By David H. Lasker
Young PR professionals are working in a brand-new environment compared to before. The world and how information is spread are completely different than at any time in history. News is disseminated not only at nearly the speed of light, but also in so many ways and on so many channels that it’s taken on a life of its own.
For anyone looking to control the narrative for a client, trying to manage it all is akin to trying to capture grains of sand with an open hand. So much falls through, it’s as if there was no effort at all.
What Is Media Monitoring?
It’s easier to answer what media monitoring is in today’s world by talking about what it isn’t. It isn’t sitting in an office with a corner TV turned on all day. It isn’t subscribing to every last remaining newspaper and scanning the business sections. It isn’t getting regular scoops from an insider at the local news station. These kinds of old-school tactics may have worked in the past for certain folks, but they aren’t nearly enough for PR professionals looking to make headway in their careers.
What’s available with media monitoring services today is mind-boggling. It has access to all the Nielsen Designated Market Areas in the entire country. It has access to archived clips going back 20-plus years. It’s having the inside track on all the news-relevant keywords you want to use. Talk about everything, everywhere, all at once? Media monitoring is it.
How Media Monitoring Serves Clients
Media monitoring means having the tools at your fingertips to learn, analyze, inform, and implement everything you need to serve clients with the kind of capabilities that clients dream of. Media monitoring serves clients by giving them clear, real-time insight into how their brand is perceived and discussed across news, social media, and key industry channels. Clients gain early awareness of positive coverage they can amplify, negative mentions they need to address, and emerging trends that may affect their reputation or business decisions.
Monitoring also helps clients understand which messages resonate with audiences, how competitors are positioning themselves, and where opportunities exist to strengthen visibility or credibility. In practical terms, it reduces surprises, supports faster decision-making, and gives clients confidence that their communications strategy is grounded in what is actually happening, not assumptions or delayed reporting.
How Media Monitoring Serves PR Teams
Ringing up a client and enthusiastically but vaguely telling them your last public message gained a lot of buzz just doesn’t cut it nowadays. Clients have been trained to expect data. For up-and-coming PR professionals, just gathering and assembling data for consumption can mean 14-hour days and working weekends.
By employing a news monitoring service, PR teams can get done-for-you clips, data, reports, and insights. When you need justification that a strategy is working, media monitoring comes through.
It’s not only time saving and strategy proving, but also it’s validation for new ideas. The best clients are the ones who trust their PR teams when it comes to new ideas. They say yes. With the help of media monitoring and the backup data that it supplies, trust is much more quickly justified and given.
Leapfrog a PR Career With Media Monitoring
Media monitoring is a competitive advantage. When you can walk into a client conversation with real-time coverage, clear insights, and proof of impact, you become the driver of strategy. That kind of visibility builds trust quickly because clients don’t have to guess whether communications are working — they can see it.
Developing these skills early in your career positions you as more than a coordinator or support role; it makes you an advisor who understands the full media landscape, anticipates risks before they escalate, and helps clients shape perception with confidence. In a field where credibility is everything, media monitoring helps you earn it faster and deliver it consistently.
David H. Lasker is the founder and CEO of News Exposure, a digital content solutions company specializing in media research and monitoring. Lasker has over 25 years of industry experience and focuses on TV and radio broadcast monitoring, media intelligence, and PR analysis.