What 72% Media Trust Means for Public Relations in the UAE
KEY FINDINGS
UAE audiences trust media at 72%, well above the level most mature markets report, which raises what a single placement is worth.
86% of journalists say at least some of their stories begin with a PR pitch, so the channel is genuinely open.
88% of journalists discard a pitch outright when it misses their beat, so the same channel is unforgiving.
The UAE issued 2,562 media licences in the first half of 2025 alone, and the outlet list moves faster than most media databases.
Arabic and English audiences do not read the same titles, so a single-language programme reaches roughly half the room.
Dubai's media sector contributes 1.42% of emirate GDP today, against a stated target of 3% by 2033.
Public relations in this region is not a softer version of the same discipline practised elsewhere. The economics are different, because the audience still believes what it reads. That single fact changes what a placement is worth, what a mistake costs, and how a programme should be built.
This guide covers how earned coverage works in the Gulf, how to measure it without inventing numbers, the process behind a credible programme, and the twelve strategies that hold up in this market.
WHAT PUBLIC RELATIONS ACTUALLY DOES HERE
Public relations is the practice of earning third-party coverage rather than buying placement. The distinction matters commercially: an advertisement is a claim a brand makes about itself, while coverage is a claim an outlet is willing to make on its own masthead.
In the Gulf that second claim carries more weight than it does in most markets, because the institutions carrying it have not lost the audience.
How earned coverage works
A story reaches print or broadcast because an editor judged it worth the space. The PR function supplies the raw material for that judgement: a reason the story matters now, a spokesperson who will say something specific, and the detail a journalist needs to file without chasing. Everything else in the discipline exists to make that exchange efficient.
Why trust changes the maths
Edelman measured UAE trust in media at 72%, with brands at 87%, government and employers at 85%, and business at 82%. In a market where the audience discounts the press, coverage is one input among many. In a market where it does not, coverage is closer to evidence.
The practical consequence is that the cost of wasting a placement is higher here than the cost of missing one. A weak story in a trusted title spends credibility that a stronger story later will need.
HOW TO MEASURE PR PERFORMANCE
Most PR reporting fails because it counts outputs and calls them outcomes. The honest baseline is a share-of-conversation calculation, which at least answers a question the business asked.
Share of voice = (your brand mentions ÷ total category mentions in the same period) × 100
If a category produced 400 relevant articles in a quarter and 48 of them named your brand, the share of voice is 12%. That is a number you can move and defend. It says nothing about quality on its own, which is why it needs the measures below alongside it.
Volume of coverage. Useful when: Establishing presence in a new market. Main risk: Counts a trade blog and a national daily as equals.
Share of voice. Useful when: Benchmarking against named competitors. Main risk: Rewards noise over relevance if the category is loosely defined.
Message pull-through. Useful when: Checking whether positioning survived the edit. Main risk: Needs a defined message set agreed before the programme starts.
Tier-weighted reach. Useful when: Reporting to a board that wants one figure. Main risk: Weighting is a judgement call and must be disclosed.
Referral traffic from coverage. Useful when: Proving commercial effect of digital placements. Main risk: Misses print and broadcast entirely.
Advertising value equivalency still appears in regional reporting. It should not. It prices earned coverage as though it were bought, which is the one thing it is not, and it inflates in direct proportion to how expensive the outlet is rather than how much the story moved.
WHAT YOU CAN INFLUENCE WITH PR
PR is often scoped as press releases, which is roughly as useful as scoping marketing as posters. The function reaches further than that.
Corporate reputation: How the organisation is described when it is not in the room
Executive positioning: Whether a named leader is treated as a source or a spokesperson
Product and service launches: Whether an announcement is covered as news or as an advertisement
Crisis and issues: What the first paragraph says on the worst day
Category definition: Which words the market uses to describe what you sell
Recruitment: Whether a candidate recognises the name before the interview
Investor and partner confidence: What due diligence finds in the public record
Regulatory standing: Whether the organisation reads as a participant or a problem
Internal belief: Whether staff see their own work described accurately
Search results: What appears on the first page under the brand name
Each of those is a different audience reading a different outlet. Treating them as one list is the most common structural mistake in regional PR.
THE PR PROCESS STEP BY STEP
A credible programme runs in a fixed order. Skipping a step does not save time, it moves the cost later.
1. Define what the coverage is for
Decide what a business stakeholder should be able to do differently once the programme has run. Awareness is not an objective, it is a precondition. If the answer is that a sales team will stop explaining who you are, say that, because it is measurable.
2. Map the audience to actual titles
Name the publications the decision maker reads, in the language they read them in. In this region that means building the Arabic list and the English list separately, because they are not translations of each other and the editors do not overlap.
3. Audit the existing record
Search the brand as a journalist would. What comes back is the baseline, and usually it is thinner and older than the organisation believes. Note which claims are already in the public record, because those are the ones that will be repeated.
4. Build the message set
Agree three or four points that every placement should carry, and write them as sentences rather than themes. A theme survives a briefing. A sentence survives an edit.
5. Find the story, not the announcement
An announcement is what the organisation wants to say. A story is what makes an editor give up space for it. The gap between the two is where most programmes fail, and closing it usually means finding the number, the first, or the tension that makes the news worth printing.
6. Prepare the spokesperson properly
A spokesperson who will only repeat the message set is a liability, because an interview with no specifics does not get used. Prepare the detail they are allowed to give, not just the lines they must hit.
7. Pitch narrowly and precisely
88% of journalists bin a pitch that misses their beat, and 72% say fewer than a quarter of what they receive is relevant. The implication is not to send fewer emails. It is to send the same number to better-chosen people, with the relevance visible in the first line.
8. Report against the original question
Close the loop on what step one promised. Report message pull-through and share of voice alongside the clipping count, and say plainly where the programme did not land. A report that only contains wins is a report nobody will act on.
PR RESEARCH METHODS
The research that makes a programme credible is unglamorous and mostly done before anything is written.
Media audit: What the public record already says, and how old it is
Competitor coverage analysis: Which arguments are already owned, and by whom
Journalist beat mapping: Who actually covers the category, as opposed to who works at the title
Message testing with sales teams: Which claims survive contact with a sceptical buyer
Search result review: What a prospect finds before the first meeting
Regulatory and licence checks: Which claims the organisation is permitted to make
Editorial calendar review: Where the category already has scheduled space
Arabic-language monitoring: Coverage that English-only tracking misses entirely
TWELVE PR STRATEGIES THAT WORK IN THE GULF
These are ordered roughly by how quickly they return something useful.
1. Build the list in groups, not as one list
A media list that mixes national dailies, trade titles, specialist verticals and marketplace platforms into one send is optimised for nobody. Build it in groups and write the first line of the pitch for each group. The work is front-loaded and it is the difference between a 2% hit rate and a 20% one.
2. Run Arabic as a primary audience, not a translation
Arabic outlets are not an afterthought tier. 71% of young Arabs prefer media in Arabic and 67% say the Arabic content available to them feels outdated, which is an opening rather than a problem. Commission the Arabic version alongside the English, not after it.
3. Put the leadership quote inside the announcement
A quote that arrives after the news has already run is a quote nobody uses. Secure and clear comment before distribution so the spokesperson travels with the story rather than chasing it.
4. Lead with the number you can defend
Editors here, as anywhere, respond to specifics. One verified figure in the first paragraph does more than three adjectives. If the figure cannot be defended, do not lead with it, because it will be the thing that gets checked.
5. Treat the licence regime as context, not paperwork
The UAE issued 2,562 media licences in the first half of 2025, 235 of them digital. The outlet landscape shifts faster than a media database refreshes. Re-verify contacts quarterly or accept a quietly rotting list.
6. Write the release so it can be filed unedited
A journalist under deadline will run the version that needs least work. Supply the headline, the standfirst, the quote, the boilerplate and the image caption in the form they are needed, and the copy that survives will be yours.
7. Use the executive as a source, not a billboard
Thought leadership works when the named person says something a competitor would hesitate to say. If the interview could have been given by anyone in the category, it will not be remembered as having been given by you.
8. Time against the editorial calendar, not the internal one
Sector exhibitions, fiscal announcements and seasonal moments have scheduled editorial space. Launching into that space is cheaper than creating demand for a story on a quiet Tuesday.
9. Pitch the exclusive properly or not at all
An exclusive offered to four outlets is not an exclusive, and the ones who find out will remember. Offer it to one, give a real window, and honour it.
10. Keep a crisis position written down before you need it
The first paragraph on the worst day is written under pressure by somebody who may not be the right person. Having a holding statement and a named approver in advance is cheap insurance.
11. Measure message pull-through, not just volume
Counting clippings tells you the programme ran. Checking which of your agreed sentences actually survived the edit tells you whether it worked.
12. Feed coverage back into search
Earned coverage ranks. Link to it, reference it, and make sure the placements a buyer will find are the ones that make the strongest case.
WORKING WITH JOURNALISTS
What journalists say they want
86% of journalists say at least some of their stories begin with a PR pitch, which means the relationship is functional rather than adversarial. The complaint is not that PR exists. It is that most of what arrives is not for them.
Relevance to the beat, visible in the subject line
A reason the story is happening now
A named person available to speak, with a time window
Images and supporting material attached, not promised
A figure that can be verified independently
An answer to the obvious follow-up already in the body
What gets a pitch deleted
Wrong beat, which accounts for 88% of immediate discards
No news hook, only an existence announcement
Embargo requests with no benefit to the outlet
Attachments that are heavier than the story
Follow-up calls asking whether an email was received
A spokesperson who is unavailable until next week
Building a relationship that outlasts a campaign
The journalists who cover a category are a small group and they stay in it. Supplying useful background with nothing attached, occasionally and accurately, is the cheapest investment in the discipline. The return arrives on the day a story needs a comment within the hour.
PR METRICS AND KPIS TO TRACK
Volume of placements: Programme activity, not effect
Share of voice: Presence relative to named competitors
Message pull-through: Whether agreed positioning survived the edit
Tier distribution: Whether coverage reached decision-maker titles or only trade
Language split: Whether both Arabic and English audiences were reached
Spokesperson quote rate: How often leadership comment is used rather than cut
Sentiment: Direction of coverage, scored consistently and by the same method
Referral traffic: Clicks arriving from digital placements
Branded search volume: Whether coverage moved people to look you up
Inbound media enquiries: Whether the organisation has become a source
Time to comment: How fast the organisation can respond when asked
HOW TO BUILD A PR STRATEGY
Audit what the record already says
Start from what a journalist or buyer finds today. The gap between that and what the organisation believes about itself is the actual brief.
Decide what you are willing to be known for
A programme that wants to be known for everything will be known for nothing. Pick the one argument the organisation is best placed to make and can support with evidence.
Build the twelve-month calendar backwards
Start from the fixed points, the exhibitions, the results announcements, the seasonal moments, and fill the gaps with stories you control. A calendar built forwards from January ends up front-loaded and empty by September.
Agree in advance how it will be judged
Decide the measures before the programme starts, including the ones that might not flatter it. Measurement agreed afterwards is negotiation, not measurement.
COMMON PR MISTAKES TO AVOID
One list for every outlet type: Optimised for nobody, discarded by most
Arabic treated as a translation step: Reaches a fraction of the available audience, and reads like it
Announcement with no news hook: Editors have no reason to give up the space
Quote approved after distribution: The story runs without the brand's voice in it
Unverifiable figures in the first paragraph: The one thing a journalist will check
Advertising value equivalency in reporting: Prices earned coverage as bought media and misleads the board
Spokesperson briefed only on messages: Interviews with no specifics do not get published
Exclusive offered to several outlets: Costs the relationship, and the outlets talk
No holding statement prepared: The first paragraph on a bad day is written by the wrong person
Reporting only the wins: Produces a document nobody can act on
PR BEST PRACTICES
Build the media list in groups and write for each group separately
Commission Arabic and English in parallel
Clear the leadership quote before distribution, not after
Lead with one verifiable number
Re-verify contacts quarterly
Supply everything a journalist needs to file without chasing
Time announcements against the editorial calendar
Agree the measures before the programme starts
Report what did not work alongside what did
PR FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF BUSINESS
Family conglomerate. Primary objective: Reframing heritage as a plan. Where the effort goes: Executive positioning, long-form features, Arabic and English in parallel.
Regulated finance. Primary objective: Credibility before volume. Where the effort goes: Naming the regulator, trade and financial press, long-form interviews.
Automotive and retail. Primary objective: Launch visibility. Where the effort goes: Specialist titles, marketplace platforms, creator roster alongside press.
Industrial and B2B. Primary objective: Being read as one company. Where the effort goes: Trade media, exhibition timing, senior spokespeople with different authority.
Luxury and jewellery. Primary objective: Cultural relevance. Where the effort goes: Arabic outlets as a primary audience, access over gifting.
Government-linked and semi-government. Primary objective: Alignment with national priorities. Where the effort goes: National dailies, broadcast, message discipline across every placement.
CONCLUSION
The reason PR works in this region is also the reason it is easy to waste. An audience that trusts the press will believe a weak story as readily as a strong one, and will remember the organisation that kept supplying weak ones.
The programmes that compound are the ones built on a narrow list, a defensible number, a spokesperson willing to be specific, and a measure agreed before anybody started counting.
FAQS
What is public relations?
Public relations is the practice of earning third-party coverage and managing reputation, rather than buying placement. The output is what other people say about an organisation on their own masthead.
Why does PR work differently in the Middle East?
Audiences here still trust the media at high levels, with UAE trust in media measured at 72%. That raises the value of each placement and the cost of wasting one.
How long does a PR programme take to show results?
Coverage can appear within the first cycle, but reputational effect is measured over quarters. Message pull-through and share of voice move faster than branded search or inbound enquiries.
Should we run Arabic and English separately?
Yes. The outlets, editors and audiences are different, and a translated release reads as translated. Commission both in parallel.
How do you measure PR without advertising value equivalency?
Use share of voice, message pull-through, tier distribution and referral traffic. Agree the measures before the programme starts.
How many journalists should a pitch go to?
Fewer than most lists assume, and chosen by beat rather than by outlet. 88% of journalists discard a pitch outright when it misses their beat.
What is the difference between PR and content marketing?
PR earns space on somebody else's platform under their editorial standards. Content marketing publishes on your own, under yours. They are complementary and measured differently.
Sources: Edelman UAE Brand Trust, 2025. Muck Rack and Cision, 2026. Ipsos for the Abu Dhabi Arabic Language Centre, 2025. UAE Media Council licensing data, H1 2025. Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism.
