By Jordan Baker, Founder of Fair Public Relations and former UK national journalist
You do not need to be famous to become a useful media expert.
You do not need tens of thousands of followers, a television career or a book deal either. In many cases, journalists are far more interested in whether you genuinely understand the subject they are covering and can explain it clearly.
Credibility usually comes from a combination of relevant knowledge, demonstrable experience, appropriate qualifications where required, clear communication and professional judgement.
The important word is relevant.
Somebody can be extremely successful in one field and still be completely unsuitable to comment on another. Equally, somebody who has never appeared in the media before may be an excellent expert source if their professional experience genuinely supports the question a journalist is asking.
That is the distinction Fair Public Relations makes when deciding whether somebody is suitable for Expert Commentary PR.
We cannot create expertise for you.
We can help journalists discover and use expertise that genuinely exists.
What do journalists look for in an expert?
When I worked as a journalist, the first question was not whether somebody was famous.
It was essentially: Can this person legitimately help me explain this story?
That may involve qualifications. It may involve years of practical experience. It may involve a particular role, specialist field or first-hand professional knowledge.
The journalist also needs to be able to understand who the person is reasonably quickly.
A useful expert biography therefore answers practical questions. What does this person actually do? How long have they been doing it? What are their qualifications where those matter? What subjects do they genuinely work with? Is there anything independent that verifies the professional background being presented?
Previous media experience can help because it shows somebody has successfully contributed to journalism before, but I would never consider it compulsory.
Everybody has a first article.
Once credibility is established, usefulness becomes extremely important. A journalist may have access to several credible sources. The expert who replies promptly, gives a clear answer and actually addresses the question is generally easier to work with than somebody whose credentials are impeccable but whose response arrives after the article has been filed.
Do you need qualifications to become a media expert?
Sometimes.
There are fields where appropriate professional qualifications, registration or standing may be fundamental to the credibility of the comment being offered.
Medical commentary is an obvious example. If a journalist needs a dermatologist to explain a skin condition, somebody cannot simply call themselves a health expert because they have spent several years reading about skincare.
Legal subjects create similar considerations. If somebody is being presented to a journalist as a solicitor or practising legal specialist, that status should be genuine and verifiable.
Financial services can also involve regulated professional boundaries.
But not every area of media expertise operates that way.
An interior designer may have built substantial expertise through twenty years of practical work.
A recruiter may have spent fifteen years interviewing candidates and advising employers.
A chef may have decades of experience running kitchens.
A technology founder may understand a particular business problem because they have spent years solving it.
An HR professional may have extensive workplace experience without holding the same type of statutory professional status that would apply to a doctor.
There is therefore no sensible universal rule saying, "No degree, no media expertise."
My view is more practical.
If there is no formal qualification, experience becomes extremely important.
If somebody has neither relevant qualifications nor substantial experience, that is where credibility becomes much harder to establish.
How much experience is enough?
There is no mathematical threshold.
Ten years in a profession does not automatically make somebody a better source than somebody with five.
What matters is what they have actually done.
Have they worked directly with the problem being discussed?
Have they advised clients on it?
Have they managed teams dealing with it?
Have they repeatedly seen the same pattern?
Can they explain where their knowledge comes from?
Can the experience be substantiated?
Fair assesses this case by case because journalism does too.
A journalist writing about recruitment trends may be perfectly comfortable quoting an experienced recruiter with no particular academic qualification in recruitment.
A journalist writing about a complex medical diagnosis will normally need an appropriately qualified healthcare source.
The story determines the expertise.
Can business owners and entrepreneurs become media experts?
Absolutely, where the expertise is real.
A founder who has run a logistics company for twenty years may have excellent insight into supply chains.
A restaurant owner may be well placed to discuss pressures facing hospitality businesses.
A software founder may understand how small companies are adopting a particular technology.
What does not automatically make somebody an expert is simply owning a company.
The media opportunity needs to connect to something the person genuinely knows.
I once encountered somebody who wanted to position themselves as an expert helping other people become successful freelancers. The difficulty was that they had only recently become a freelancer themselves.
That did not make their experience worthless.
It simply meant the proposed media positioning was ahead of the evidence supporting it.
A few years later, with substantial first-hand experience, the same proposition might have been perfectly credible.
What kinds of professionals can journalists use as experts?
Almost any genuine field of expertise can become relevant to journalism.
We have worked with doctors, psychologists, therapists, financial professionals, lawyers, recruiters, HR specialists, interior designers, property professionals, technology specialists, chefs, founders, consultants and many other practitioners.
But suitability remains subject-specific.
A surgeon is not automatically the right expert for every health question.
A solicitor specialising in commercial law may not be the right source for a detailed family-law issue.
An accountant and a financial adviser may both work around money, while having very different professional roles and areas of competence.
A strong expert profile therefore defines the subjects the person can discuss instead of trying to make them available for everything.
What makes an expert useful beyond their credentials?
Credentials get somebody through the first credibility test.
They do not necessarily produce a good quote.
A particularly useful expert can translate professional knowledge into language an ordinary reader understands without destroying the accuracy of the subject.
They answer the actual question.
They give context.
They distinguish evidence from opinion.
They acknowledge uncertainty when appropriate.
They can often provide an example that makes an abstract idea easier to understand.
And they respond when the journalist actually needs them.
I have worked with extremely well-qualified professionals who gradually became much stronger media contributors simply through practice. They learned that a national newspaper does not normally need an academic paper disguised as a quotation.
The expertise stays the same.
The communication improves.
What can prevent somebody from being considered credible?
One of the biggest problems is stretching expertise too far.
Somebody may be very credible on three subjects and weak on a fourth.
Trying to force the fourth simply because a journalist opportunity exists can damage rather than improve their professional positioning.
Other warning signs include qualifications that cannot be verified, exaggerated job titles, unsupported claims, invented statistics and describing limited experience as though it represents an entire industry.
Overly broad positioning can also create problems.
"I am an expert in business, money, psychology, leadership, careers and relationships" is much harder to substantiate than a clearly defined professional specialism.
Promotional behaviour matters too.
Journalists are normally looking for information that helps their audience. If every answer turns into a pitch for a course, clinic, consultancy or product, the expert becomes much less useful.
Fair has a responsibility to journalists as well as clients
I think this point is important.
A PR agency sits between two parties.
The client is paying us to represent them well.
The journalist expects that when we describe somebody as an expert, there is a legitimate basis for doing so.
We therefore have a responsibility on both sides of the fence.
It is not in a client's interests for us to pitch them repeatedly for stories where they have very little chance of being used.
And it is certainly not in our interests to waste a journalist's time by presenting somebody as having expertise they cannot substantiate.
That is why Expert Commentary PR includes a suitability assessment rather than simply accepting everybody willing to pay the monthly fee.
How can you become a regular source for journalists?
Start by defining your strongest subjects.
Not twenty subjects.
The areas where you can confidently answer detailed questions because you genuinely know them.
Prepare an accurate professional biography and make relevant qualifications or experience easy to verify.
Decide which subjects sit outside your professional boundaries too.
Then learn to communicate.
A journalist-friendly answer should normally be understandable to the publication's audience and direct enough that the useful part is immediately obvious.
Responsiveness matters as well.
A credible expert who repeatedly misses deadlines is difficult for journalists to rely on.
Over time, consistency can make a considerable difference. If somebody provides useful, accurate responses repeatedly, journalists and PR teams begin to understand where that person fits.
Can a PR agency make you a media expert?
A PR agency can help position and communicate genuine expertise.
It cannot manufacture the underlying authority.
Fair's Expert Commentary PR service is designed for professionals who already have credible knowledge but do not want to handle the media-outreach process themselves.
We identify relevant opportunities, gather the expert's genuine input, help turn that knowledge into clear journalist-ready commentary, pitch directly to appropriate journalists, follow up and develop suitable proactive expert-led angles.
Where genuinely newsworthy, the service can also include up to two expert-commentary press releases in a month.
But if somebody does not yet have the qualifications, experience or professional basis to support the subjects they want to discuss, paying a PR agency does not solve that problem.
The expertise comes first.
PR helps make it visible.
Frequently asked questions
Do you need to be famous to become a media expert?
No. Journalists are usually more interested in relevant, demonstrable knowledge and whether you can explain a subject accurately than in follower counts or celebrity status.
Do you need a degree or professional qualification?
That depends on the subject. Regulated or highly technical topics may require specific qualifications and professional standing, while demonstrable practical experience can be suitable for other subjects. Expertise must match the story.
Can a business owner be quoted as an expert?
Yes, when they have genuine insight into the subject being covered. Owning a business does not automatically make someone an expert on every business or industry issue.
Can Fair make me an expert if I have little experience?
No. Fair can help identify and communicate established expertise, but cannot manufacture credentials, opinions or professional experience that do not exist.
Could your expertise help journalists?
Fair Public Relations helps credible specialists turn genuine professional knowledge into relevant earned-media opportunities.
If you have demonstrable expertise, realistic expectations and are prepared to contribute accurate professional insight when opportunities arise, explore Expert Commentary PR to see whether the service is suitable.
For broader expert positioning and campaign work, see Expert PR.
About the author
Jordan Baker is the founder of Fair Public Relations and a former UK national journalist with more than a decade of experience in journalism and PR. He writes about small-business PR, SEO and GEO strategy, AI search, earned media and practical ways businesses can build credible visibility without wasting money on work they do not yet need.
View Jordan Baker’s media expert profile
