How to Get Press in Australia

Getting press in Australia is less about volume and more about fit. The market is smaller than the US or UK, journalists often cover the same beat for years, and a pitch that ignores the local reader is noticed quickly.

Here is how it works, and how to approach it properly.

How the Australian media market works

Australia has fewer mastheads than larger English-language markets, and fewer journalists on each beat. That concentration cuts both ways. There is less space to go around, but a good story reaches the people who matter faster, and a useful source is remembered.

Broadly, the titles a business is likely to pitch fall into four groups:

• Established newsrooms. Daily newspapers and news sites with staff journalists, such as The Canberra Times. Earned coverage only.
• Business titles. Publications written for founders and operators, such as SmartCompany. Also staff-written.
• Licensed Australian editions. International brands published here under licence with local editorial teams.
• Trade and smaller digital titles. Sector publications and niche digital titles, where both earned and managed routes exist.

Knowing which group a title sits in tells you most of what you need to know about how to approach it.

Know which edition you are pitching

Forbes Australia, Rolling Stone Australia, Variety Australia, Men's Health Australia and Harper's Bazaar Australia are licensed Australian editions. They are produced locally, with their own editors, and they are editorially separate from their US and UK parents.

This is where many international founders go wrong. Pitching the Australian edition does not reach the American masthead, and an editor in New York cannot commission you into the Australian one. Each edition makes its own decisions for its own readers.

It matters afterwards too. If a piece runs in Forbes Australia, call it Forbes Australia. Investors and partners check, and describing licensed-edition coverage as coverage in the parent title undermines the credibility it was meant to build. Our guide to getting featured in Forbes Australia goes into this in more detail.

What Australian editors look for

A local reader, first. Every desk is asking why this matters to someone in Australia now. A global trend is covered when it lands here. A company is covered when the Australian angle is genuinely its own.

After that, the usual things decide it:

• Evidence. A figure, a dataset or a document an editor can check. Adjectives do not survive the first read.
• Consequence. What changes, for whom, and what it costs or saves.
• Timing. A story tied to something already in the news, a policy change or a seasonal moment has a reason to run this week.
• Availability. Reporters often work to same-day deadlines. If you are pitching from another time zone, arrange for someone to be reachable during Australian business hours.

Plain language helps. Write the pitch the way you would explain it to a colleague, and cut anything that reads like marketing copy.

The honest routes in

• Earned editorial. A journalist decides your story is worth covering. Free, competitive and never guaranteed.
• Expert commentary. Responding quickly and specifically when a reporter needs a credible voice. Often the most reliable way to start a relationship with a newsroom.
• Sponsored and branded content. Paid, produced commercially and labelled on the page. Legitimate, but it is advertising.
• Managed features on smaller digital titles. A team writes a dedicated piece and handles the placement. More predictable, and it should be described accurately afterwards.

Ask any supplier which of these they are selling, and get the answer in writing. Anyone guaranteeing earned coverage in a staff-written Australian newsroom is describing something they do not control.

Build in the right order

The most common mistake is starting at the top. A founder with no public record pitches a licensed masthead, hears nothing, and concludes that PR does not work.

A better sequence starts where the fit is closest. For many businesses that is trade press or a business title their buyers already read, followed by local and regional newsrooms, then the licensed editions once there is a record an editor can check. Coverage tends to follow coverage, and each placement makes the next pitch easier to take seriously.

If you run a smaller business, our guide to PR for Australian small businesses covers where to start in more detail. For a wider view of the market, see PR in Australia.

What we do

Digital Networking Agency develops the angle with you, writes it to editorial standard and pitches the Australian titles where the fit is real. You approve every word before anything is submitted.

We will tell you which route each opportunity is, and we will say plainly when a licensed masthead is not a realistic first target. Starting in the right place usually does more, sooner, than starting at the most recognisable name.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to get press in Australia?

There is no fixed timeline. News-driven stories can move in days, features can take weeks, and many pitches are never answered. Anyone quoting a guaranteed date is guessing.

Can an international company get Australian coverage?

Yes, when it has an Australian story: local customers, hires, an office, an investment or data about the Australian market. Without one, local editors have no reason to run it.

Is Rolling Stone Australia the same as Rolling Stone?

No. It is a licensed Australian edition with its own editorial team, separate from the US magazine. Describe any coverage there by its correct name.