Beyond the Pitch: Building Better Relationships Between Our Members and the Media
Earlier this year, we brought together a small group of journalists, editors and writers from around the world to launch the Media Circle, an idea we’d been working on with our partners at Lemongrass Marketing for several months.
There is an enormous amount of brilliant work happening across The Conscious Travel Foundation community, but doing good work and knowing how to communicate it are two very different things. For smaller businesses in particular, dedicated PR support isn’t always an option, and even for those with more experience, knowing what journalists are looking for, when to approach them and what actually makes a story worth covering can be difficult.
At the same time, journalists are navigating increasingly busy inboxes while looking for credible people, projects and stories they can trust.
So rather than simply giving our members a list of media contacts, we wanted to create an opportunity for the two sides to actually get to know one another.
It all comes back to relationships
We launched the Media Circle in May with two ‘How to Pitch’ sessions, delivered by Lemongrass Marketing, where members could hear directly from the journalists themselves about how they work.
And while the conversations covered everything from lead times and subject lines to get noticed to imagery, data and what makes a good pitch, one thing came up again and again: relationships.
Juliet Kinsman, founding editor of Mr & Mrs Smith and author of The Green Edit, with three decades of experience championing responsible travel, spoke about the importance of taking the time to understand a journalist and their work before getting in touch. Emese Maczko, a freelance journalist and founder of EcoLodgesAnywhere whose work appears in Forbes, National Geographic Traveller and other publications, explained that even a well-researched pitch needs to bring something new, rather than simply mirroring something a journalist has just written. And across the two sessions, there was a reminder that the best relationships with the media aren’t transactional. They’re built over time, through trust, relevance and a genuine understanding of what might be useful to the person on the other side of the inbox.
That might sound obvious, but in a world where journalists can receive hundreds of emails and pitches, taking the time to understand who you’re speaking to matters.
It was also a useful reminder that a good impact story isn’t necessarily an announcement or a list of sustainability credentials. Often, it’s the person behind the work, a lesson learned along the way, a specific challenge that has been tackled, useful expertise or a perspective that helps a journalist tell a much bigger story.
A small circle, deliberately
We’ve intentionally kept the Media Circle small. Rather than creating a huge database of journalists for members to pitch, we wanted to build a trusted group of people whose interests and work our members could really get to know.
The journalists within the Circle work across different parts of the world, publications and areas of expertise, bringing perspectives spanning travel, hospitality, conservation, culture and sustainability.
Members also have access to profiles explaining who each journalist writes for, examples of their work and how they prefer to be contacted, alongside practical guidance drawn from our sessions with them.
When journalists come to us with editorial opportunities that could be a good fit for the community, we can connect them with relevant members. Equally, members can use what they’ve learned through the Circle to start building those relationships themselves.
And we’re beginning to see those connections grow
Over the past few months, members have been speaking directly with journalists from the Circle, sharing their expertise and contributing to editorial opportunities that are already beginning to turn into some brilliant coverage.
It’s been wonderful to see the range of stories coming out of these conversations, and the different ways our community is contributing to them. Here are just a few examples:
Inclusion Is Always the Greenest Option | Wanderlust
TCTF Mentor and Media Circle member Sophie Morgan, an award-winning broadcaster and travel writer championing accessible and inclusive travel across Condé Nast Traveller, Wanderlust, The Times and beyond, examines why accessibility and sustainability should never be competing priorities. Drawing on her own experiences as a wheelchair user, alongside insights from The Conscious Travel Foundation co-founder Olivia Cryer about travelling with her neurodivergent son, Sophie makes the case for a travel industry where everyone has the opportunity to make more conscious choices.
The End of Greenwashing? How Luxury Travel Is Redefining ‘Eco-Friendly’ | Forbes
Freelance journalist and EcoLodgesAnywhere founder Emese Maczko speaks to TCTF member Jacada Travel about its Positive Impact Collection and why the company has developed its own approach to assessing the sustainability credentials of the hotels it works with. Featuring insights from Jacada’s founder Alex Malcolm and Head of Positive Impact Natalie Lyall-Grant, alongside several of its hotel partners, the article considers what it takes to move beyond sustainability labels and identify businesses making a genuine difference in their destinations.
TCTF Mentor Juliet Kinsman, founding editor of Mr & Mrs Smith and author of The Green Edit, with three decades championing responsible travel across Condé Nast Traveller, The Guardian and the BBC, examines how conservation initiatives are creating new opportunities for people whose livelihoods have historically depended on activities that threaten wildlife. Among those featured is Project Hiu, one of the grassroots initiatives supported by our Community Impact Fund, which works with former shark fishermen in Indonesia to develop alternative livelihoods through marine tourism and conservation.
These Are the 20 Best New Hotels in the World | National Geographic
Emese Maczko also contributed to National Geographic’s list of the world’s 20 best new hotels, featuring Caiman in Brazil’s Pantanal, a client of The Conscious Travel Foundation member Senderos. We helped connect Emese with the team behind Caiman, giving them the opportunity to share their work in wildlife conservation and research with a wider audience.
Swimming Against the Current | Skyways, July 2026
Bruce Dennill, a writer, editor and broadcaster with a zoologist’s eye for travel and culture, reporting across Southern Africa for Skyways, the Sunday Times and beyond, interviews Project Hiu founder Madison Stewart about her work with shark fishing communities in Indonesia. The feature looks at how Project Hiu is helping fishermen use their knowledge and experience to protect sharks, while creating new opportunities for their families and future generations.
There are more opportunities in the pipeline too, including an upcoming two-page Conscious Traveller feature in JRNY, bringing together perspectives from three of our female-owned members.
What’s particularly lovely is that these connections work both ways. Journalists are discovering people, expertise and stories that can help them with the pieces they want to write, while members are getting opportunities to share their work and perspectives with new audiences.
That is really what we hoped the Media Circle would become: a way of helping journalists discover interesting people and work happening across our community, while giving members greater confidence in how they communicate what they’re doing.
And there’s more to come. We’re continuing to connect members with relevant editorial opportunities, looking at ways to bring members and journalists together again, and over the coming months we’ll be introducing you to the journalists themselves and sharing more of the stories and coverage coming from those relationships.
Because ultimately, the Media Circle is less about pitching and more about creating the relationships that allow good stories to be found and told.
The Media Circle is available to members of The Conscious Travel Foundation. If you’re a member, you can find the full Media Circle guide and resources in the Member Portal.
Interested in becoming part of The Conscious Travel Foundation community? Find out more about membership here.
