Most business schools want positive media coverage. It feels good to see your school mentioned in articles or interviews, and it is often taken as a sign of success.
Yet many schools are still chasing visibility rather than influence with their media outreach. That often means volume tactics such as pushing out press releases to a long, unfocused media list, regardless of who actually reads those outlets. An article buried on a niche education blog may impress internal stakeholders, but is it really helping the school meet its strategic goals? In most cases, no.
Before sending a single email to a journalist, schools need to be clear about how that media outreach supports their strategy. If you want to show real ROI from media relations, the question is not “how much coverage did we get?” but “did we reach the people who matter, with messages that moved the dial?”
Visibility is not the same as influence
Many business schools still measure PR success by counting mentions instead of assessing strategic impact. That runs against best practice in media strategy, which starts with clear objectives and works backwards from the audience you need to reach.
The result is an overemphasis on quantity over quality. High internal coverage numbers look good in reports, but how many of those outlets do your target audiences genuinely read and are they trusted enough to shape perceptions? Without that, “more coverage” quickly becomes a vanity metric.
From coverage to connection
The most effective schools measure media outreach by impact, not volume. That starts with defining why they are doing it.
Media outreach should be explicitly tied to institutional goals, such as:
- Increasing enquiries and applications from target student segments
- Opening up funding opportunities for research and impact projects
- Building partnerships with policymakers and think tanks
- Raising awareness in priority international markets
- Winning more executive education and corporate training clients
Aligning media activity with recruitment, corporate relations and policy priorities ensures PR supports those goals by driving awareness, relevant web or AI search traffic and stronger online profiles. Well-planned media outreach programmes can significantly accelerate these outcomes; poorly planned, scattergun outreach usually delivers very little.
Messaging and positioning
Differentiation is difficult in a crowded business education market. Many schools say similar things about rankings, employability, entrepreneurship or sustainability.
Targeted coverage in the business, education and sector outlets your prospects already rely on does much more for positioning than generic mentions in low‑relevance channels.
When your stories consistently appear in the media your audiences trust, it becomes easier for them to understand what you stand for and why you are different.
Prestige vs purpose
Ambitious schools often aspire to coverage in global, top‑tier outlets, and this can be powerful when the story genuinely fits their editorial agenda – for example, strong data‑led research or commentary on major business and economic trends.
However, a strategic media outreach plan balances aspiration with focus. It combines:
- Global news outlets for high‑impact, reputation‑building stories
- Sector‑relevant business titles to reach senior managers and HR leaders
- Specialist or regional channels that align with specific audience segments
For more specialist narratives, schools need to understand where each audience goes for information. Prospective students often rely on digital platforms, rankings and content on search. HR leaders and corporate partners look to management journalism and professional media. Policymakers pay attention to mainstream economic, policy and public affairs reporting. Matching the outlet to the audience and objective turns prestige into purpose.
A note about trust
A key reason business schools invest in earned media is to build trust.
Trust increases when a respected publication or journalist features the school in a way that connects with its audiences: a feature on a programme, a student or alumni case study, or a piece of thought leadership that speaks directly to real‑world challenges. This is the kind of content that makes the audience think: “That sounds like me,” or “I want to know more.”
When faculty are quoted as experts or research is reported by credible journalists, proof points are validated independently, which is far more persuasive than the same claims on your own website or in an advert. Schools that rely on volume tactics – more press releases to poorly‑targeted media – will find it much harder to earn that depth of trust and engagement.
Journalist relationships
In 2026, journalists’ inboxes are overflowing. They have seconds to decide whether to open, skim or delete a pitch.
Schools that build genuine, long‑term relationships with key journalists are more likely to succeed. If a school relies on mass distribution of generic announcements, the wastage will be huge, and the risks are clear:
Journalists ignore pitches because they see the school is not tailoring ideas to their beat or readers.
- Reporters become frustrated by irrelevant content and are less inclined to respond when a genuinely strong story comes along.
- Thoughtful targeting, relevant angles and respect for journalists’ time are now basic requirements, not optional extras.
Practical PR checklist
Use this checklist to turn these principles into day‑to‑day decisions:
- Clarify who you need to reach
Identify whether the story is primarily for prospective students, corporates, policymakers or peers. Treat “everyone” as a warning sign, not a strategy. - Consider where that audience gets information
Use insight from recruitment, careers, alumni and external partners to understand which outlets, platforms or formats your key segments really trust. - Match the outlet to the objective
Choose global business media, industry titles or specialist platforms depending on whether your goal is awareness, thought leadership, applications, partnerships or funding. - Define success upfront
Decide in advance what success looks like – for example, relevant web or AI search traffic, share of voice, sentiment, message pull‑through or engagement from target organisations – and track which coverage contributes to those outcomes.
Sometimes, less (done better) really is more.
Summary
- Business schools need a strategic media outreach plan that prioritises influence over raw coverage volume.
- Targeted press coverage in trusted business and education outlets builds brand reputation, visibility and differentiation.
- Aligning PR with recruitment, corporate relations and policy goals helps media relations drive applications, partnerships and research impact.
- Earned media and strong journalist relationships increase trust, credibility and the effectiveness of business school communications.
- Focusing on the right media, right message and right audience makes business school PR more measurable, impactful and search‑friendly.
