What does a media relations coordinator do?
A media relations coordinator does the groundwork of public relations. They research the journalists, editors, producers and creators who cover a brand's world and keep the media list current. They draft and format press releases, pitches, media alerts and fact sheets, assemble press kits with the images, films and bios a story needs, distribute materials, log who received what and track every piece of coverage that results. They also field inbound requests: a journalist who wants an interview, a photo, a quote by four o'clock.
It is usually an early-career role reporting to a PR manager or account executive, and it is where most PR people learn how newsrooms actually work: who is on deadline, who opens emails, what a usable image looks like and why a release that leads with the brand's excitement goes unread.
Why it matters
Why a media relations coordinator matters
Earned media runs on relationships and logistics, and both decay without care. A list that is a year old is full of people who have moved jobs. A press kit without the right file formats costs a placement. A coverage report that misses half the mentions makes the campaign look weaker than it was. The coordinator keeps the machinery accurate so that the senior PR people can spend their time on the story and the relationship, which is the part that cannot be systematized.
In practice
How a media relations coordinator works in practice
- 01
Before a launch the coordinator builds the target list by beat and outlet, drafts the release and the pitch with the PR lead, prepares the press kit and the embargo schedule, and sets up tracking for coverage. They check that every asset a journalist might ask for exists: high-resolution stills, a cut of the film in the right lengths, a quote approved by legal, a spokesperson who can speak that day.
- 02
During and after, they distribute, follow up, answer requests, monitor coverage across print, online, broadcast and social, and compile the report: what ran, where, with what reach and tone. They also keep the records, so that the next launch starts with a list that is right and a history of who covered what.
Watch out
What people get wrong about media relations coordinators
Treating the role as list-building and mail merge. A coordinator who reads the outlets they pitch, knows which journalist wrote about the competitor last month and can suggest the angle is already doing a manager's job. The other mistake is leaving them out of the creative. The coordinator knows what the press actually asks for, and a campaign built without that knowledge arrives with a film in the wrong format and no still worth printing.
A third is sending everything to everyone. A release blasted to a thousand addresses trains the thousand to ignore the sender, and the coordinator who keeps the list tight and the pitch specific gets the brand opened the next time it matters.
