Media trends: How to get UK press coverage in January

What are journalists looking for as 2025 begins? The new year may have only just started but hundreds of requests have already been sent out via the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service.

Read onto see what journalists were looking for in December for this month’s features and how to get media coverage in January and beyond.

New year, same trends

Apart from last minute Christmas content, journalists spent December looking ahead to the new year. ‘2025’ appeared in 26% of the total requests last month and ‘new year’ in just under 9% of them.

A lot of journalists are looking for ‘trends’, which cropped up in 18% of the enquiries they sent. Subjects varied greatly, with requests for nutrition/health trends, wedding trends, interior design experts to comment on office trends, and a dating expert to dish on relationship trends for 2025.

Going forward? The new year content and trends pieces remain a focus for the media throughout January – now is your time to get in touch with them. Topics like health, fashion, beauty, travel, and home/interiors are of particular interest, especially for top tier media outlets such as Sky News, Metro, PA Media, and The Independent. Have experts ready to talk to the media, and trend forecasts and predictions prepared to share, to secure national press coverage now.

Healthy living a priority

January features two health-oriented initiatives – Dry January and Veganuary. Both have been popular with media professionals sending enquiries for PRs  (featuring in around 2% and 3% of them, respectively) and more general words like ‘fitness’, ‘wellness’ and ‘healthy’ also crop up more frequently around this time of year. ‘Fitness’ reached nearly 8% in December, ‘wellness’ appeared in 6% of enquiries, and ‘healthy’ featured in 5%.

‘Fitness’ requests tend to focus on getting expert opinion, while ‘wellness’ and ‘healthy’ are for more general information. Journalists at the Express.co.uk, Fabulous magazine, The Daily Mail, Prima and Women’s Fitness all sent enquiries last month.

Going forward? The focus on a healthy lifestyle will remain popular this month, judging by last year’s figures, where over 10% of requests contained the word ‘healthy’. Journalists will tend to focus on getting expert quotes from people such as personal trainers, running coaches, nutritionists, doctors, and GPs – so have them prepared to provide comments.

Money and heating concerns

The concerns around winter fuel payments have been well-documented in the media, and money and heating remained a key topic for journalists to cover last month. 10% of the requests in December contained ‘money’ as a keyword, while over 6% were for heating.

Journalists at The Sun, Yahoo! News, and The I Paper sent enquiries looking for heating experts and the cheapest ways to heat your home. Journalists at The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, and Saga looked for money-saving experts and case studies of people’s financial situation.

Going forward? January and February are two of the coldest months of the year so journalists will continue to seek heating experts to provide advice on staying warm for less. Personal finance and money experts are often in demand too, especially during the first few months of the year as journalists share expertise on saving money after the expenses of Christmas.

Other opportunities for PRs in January and beyond

Valentine’s Day is now just over a month away and the media will be busy compiling lists of products and gifts, as well as date night ideas. 6% of requests in January 2024 were for Valentine’s, and some journalists were looking further ahead with 2% around Mother’s Day.

More events to have experts ready for in January are National Obesity Awareness week (10-16 January), Blue Monday (20 January), and National Cheese Lover’s Day, and don’t forget Chinese Lunar New Year (29 January).

Happy New Year, and happy pitching!

To connect with the media on these topics, and much more, check out the Journalist Enquiry Service and the Vuelio Media Database.

Find out more about how Vuelio can help you gain and track your coverage in the media here.