PR & Misinformation: 5 Public Relations Software Features to Protect Your Brand

False claims. Misattributed quotes. Deepfakes. Hallucinating AI models. Misinformation has become more sophisticated, more believable, and harder to trace. 

For PR teams, these consequences hit hard and fast, and traditional tactics aren’t cutting it anymore. Yes, you need visibility, but you also need control. Only then can you move faster than the narrative. 

But how do you do that? With public relations software built for real-time responses and brand protection. 

In this blog, we’ll explore why trust in media is collapsing, how misinformation is reshaping brand reputation strategy, and the five software features that can help your team act fast and take control of your narrative before your audience does it for you.

Why trust in the media is declining, and what it means for PR

In 2017, British Airways faced a massive system failure that grounded over 70,000 passengers and sparked chaos across Heathrow and Gatwick. While the official storyline blamed a power outage, reports surfaced linking the crash to recent IT outsourcing and layoffs. Speculation spread fast, fueled by frustrated passengers, social media outrage, and conflicting media reports. The airline’s comms team was left reacting to a wave of misinformation, false claims, and headlines they didn’t control.

This scenario is far too common, and it’s part of a broader shift: people just don’t trust the media like they used to anymore. 

Why? For one, speed now outweighs accuracy. In the race to publish first, fact-checking often takes a back seat. At the same time, media outlets are under-resourced, and journalists are working with shrinking deadlines and limited context. Add to that the rise of AI-generated content, partisan echo chambers or so-called “media bubbles”, and an overwhelming volume of contradictory sources, and it’s no wonder that trust in national media is at a historic low.

For PR teams, this has a direct impact. If your story appears on a platform that your audience doesn’t trust, you’re one step away from being cancelled. Even well-intentioned coverage can backfire if it’s published in the wrong place, framed poorly, or pulled from outdated materials. And in high-stakes situations, like product recalls, leadership changes, and regulatory firestorms, that lack of trust can escalate into a full-blown PR crisis.

In other words, PR pros can no longer rely only on earned media for visibility. Instead, you need tools that help you publish, respond, and clarify information directly, on your terms. Because once lost, trust is hard to rebuild. So, best not to lose it in the first place!

What makes misinformation such a threat to brand reputation?

The tricky thing about misinformation is that it often hits before your team even sees it coming. Here’s what makes it such a challenge for PR teams today, and how it can threaten your brand reputation: 

• It’s not always intentional. A misinterpreted quote, an outdated press release, or a confusing headline can all spiral into something unrecognizable.
  
  
• It spreads faster than the truth. Fake news travels 70% faster on social media, making speed your biggest vulnerability.
  
  
• It’s everywhere. Misinformation shows up in more than just fringe sources. If you keep your eyes peeled, you can spot it everywhere from AI-generated summaries and mainstream headlines to articles about Google’s AI allegedly recommending users to add glue to their pizza.
  
  
• It rewrites the story without you. If you’re not the one publishing the source of truth, someone else will fill in the gaps, often incorrectly.
  
  
• It’s hard to reverse. Once the wrong version of the story takes hold, damage control can feel like an uphill battle.
  
  

5 Public Relations Software Features to Protect Your Brand

The discussion around misinformation can sound like a whole lot of bad news. Luckily, you can build the infrastructure to catch it early, correct it fast and take back control before it spirals.

Here’s how to get the job done with the right PR software features:

1. Centralized brand newsroom 

We’ve already made the point: speed is everything when you’re up against misinformation. A centralized brand newsroom gives you the power to respond fast. 

It’s your branded, always-on space to share verified updates, official statements, and supporting context, fast. That way, when sh*t hits the fan, your team has direct access to your audience instead of relying on third parties to relay your message.

And if your organization operates across borders, multilingual publishing becomes essential. With automated translations and localized newsroom versions, you can share regionally appropriate messaging without slowing down, keeping your global reputation intact while responding at top speed.

​​A well-structured newsroom also improves your visibility in search, both traditional and AI-powered. Google and AI models prioritize authoritative, machine-readable sources. Newsroom software like Presspage is built with this in mind: SEO-optimized, consistently tagged, and enriched with AI features that help you publish faster, organize smarter, and stay visible in evolving search experiences.

How it helps:

• Control the message: Publish directly to your newsroom, without relying on third-party platforms to start a conversation directly with your audience.
  
  
• Support journalists: Make it easy for the media to quote from the right source, with clear statements, visuals, and downloadable assets.
  
  
• Stay consistent: One link, one version of the truth, rather than outdated press release versions or fragmented updates across channels.
  
  
• Earn long-term trust: A well-maintained newsroom signals transparency, credibility, and professionalism to your brand audience and the media. 

An example from energy & utilities PR:

When a regional energy provider experiences unexpected outages during a heatwave, rumours begin to circulate online about equipment failure and mismanagement. Within an hour, the comms team has updated their newsroom with a real-time incident overview, a quote from the COO, and an FAQ section addressing the most common concerns.

Local journalists covering the outages use the company’s newsroom as their primary source, linking to it in live coverage and pulling verified statements. As updates roll in through a live news feed, the team edits the same central article, which ensures consistency across channels and reduces confusion in a tense public environment.

RESOURCE ALERT Want to see how it’s done in practice? Read how our customer CSUSM managed to stay in control of an external threat with Presspage >>>

2. Live news feed & redirect modules 

When a PR crisis gets the world talking, people go looking for answers. And, if they don’t find them from you, they’ll find them somewhere else. A live news feed module gives you a single, visible space to deliver updates as the situation evolves, keeping your audience informed at every step of the process. 

To go a step further, a redirect module lets you take full control of the narrative. During a major issue or crisis, you can redirect your entire newsroom to one centralized page that you’ve created and fully control. It becomes your emergency HQ: the place where media, customers, and stakeholders land first, and where your team can combine live updates with a clear, verified version of the story.

How it helps:

• Create a single source of evolving truth: All updates in one place, as they happen.
  
  
• Reduce inbound media pressure: The more you publish proactively, the fewer media inquiries you’ll need to manage reactively.
  
  
• Build trust through transparency: Timestamped entries show progress and transparency.
  
  
• Keep your narrative consistent: One ongoing feed avoids confusion across different press or internal versions.
  
  
• Control what people see first: Redirect all newsroom traffic to a central, verified message during a crisis.

An example from healthcare PR:

After a medication batch is flagged for potential contamination, a hospital group uses its newsroom’s live feed to share real-time updates on testing, safety measures, and patient communication.

Local outlets embed the feed in their coverage, and patients are reassured by regular updates, rather than left to refresh social media for answers.

3. Media inquiry management 

Even when there’s no crisis on the horizon, media inquiries can stack up fast. And, if your process is messy, it’ll show. Scattered inboxes, missed deadlines, and inconsistent responses… they don’t just slow your team down. They undermine your brand credibility.

Media inquiry management tools like Presspage help you centralize, organize, and respond to journalists with confidence, whether it’s a breaking news request or a background check for a long-lead story. Most importantly? You can build relationships with journalists during business-as-usual, so you have someone to set the record straight when a crisis strikes. 

How it helps:

• Centralize incoming requests: No more digging through email threads. See who’s asking, what they need, and when it’s due.
  
  
• Coordinate your response: Align legal, comms, and execs around a shared answer before hitting send.
  
  
• Spot trends early: If you start seeing the same topics or questions pop up, it’s a sign of a narrative or issue gaining traction.
  
  
• Save time with templates: Speed up responses to recurring questions while staying consistent and on-message.
  
  

PRESSPAGE PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT Presspage makes it easy to stay on top of incoming media requests, even when they come all at once. Our media inquiry management tool lets you track incoming requests, assign them to your team members, set deadlines, and collaborate on responses. Response history keeps everyone aligned, and reusable templates and pre-approved statements help your team respond faster without having to reinvent the wheel. All of this adds up to one clear goal: securing the right coverage, controlling the story (especially when the news isn’t great), and building stronger relationships with the journalists who matter most.

4. Secure, permission-based access control

When you’re in charge of sensitive comms, not everyone should have the power to press publish, especially in high-pressure situations. Without the right controls, it’s easy for errors to slip through: the wrong quote, an outdated version, or a premature statement that creates more problems than it solves.

PR software like Presspage gives you role-based access that works across departments, international teams, and even external agencies. That way, only the right people can publish, review, or contribute, so you’re not wasting time double-checking permissions when you’ve got bigger fish to fry. 

And behind the scenes, enterprise-grade security measures (including GDPR compliance and ISO 27001 certification) keep your data and workflows protected at every step.

How it helps:

• Avoid unauthorized updates: Prevent accidental publishing by limiting access to designated approvers.
  
  
• Simplify collaboration: Writers, reviewers, and legal can work in the same system without overstepping.
  
  
• Protect high-stakes content: Safeguard crisis statements, financial disclosures, or regulatory updates – and distribute them with complete peace of mind.
  
  
• Maintain an audit trail: Track who made changes and avoid “who sent this?” moments.
  
  

An example from automotive PR:

When a major car manufacturer issues a recall notice for a popular model, regional teams across different markets begin preparing local statements. But one region publishes too early, before legal has had the chance to sign off. The statement includes incomplete safety information, leading to confusion among customers and conflicting media coverage.

The brand now has to issue a second correction, which draws even more attention to the issue and damages public trust. A clear approval process with restricted publishing access could have prevented this error entirely.

5. Integrated distribution and media lists

Even the best message means nothing if it doesn’t reach the right people. When misinformation starts spreading, timing and targeting are your silver bullet. Integrated PR distribution tools help you send accurate updates directly to your audience and media contacts, without jumping between platforms or risking the wrong version going out.

In these moments, distribution list quality matters just as much as speed. Outdated contacts, irrelevant outlets, or mass-blast emails can muddy your message and reduce your chance of coverage. Well-maintained, segmented media lists let you tailor outreach to the right people and connect with your target audience every time. 

And when your story is breaking, consistency across channels is just as important as the story itself. With integrated distribution, you can display your live social media feeds directly in your newsroom, helping you reinforce the same story across email, web, and social without extra work.

Why it matters:

• Move faster in critical moments: Send critical updates instantly to targeted contact lists without formatting delays.
  
  
• Reach the right people, not just “everyone”: Segment by region, beat, media format, or relationship to tailor your outreach.
  
  
• Maintain clean, compliant contact records: Keep media lists up to date and GDPR-safe.
  
  
• Track reach and response: See who’s opened your email, clicked, or shared – and who might need a follow-up.
  
  

PRESSPAGE PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT Presspage combines powerful targeting tools with a global media database of over 1.2 million vetted contacts, so you can pitch stories to the right journalists, not just the most obvious ones. Unlike traditional newswires, it gives you full control over who sees what, with unlimited distribution lists, customizable email templates, and GDPR-compliant outreach that is directly integrated. Real-time analytics and automated syncing across your newsroom and campaigns make it easy to manage everything from a single platform. And, with the optional native GlobeNewswire integration, you can scale distribution without sacrificing control or brand consistency.

The Takeaway: How public relations software helps you control the narrative

In a time where false claims move faster than the truth, PR teams can’t afford to play catch-up. Whether it’s a misquote, a viral post, or a misleading headline, the first version of the story that sticks is often the one that shapes public perception. 

That’s where comms teams who respond clearly, consistently, and quickly are the ones who come out on top. From centralizing your newsroom and coordinating approvals to distributing updates and managing inquiries, modern PR tools give you the tools to take back control when it matters most.

You may not be able to stop misinformation from affecting you. But you can damn well make sure you’re ready when it does. 

One PR platform with features purpose-built for comms teams...