By Shereen Shabnam

Public relations is often treated as something a business switches on when it has an announcement to make. A new product is launching, an executive wants greater visibility, an event is approaching or competitors seem to be getting more media attention and suddenly the call goes out: “We need more PR.” But effective PR does not begin with a press release. It begins with infrastructure.

Having worked in public relations across the GCC since 1999, I have had the opportunity to experience the industry from several perspectives. My career has included working with leading international and regional PR agencies, including Hill & Knowlton, as well as being among the pioneering founders of the Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA), created to support the development of the region’s communications industry.

I also spent nearly a decade working in-house as PR and Business Development Director for architecture and exhibition design firm MTE Studios. That experience was particularly valuable because it allowed me to see PR from inside a business and not simply as a communications function. What I did felt closely connected to business development, leadership, clients, operations and long-term reputation.

Over the years, I have often been asked what it takes to establish an effective PR function within an organisation. So, drawing on more than three decades of working across agency, in-house and media environments in Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, I decided to share some of the practical principles that I believe make the biggest difference.

An effective PR department does not necessarily need to be large. It does, however, need ownership, organisation, access to information and a clear understanding of the business.

Start With One Person Who Owns PR

One of the first requirements is surprisingly simple: someone has to own it. That does not mean six people who all have PR vaguely included somewhere in their responsibilities. There should be one person accountable for keeping communications moving, identifying opportunities, maintaining media relationships and ensuring that stories do not disappear between departments. That person can work with an internal team, external agency or freelance specialists, but someone inside the organisation needs visibility across the entire PR function.PR with ownership can become strategic instead of reactive.

Decide What You Want to Be Known For

Before telling your story externally, make sure everyone internally is telling the same story. Ask some basic questions:

What exactly does the company do? Why is it different? What does it want to be known for? Where does it have genuine authority? What can its founder, CEO or leadership team credibly discuss?

These questions sound obvious, but the answers can vary dramatically depending on whether you ask someone in sales, operations, marketing or senior management. A PR department should establish a clear corporate narrative that becomes the foundation for company profiles, executive interviews, media pitches, award submissions, speaking opportunities and thought-leadership articles. This does not mean everyone has to sound scripted. It means the organisation understands its own positioning.

Build a PR Library Before You Need It

Journalists often work quickly. If someone asks for a high-resolution photograph, CEO biography, company statistic or project information, the answer cannot be: “I think someone in marketing has it.”

Create a central, constantly updated PR resource containing current company information, executive biographies, professional photography, case studies, statistics, product and service information, approved quotes, logos and brand assets. It should also contain your media and influencer database, previous coverage, published articles, interview records and a system for evaluating results. For businesses operating internationally, I would also include market-specific company information, spokesperson details by region and translated materials where appropriate. The objective is simple: when an opportunity arrives, the PR department should be able to respond in minutes rather than spend hours searching through old emails and shared drives.

Create a Story-Finding Culture

This, for me, is one of the most important elements of successful PR. PR cannot exist only when the company launches something and we learnt this with MTE Studios as we seamlessly added services gradually spanning from themed architecture for malls, to travelling exhibitions to museums and cultural institutions. Some of the best stories inside an organisation are never initially recognised as PR stories. They emerge through conversations with sales teams, customer service, operations, designers, engineers, finance teams and senior leadership.

Regularly ask:

What are customers asking about? What changes are you seeing? What has surprised you? What problems are clients trying to solve? What data do we have? Are patterns beginning to emerge?

A salesperson might notice customers requesting something that did not matter six months ago. A technical team may have developed an innovative solution to an industry problem. Customer service may see a new concern emerging repeatedly. Management may have data showing a significant shift in demand. Each can become the starting point for a media story, feature, commentary opportunity or thought-leadership article. The PR team also needs to look outward. What is gaining media attention? Which conversations are resonating culturally? What topics are dominating your industry? Who is influencing those conversations?

The strongest PR connects what is happening inside the company with what people are discussing outside it.

Work Ahead of the News Cycle

Good PR teams rarely work only on today’s news. Create a simple forward calendar covering the next six to twelve months. Look at seasonal opportunities, major industry exhibitions and conferences, awareness days, government initiatives, awards, economic announcements and predictable editorial themes.

Ask what journalists are likely to be covering in September, at the end of the year, during Ramadan, around Christmas or at the beginning of January. Then identify what your company could credibly contribute. Add your own launches, research, milestones, events and announcements to the same calendar. This shifts PR from constantly reacting to opportunities to actively preparing for them. It also gives executives time to develop stronger opinions and commentary rather than producing hurried quotes simply because a journalist’s deadline is in 20 minutes.

Establish a Media Enquiry Process

When a journalist contacts the company, everyone should know what happens next. As an editor in Chief for multiple publications now, I can see what PR people are doing wrong from the word go. To some extent, there are agencies and Inhouse PR teams I do not deal with at all because their lack of understanding of how different media platforms work.

Media deadlines do not always fit corporate approval structures. A company that requires six approvals for a three-sentence comment will regularly lose opportunities to organisations that can respond intelligently and quickly. Identify authorised spokespeople in advance and establish approval parameters. Maintain an accessible press contact number for urgent enquiries and make sure relevant team members understand that journalists frequently work against extremely tight deadlines.

It is also worth subscribing to reputable journalist request platforms and monitoring relevant media requests. PR should not always wait for journalists to come to the company; the press office should actively identify conversations where the organisation has something worthwhile to contribute.

Hold a 30-Minute Weekly Press Office Meeting

PR meetings do not need to become another layer of corporate bureaucracy. Thirty focused minutes can be enough. Review current stories, incoming requests, potential opportunities, upcoming announcements and anything happening within the organisation that the PR team should know about. Look at what is coming over the next few weeks and establish clear responsibility for each action. The purpose is not to create more meetings. It is to prevent opportunities from falling between departments.

Measure More Than Media Clippings

PR evaluation should also be built into the department from the beginning. Media coverage matters, but counting articles alone provides an incomplete picture. Look at the quality and relevance of publications, message penetration, spokesperson visibility, backlinks and referral traffic, audience engagement, share of voice and whether PR is supporting broader business objectives.

For some organisations, success could mean positioning the CEO as an industry authority. For another, it may mean strengthening credibility in a new market, supporting sales conversations, attracting talent or establishing the company as a trusted source for journalists. Define what success means before trying to measure it.

Use AI to Make the Press Office Smarter. Not Less Human

Today, technology can simplify much of this infrastructure. AI tools can help organise information, analyse coverage, identify emerging themes, build editorial calendars, summarise research, monitor conversations and transform internal information into potential story angles. They can dramatically reduce administrative work. What they cannot replace is judgement. Knowing whether something is genuinely newsworthy, understanding the interests of a particular journalist, recognising when a story should not be pitched, building relationships and understanding the nuances of reputation still require human experience. The best approach is to use technology to make the PR professional faster and better informed, while keeping relationships and editorial judgement firmly human.

PR Is an Infrastructure, Not an Emergency Service

None of this is particularly complicated. But when these foundations are missing, PR becomes sporadic. Opportunities are missed. Journalists struggle to get information. Executives become frustrated because competitors appear more visible, and eventually someone says: “We need more PR.”

Quite often, the business does not actually need more PR. It needs a better system for allowing PR to happen consistently. Give one person ownership. Agree on the story. Organise the information. Build relationships across the organisation. Create a pipeline of ideas. Plan ahead. Respond quickly. Measure what matters. Once that infrastructure exists, PR stops being something a company occasionally does. It becomes part of how the business communicates, builds credibility and grows.