For years, the gold standard of media relations has revolved around securing placements in top-tier outlets – the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and their esteemed peers. The logic was sound: these publications offered unparalleled reach, credibility, and influence. And, all things equal, traditional search ranking was boosted most by the bigger publications. But what if the ground beneath that strategy is shifting thanks to the rise of AI and a little-understood factor of Gen AI Engine Optimization (GEO) strategy?
We’re seeing compelling evidence that the influence of these traditional titans, while still significant, is no longer the sole determinant of success. The media landscape is fragmenting, and a new power player has entered the arena: AI.
The Hidden Influence of Smaller Publications
AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and others don’t just skim headlines when they consume information; they ingest, analyze, and synthesize the full text of sources the model recognizes as authoritative and credible, especially news sources. And herein lies the critical distinction: for many of these powerful AI engines, full text access to premium, paywalled publications like the NYT, WaPo, or WSJ is often limited or non-existent.
This creates a fascinating dynamic. While your hard-earned placement in a major daily might still generate buzz within human circles, its impact on what an AI model considers authoritative or relevant could be surprisingly muted. Conversely, trade publications, industry blogs, and even smaller, regional outlets – often with more open access policies – are being devoured whole by these AI platforms.
Adding a layer of complexity to this framework is that the search engines, publishers, and content producers are entangled in a web of legal gray area, with each protecting its own interests. Axios recently reported on the intricate web of licensing deals and lawsuits in this space, while Cloudflare is rolling out a pay-per-crawl tool to enhance content protections and make it harder (i.e. more expensive) for AI models to consume that content. In other words, the sources AI models access are a constantly moving target.
What this all means for Comms teams is that when a user queries Generative AI or even Google for information related to your industry, brand, products, services, leadership, etc. the answers they receive are increasingly being shaped by the outlets these AI models can fully read and process. If your key messages are locked behind paywalls, they’re essentially invisible to this growing and incredibly influential segment of information consumption.
The GEO Strategy: More Than Just Keywords
Beyond content access, there’s another subtle but powerful force at play: GEO strategy. This refers to the geographic and local optimization that AI engines are increasingly employing. For certain types of queries, particularly those with a local or specialized bent, an AI might prioritize content from sources geographically closer to the user or those with a demonstrated focus on niche topics.
This further reinforces the idea that a blanket “top-tier only” approach is becoming outdated. A highly relevant, well-researched article in a respected trade publication, even if it has a smaller traditional readership, could hold more weight with an AI than a broad-stroke piece in a national daily that isn’t as specifically tailored to the AI’s contextual understanding.
Time to Rethink: Prioritizing the Trades and Niche Outlets
So, what does this mean for your media strategy? It’s not about abandoning top-tier media entirely, but rather about recalibrating your priorities and expanding your focus. Your new top-tier should include:
- Key Trade Publications: These are often the authoritative voice within your specific industry, and critically, many have more open access policies for AI.
- Industry Blogs and Online Communities: Where your stakeholders are actively engaging and discussing relevant topics.
- Specialized Newsletters and Research Platforms: Often overlooked, but highly valued by specific, influential audiences.
The Challenge: How to Identify the Outlets that Actually Move the Needle?
At PublicRelay, our philosophy is rooted in using quality data from varied and trusted sources to answer these and other tough questions Communicators face.
Our robust outlet analysis approach goes far beyond traditional metrics like circulation to map out the best outlets and journalists to prioritize, given your specific business goals.
We combine:
- Psychographic and Demographic Data to pinpoint precisely which stakeholders value which outlets and why, so you can customize messaging accordingly;
- Sharing Data to evaluate how content from different sources truly resonates and spreads;
- Accurate Sentiment and Topic Analysis to ensure your messaging is landing effectively and driving the right conversations; and
- GEO Analysis to surface those secondary outlets that ChatGPT and others prioritize, so your messaging breaks through in search responses.
This holistic approach enables us to deliver truly targeted media lists that propel all of your goals: reaching your stakeholders where they are with the right messaging, including ensuring your voice is heard and understood in the increasingly influential AI engine results.
Don’t let an outdated media strategy leave you behind in the age of AI. Let PublicRelay help you craft a forward-thinking, data-driven plan that ensures your messages are not just seen but truly absorbed by both human and artificial intelligence.
Author: Liz Hogan, Senior Sales Engineer
