From Media Relations to Model Relations
Communicators must now earn influence with algorithms and humans alike
New research from Profound analyzing over 30 million citations reveals just how differently major AI platforms source their information — and what that means for brands navigating the future of earned and owned media.
ChatGPT most frequently cites Forbes (6.8%), TechRadar (5.5%), NerdWallet (5.1%), Business Insider (4.9%), New York Post (4.4%), and Reuters (3.4%) — though Wikipedia (47.9%) and Reddit (11.3%) dominate overall citation share. Google AI Overviews leans toward NerdWallet (5.9%), Forbes (5.7%), Business Insider (4.5%), and Medium (3.9%) — with Reddit (21.0%), YouTube (18.8%), and Quora (14.3%) still leading overall. Perplexity favors Forbes (5.0%), NerdWallet (4.5%), and PCMag (3.7%) — although Reddit (46.7%) and YouTube (13.9%) remain the most dominant sources.
Their findings are both eye-opening and a little disconcerting.
Beyond Wikipedia and Reddit — which brands can do little to influence — the most-cited media outlets across platforms are not the prestige publications many communications teams prioritize. Mid-tier, high-volume digital outlets like Business Insider, NerdWallet, New York Post, and CNBC routinely rank in the top 10. Publications like The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and The New York Times don’t even crack the list.
This has real implications for PR teams deciding where to pitch, what to publish, and how to ensure their company is represented accurately in AI-generated summaries.
The Real Challenge: Reach vs. Credibility
Salacious headlines and click-bait carry more weight with AI than nuanced analysis. LLMs mirror our own behavior — and that behavior often leans sensational.
That puts brands in a tough spot: earn placement in widely cited outlets and risk corporate reputation — or prioritize credibility, and risk being invisible in AI summaries.
Strategic Takeaways for Comms Leaders
Own Your Expertise: There’s a growing opportunity for brands to publish subject-authored, AI-discoverable owned content. This includes long-form shareholder and sustainability reports, blog posts, first-party data, expert explainers, and commentary that clearly establish a brand’s point of view. In a landscape where traditional media is thinning and algorithmic gatekeepers are rising, owned media is not a fallback — it’s a front door.
Balance earned and owned with social media on AI-friendly platforms: While nearly 1 in 3 Grok citations point to X, LinkedIn and YouTube rank among the most-cited sources in Google’s AI Overviews and Perplexity. They’re not just social channels — they’re structured content libraries and AI-accessible archives with direct crawlability. Treat them as extensions of your owned media strategy.
Optimize for AEO, not just SEO: Answer engines are replacing search engines. That means structuring content for Answer Engine Optimization — using clear subheads, citations, summaries, FAQ/Q&As, schema and metadata to help LLMs ingest and surface your POV.
Reevaluate media priorities through an AI lens: Not all press is created equal — and not all of it gets picked up by AI. Balance the AI discoverability of fast-moving digital outlets like Business Insider or CNBC, which may boost your AI footprint, with prestige outlets valued by humans but which may go unnoticed by crawlers. That doesn’t mean abandoning the broadsheet cover story — it means balancing it with AI discoverability.
The Bottom Line
As AI systems become the default interface between people and information, communicators must master more than just relationships with reporters. AI models are a primary audience — and communicators should consider what they’re most likely to ingest.
Don't just pitch stories, publish them — strategically, systematically, and optimized for AI.
