up. For more, see our guides to PR for local businesses and getting featured in regional publications.

Trade press: the coverage small businesses overlook

Almost every industry in the UK has its own magazines, websites and newsletters, from builders’ merchants to dentistry, hospitality, logistics and software. Trade journalists are specialists, they need informed sources, and their readers are often exactly the buyers a B2B small business wants to reach.

• Opinion and how-to articles. Many trade titles accept expert contributed articles if they are useful and not salesy.
• Contract wins and case studies, with the client’s permission.
• Data from your own work, such as response times, common faults or changing customer demand.
• Comment on industry news, new rules and trends.

Trade coverage also tends to stay online for years and rank for specialist searches, which makes it particularly valuable for search and AI visibility.

Can a small business get into national newspapers or on the BBC?

Yes, but usually not with a story about the business itself. National journalists cover small businesses when they illustrate something bigger: a trend, a problem, a change in how people live or work. The routes in are:

1. Data with national relevance. A well-run survey or your own figures that reveal a trend.
2. Expert comment through journalist requests (step 8), where your knowledge fills a gap in a bigger story.
3. A strong human story that speaks to something many readers have experienced.
4. Coverage that builds. Local stories are often picked up nationally, and national journalists look at regional papers for ideas.

Each national outlet has its own sections and habits. Our guides on how to get featured in The Guardian and how to get featured on the BBC explain how they work.

Your 90-day press plan

Press coverage comes from steady effort, not a single big push. This plan suits a small business owner with a few hours a week.

Common press mistakes small businesses make

Should you do it yourself or get help?

Many small businesses get their first coverage on their own, and this guide is designed to help you do exactly that. Help makes sense when time is short, when you need coverage by a certain date, or when you want to appear in specific publications.

Our small business PR team builds bespoke plans around your story and goals; there are no fixed packages. We also explain the difference between editorial and sponsored content in earned vs sponsored coverage, so you always know what you are getting.

Press coverage for small businesses: FAQ