Over the past few months, there has been a flurry of excitement in the media and across social media platforms about a new PR ‘stories marketplace’ called Synapse. According to the official Twitter account, Synapse has been ‘blown away’ by the response from both PRs and journalists, with hundreds signing up.
The platform aims to connect PR professionals and journalists to reduce the reliance on email accounts. Interestingly, some PRs have signposted that they have received emails from journalists explaining that they will only use Synapse moving forward rather than email.
Here’s what we received, seems like a good few have had similar. pic.twitter.com/YUpkk80gS0
— Rich Leigh (@RichLeighPR) September 26, 2023
It has already been announced that journalists across national and regional titles, including The Mirror, The Express and The Scotsman, aswell as large digital publishers such as Reach PLC, have signed up to use the platform.
Let’s dive into the platform: what are the positives?
One of the upsides to Synapse is that certain features, such as the ‘live’ section – which indicates the relevancy of your pitch, give PR professionals greater visibility of journalists’ thoughts and actions, including acceptance of pitches, click-through rate, whether it has been hidden or if it is relevant and more.
There are several automatic alerts to help PRs determine the success of a campaign, including an alert for ‘journalist declines pitch’, which gives an instant indication of whether or not you will get coverage from them. Historically, there has been an ongoing problem with getting direct feedback from journalists due to high volumes of pitches from a competitive number of PR agencies.
Synapse also allows PR professionals to discover journalists through a comprehensive list of filters, such as sector, region, media type, channel and company. In theory, this allows PRs to find the perfect contact for their story or create a niche list of journalists likely to be interested in their client’s expertise.
However, not all journalists are on the platform, so other ways of finding media contacts, such as databases, publication websites and social media, will still be necessary.
Another useful feature for reactive press office monitoring is that PRs can directly use the platform to see journalists’ media requests, potentially creating a more streamlined process when responding to those looking for expert insight.
PR professionals can also create and update their own profiles to display the industries and clients they currently represent, enticing journalists to reach out directly with a sector-specific media request.
What are the potential risks with a marketplace like Synapse?
One of the main concerns amongst PR professionals is that Synapse places a barrier between PR professionals and journalists, potentially creating more of a divide.
Some PR professionals are concerned that the platform may be a ‘blackmail’ situation, where those who don’t pay to reach journalists will miss out on opportunities to cover their stories and thus will feel forced to pay for possible premium features in the future.
Linking with this, a paid platform may create a feeling that some PRs have ‘VIP’ access to the media simply because they choose to pay the fee rather than based on the quality of their work.
However, journalists have jumped in the conversation to assure users they will still be contactable via email and won’t rely on Synapse, which could create barriers to gaining access to news content.
How Wild PR can help
At Wild PR, we pride ourselves on creating strong media relationships with local, regional and national press to achieve our clients’ best possible PR results. Working with an experienced PR agency takes the pressure off business owners and stakeholders to stay up-to-date with industry changes.
We create engaging content that answers the questions your target audience is truly searching for, supporting your brand awareness, SEO profile and keyword rankings. We work across various sectors, from e-commerce and professional services to manufacturing fertility and more.
You can learn more about our past and present clients and work on our portfolio, or check out more industry news and updates on our blog. Alternatively, if you would like to book a free 30-minute introductory call with our Managing Director Katrina, you can select a convenient date and time here.