Every week, founders and marketing managers send us stories they want in the media. And every week, we have to be honest with some of them: it’s not news.

That’s not a criticism. Most of the time, the story just needs more work – a sharper angle, better timing, or a missing piece that would make a journalist sit up. But the single most important question you can ask before approaching any PR agency, journalist, or media outlet is deceptively simple: who actually cares about this?

Not your mum. Not your board. Not your team. Would a stranger – someone with no connection to your company – read this story and find it genuinely interesting, useful, or surprising?

If the honest answer is no, that’s fine. It just means you’re not ready to pitch yet. And knowing that early saves you time, money, and the kind of awkward silence that follows a journalist ignoring your email.

Here’s a practical framework we use at Payper to assess whether a story has real news value – and what to do if it doesn’t.

The Five-Question Newsworthiness Test

Before we pitch anything – for any client – we run the story through five questions. If you can confidently answer yes to at least three, you’ve probably got something worth pitching. Fewer than that, and it’s worth pausing to rethink.

1. Is it new?

This sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised. Journalists cover what’s happening now, not what happened three months ago. A product launch is news on launch day. An award win is news on announcement day. Telling the media about something that’s been live for weeks is like phoning a friend to say you had a great weekend – last month.

Timing is everything. When we worked with Contented on their $4.1M seed round announcement, the pitch went out the moment the round was allowed to go public (actually, it went out under embargo before then, so that journalists could prepare their interviews and stories in advance, and release everything on the announcement day). The result was a clean sweep of New Zealand’s business media in a single day. Wait a week, and half those journalists would have already seen it on LinkedIn and moved on.

2. Does it affect people beyond your company?

This is the big one. A story about your internal restructure? Not news (unless you’re a publicly listed company). A story about a product that solves a problem thousands of people have? That’s news.

Think about who benefits from knowing this information. When FTN Motion launched the Streetdog80 electric motorbike, the story wasn’t just about FTN – it was about urban transport, sustainability, and New Zealand manufacturing innovation. That wider relevance is what made it land across consumer and business media alike.

3. Is there genuine human interest?

People read stories about people. Data, product specs, and business milestones matter – but they matter more when there’s a human at the centre.

When Nico Porteous announced he was stepping back from competitive skiing at 23, the story wasn’t really about competitive sport logistics. It was about a young man making a brave decision on his own terms. That human element is why every major outlet in New Zealand covered it – and why Reuters picked it up internationally.

4. Is it surprising or counterintuitive?

Journalists are drawn to stories that challenge assumptions. If your announcement confirms what everyone already expected, it’s not particularly newsworthy. But if it zigs where people expected a zag, you’ve got their attention.

5. Does it connect to something bigger?

Stories don’t exist in a vacuum. The best pitches connect a company announcement to a broader trend, cultural moment, or public conversation. A new EV charger is interesting. A new EV charger during a global oil crisis and at a time when New Zealand’s EV adoption is accelerating and infrastructure is lagging? That’s a story with context.

Evnex has been one of our longest-standing clients, and the coverage we generate consistently connects their product news to the bigger story of New Zealand’s clean energy transition. That context is what turns a product update into something journalists want to write about.

Stories That Almost Always Land

Over the years, we’ve noticed clear patterns in what works. These story types consistently perform well in New Zealand media:

• Funding announcements with real numbers: Investors backing a company with real money is inherently newsworthy. It signals external validation and gives journalists something concrete to report. Contented’s $4.1M seed round is a perfect example.
• Genuine firsts: First New Zealander to win an Apple Design Award. First Pasifika woman to apprentice at Rocket Lab. If you’ve genuinely done something no one has done before, that’s almost always a story. Smudge Apps and Rob Waddell both landed coverage on exactly this basis.
• David vs. Goliath: A small New Zealand company taking on international giants. When Amor launched as a Christchurch-made dating app going up against Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge, the underdog angle made the story irresistible.
• International partnerships or expansion: Kiwi companies going global is a story New Zealand media loves. Kea Aerospace partnering with NASA. Mons Royale opening a flagship store in Whistler. These stories tap into national pride and the narrative of NZ punching above its weight.

Stories That Almost Never Land

And then there are the pitches that, no matter how well written, struggle to get traction. Being honest about these saves everyone time:

• Internal promotions or hires – unless the person is genuinely well-known or the role is significant in a public-interest context.
• Minor product updates – a new feature, a small iteration, a colour change. These are great for your newsletter, not for the news.
• “We’re really passionate about what we do” – passion isn’t a story. Everyone is passionate. What did the passion produce?
• Awards from organisations no one has heard of – a legitimate, well-known award is newsworthy. A certificate from an obscure industry body most people can’t name is not.

What to Do If Your Story Isn’t News Yet

Here’s the good news: just because a story isn’t ready today doesn’t mean it won’t be tomorrow. Most of the time, the raw ingredients of a good story are already there – they just need sharpening.

A few things that can turn a “not yet” into a “yes”:

• Wait for better timing. Is there a relevant event, trend, or cultural moment coming up that your story could connect to? Sometimes the best thing you can do is hold your story for two weeks until the timing is right.
• Find the human angle. Every company has people behind it. A founder story, a customer story, an employee story – these are often more compelling than the business news itself.
• Add real numbers. Revenue, growth percentages, people reached, money raised. Journalists deal in specifics. “We’re growing fast” means nothing. “We grew 300% in 12 months” means something.
• Get an external voice. An industry expert, a well-known customer, or an independent analyst commenting on your news adds credibility and makes the story feel bigger than just your company talking about itself.

At Payper, we’d rather tell you honestly that your story needs more work than pitch something half-baked and damage your credibility with journalists. Those relationships matter – to us and to you – and once a journalist learns to ignore your name in their inbox, it’s very hard to win that attention back.

The Simplest Test of All

If you remember nothing else from this article, remember this: before you pitch anything, ask yourself – if I had no connection to this company, would I actually read this story?

If the answer is an immediate yes, pitch it. If you hesitate, keep working on it. The best PR isn’t about getting any coverage – it’s about getting coverage that actually moves the needle for your business.

And if you’re not sure whether your story is ready, that’s exactly the kind of conversation we have every day.

Get in touch here and we’ll give you a straight answer.