Gardening, holidays and a new season: What journalists need from PRs in March 2024

The change of season is often one that journalists like to focus on, with articles on everything from what to do in your garden during the Spring months, to events and entertainment happening across the country.

Hundreds of reporters use the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service to find this information every week. Below, we look at what keywords and topics were trending during February and what the media industry will be focusing on throughout the rest of March.

Seasonal selections

While we might not be quite into Spring yet, it’s already proving popular as a keyword with just over 3% of the total requests in February including the word ‘Spring’. That’s over half a percent higher compared to this time last year.

The start of the new season also brings with it two bigger days in the calendar in Mother’s Day and Easter. 3% of the enquiries last month featured ‘Mother’s Day’, an increase from the 2% we saw in January, as journalists looked mainly for product recommendations. 3% was also the figure for ‘Easter’. The holiday falls slightly earlier this year, at the end of March, and writers have predominantly looked for eggs and other gifts to give.

However, there have also been requests for an Easter roast lamb recipe, Easter days out in London, and Easter craft ideas for grown ups. Journalists at the iWeekend, Stylist.co.uk, Daily Mail, and Evening Standard have all submitted enquiries around Easter. There is likely to be many more in the lead up to the holidays, meaning a good opportunity for PRs especially in food and drink, travel, and arts and entertainment.

Holidays on the horizon

With the Easter holidays just around the corner, ‘holiday’ has become a popular keyword, too, appearing in over 2% of enquiries throughout February. The Travel category has seen a boost as a result. There has been a 16% increase in the amount of requests for the Travel category in February this year compared to 2023. This is likely due to Easter being earlier this year.

However, not all of the ‘holiday’ enquiries have been around Easter. There have been several requests for summer holiday destinations and advice on where to spend the Bank Holiday as well. Journalists have also been interested in information around cruises and looking for general travel experts to give their opinion, too.

The requests have come from outlets including GB News, PA Media, The Sun, Yahoo! Life, and HuffPost. The need for travel experts and information around holiday destinations and cruises will only increase over the next few months, giving plenty of chances to get featured in the national media.

Garden gurus, fashion fanatics, and AI experts

The start of the Spring season often coincides with an upturn in requests around ‘gardening’ and so it proved again this year, with over 3.5% of enquiries last month containing the keyword. These mainly came from consumer titles like woman & home, Homebuilding & Renovating, and House Beautiful. They tended to be looking either for an expert on gardening or general information and advice for seasonal plants and flowers.

Milan, New York, Paris, and London fashion week all took place in February and ‘fashion’ performed well as a keyword in just under 3% of the total requests. ‘Beauty’ featured even more regularly, featuring in over 3.5% of the enquiries last month. Journalists were mainly looking for experts in both fields and these types of request feature regularly on the service.

AI remains a popular subject for journalists to write about and it performed well again as a keyword in February. Over 3.5% of enquiries featured ‘AI’. These requests tend to come from trade titles, with journalists at Verdict, IT Pro and, the Next Web all looking for experts to comment on the emerging technology.

What journalists were using the service?

Staff journalists were the most prevalent users of the service in February, accounting for 54%, followed by freelance journalists on 27%. The majority worked for a consumer media title (37%), with national newspaper/current affairs publications second on 23% and trade/business/professional media just behind in third on 20%.

Journalists using the service were mainly looking for a spokesperson or expert to speak to as that made up 40% of the requests last month. 21% of enquiries were for information for an article, 19% requested review products and 11% asked for personal case studies. 

Opportunities for PRs in March and beyond

While Easter is earlier this year, there is still plenty of time to get products featured or information shared with the media during March, and ‘Easter’ will likely be our top keyword for this month. Seasonal content relating to Spring is likely to be in demand, too.

There could be a demand for sleep experts with World Sleep Day on 19 March. The Arts & Entertainment category could see a boost too with World Poetry Day (21 March) and World Theatre Day (27 March), and March being National Reading Month. The Environment & Nature category may increase too with Earth Hour on 23 March and Earth Day coming later in April. 

For more on how to connect with the UK media with the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service, check out this post on how to respond to journalist requests.