For a hotel, restaurant or lifestyle brand, the difference between a journalist writing about you and moving on to a competitor often comes down to how fast and how well you respond. A slow reply, a missing image or a story that never reaches the right desk can cost you the coverage entirely.
Kitten & Shark is a boutique, senior-led media relations agency based in London, working with hotels, restaurants, travel, wellness, and lifestyle brands across the UK and Europe. You work directly with our senior PR consultants from the first conversation onwards, so the people who pitch your account are the people who run it, and the people building relationships with journalists on your behalf are the ones who know your story best.
This page covers what a media relations agency actually does, how it differs from PR more broadly, what a press office is for, what it costs, and how we measure whether it is working.
A media relations agency manages the relationship between your brand and the press. The work usually brings together the following:
Media relations is a core part of public relations, but the two are not the same.
The specific work of earning coverage through the media.
The broad discipline of managing a brand's reputation across every audience, from customers and investors to staff and the public.
If PR is the whole reputation picture, media relations is the engine that drives earned coverage. Most hospitality and lifestyle brands lead with media relations because press coverage is what puts them in front of guests and customers.
| Service | What it supports |
|---|---|
| Proactive story pitching | Planned coverage built around your news and angles |
| Reactive press office | Fast, accurate answers that turn journalist queries into coverage |
| Media relationship building | A brand journalists know, trust and come back to |
| Announcements and news | Openings, hires and milestones landing with the right titles |
| Reactive comment | Your experts quoted in stories already running |
| Coverage tracking and reporting | A clear view of what the coverage earns |
You will often hear coverage split into three types. Media relations is how you win earned media, the coverage and mentions you have not paid for. Seeing how the three fit together shows where media relations adds the most value.
| Type | What it is | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Earned media | Coverage, reviews and mentions from journalists and third parties | Most credible, because someone independent chose to feature you |
| Owned media | Your own channels, such as your website, email and social | Full control, but audiences trust it less than independent coverage |
| Paid media | Advertising and sponsored placements you pay for | Fast reach on your terms, but it stops when the budget does |
A press office is simply the function that handles the media day to day: fielding journalist requests, keeping images, facts and biographies ready, and making sure a reporter on deadline gets what they need before they move on to someone else.
You do not need a big in-house team to have one. For most hotels, restaurants and lifestyle brands, an outsourced press office through a media relations agency gives you fast, professional responses without the cost of a full-time hire. It is often the difference between being included in a feature and being left out because you replied too late.
Media relations earns its keep when you want consistent coverage and the right people are not yet hearing from you. A few situations we see often:
The media has fragmented. Audiences increasingly encounter news through platforms and search rather than a single front page.
Social media and video networks are now the number one source of news globally, reaching 54% of people weekly.
That puts them ahead of TV at 52% and news websites at 51% for the first time, according to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026.
For a brand, that means coverage has to land across more places, more consistently, to be seen. One-off bursts fade quickly. Ongoing media relations, built on real relationships and a reliable press office, are what keep you visible as attention shifts.
Good media relations is measured against what you set out to achieve, not just a pile of cuttings. We agree on what success looks like at the start, then track it.
That can include the quality and relevance of coverage, share of voice against the brands you compare yourself to, whether your key messages are picked up, links and referral traffic to your site, and the enquiries or bookings that follow. The aim is coverage that gets the job done, not coverage for its own sake.
Media relations is usually a monthly retainer, which suits work that depends on ongoing relationships and a reliable press office. Boutique, senior-led consultancies typically start from a few thousand pounds a month, while a bigger programme with heavy proactive pitching, events or international media costs more.
Because our model is senior-only, you are paying for experienced people doing the work rather than a large structure around them. We quote on what you actually need, so a short conversation about your goals is the best starting point.
Kitten & Shark is a boutique PR consultancy where our senior consultants work directly on your account. Founder Clemmie Mason-Pearson has more than seventeen years in lifestyle and hospitality PR, with long-standing relationships among the editors, journalists, and producers who cover these sectors, which is exactly what media relations runs on. Because the team is small, everyone knows every account, so a journalist always reaches someone who knows your story.
We think of ourselves as an extension of your team rather than an outside supplier, with a wider network across event handling, celebrity booking, social media, digital marketing and SEO, international media, and crisis management on call when a story needs it. We work with boutique and independent hotels, small hotel groups, restaurants, wellness, and lifestyle brands. Our focus remains firmly on these hospitality and lifestyle categories, which keeps our media relationships concentrated where they count for you.
A media relations agency builds relationships with journalists and earns your brand coverage in the media. It handles proactive story pitching, a reactive press office, announcements, expert comment and coverage reporting. The aim is consistent, credible earned media, not a one-off spike of publicity.
PR is the broad discipline of managing a brand's reputation across every audience. Media relations is the specific part focused on the press: relationships, pitching and the press office. Media relations is the engine that earns coverage, and for most hospitality and lifestyle brands it is where PR does the most visible work.
A press office is the function that handles the media day to day, fielding journalist requests and keeping images, facts and quotes ready. You do not need a big in-house team to have one. An outsourced press office through an agency gives most hotels and brands fast, professional responses without a full-time hire.
Earned media is coverage you win from journalists and third parties without paying for it, such as a review or a feature. Paid media is advertising and sponsored placements you pay for. Earned media is more credible because someone independent chose to feature you, while paid media offers fast, controlled reach that stops when the budget does.
Most media relations runs on a monthly retainer, which suits work built on ongoing relationships and a reliable press office. Boutique consultancies typically start from a few thousand pounds a month, and bigger proactive programmes cost more. We quote on what you actually need rather than a fixed package.
We agree what success looks like at the start, then track it: the quality and relevance of coverage, share of voice, message pick-up, links and referral traffic, and the enquiries or bookings that follow. The aim is coverage that does a job, not vanity numbers.
Proactive media relations is about finding stories in your business and pitching them to journalists. Reactive media relations is responding quickly when a journalist comes to you, or when a story you can comment on is already running. A strong programme does both, so you create coverage and capture it when the moment arrives.
Yes. As a consumer media relations agency, we work across hotels, restaurants, travel, wellness, lifestyle, and consumer brands. Our focus stays within these categories, keeping our media relationships concentrated in the sectors that matter to you.