There’s nothing you can say about yourself that has the same influence as someone else saying it about you; if PR keeps that central tenet in mind, then you are adaptable to whatever the future might bring
Media relations has long been a strategic arrow in the quiver of public relations (PR) professionals. It’s a hard job that seems to be getting harder all the time – like cutting half the distance to a goal for infinity.
That’s a view that seems to be shared widely among the community. For example, surveys I’ve previously conducted of PR professionals (2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018) are all fairly conclusive on this point.
There are many contributing reasons: fewer bona fide media publications, smaller newsroom staff, SEOs and digital marketers moonlighting as PR pros and adding to the volume of pitches flooding reporters’ inboxes.
A recent survey of more than 1,000 PR professionals by a PR software provider, conducted this year, found similar results:
- 84% of PR professionals say media relations are a big part of their job;
- 72% say low reporter response rates are the toughest part of the job; and
- 67% struggle to measure results.
In my experience, when a reporter wants a story, they respond immediately. Another software provider has demonstrated this is true with behavioral data (not a survey).
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Measuring PR effectiveness
While counting placements may not be the most scientific measurement of PR, I’ve also found that questions about the value of PR are virtually non-existent when PR consistently lands earned media placements. In other words, PR is only as good as its last placement.
PR’s influence on behavior is a far better measure of its value. PR traditionally likes to measure this in terms of reputation, brand familiarity, sentiment and share of voice. Marketing communications prefer registrants, subscribers, leads, sales, votes and donations.
The former is expensive and time-consuming to measure well. The latter is hard to definitively tie to PR, when as many as 27 sales and marketing interactions, many outside of PR’s purview, influence transactional behavior.
Waning media influence
Here comes the hinge in this post: that discussion matters less if the influence of traditional media is waning. And there’s quite a bit of research suggesting it is waning.
According to the Pew Research Center, which polled 9,000 Americans in April of 2025, 49% percent of respondents said journalists are losing influence. Another 36% said they are neither gaining nor losing influence. Just 15% said they are gaining interest.
This Pew survey has a margin of error of +/- 1.3% at 95% confidence.
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The Pew survey isn’t an isolated example. Gallup polled 1,007 adults in the U.S. in September 2024 and had supportive findings:
“Americans continue to register record-low trust in the mass media, with 31% expressing a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly,” similar to last year’s 32%. Americans’ trust in the media – such as newspapers, television and radio – first fell to 32% in 2016 and did so again last year.”
Was it a fluke? No, it’s a trend, according to Gallup:
“For the third consecutive year, more U.S. adults have no trust at all in the media (36%) than trust it a great deal or fair amount. Another 33% of Americans express “not very much” confidence.”
The Gallup poll has a margin of error of +/- 4% at 95% confidence.
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There is a lot of debate about why this is happening. I’m not going to get into all that here – maybe a separate post one day. The question for PR, and specifically for media relations types, is what should you do about it?
PR thinking on waning media influence
I do not purport to have the answer, but I do have a few pragmatic thoughts to offer.
1. Broaden your horizons
Influencers have been on the rise since the internet went mainstream at, what the kids now call, the “turn of the century.” At first, it was blogs and then it was the scale of an influencer’s social media following. Today, it’s podcasts and Substack.
While there are fewer traditional media outlets today, the number of new media influencers has grown dramatically. That fractured landscape is part of what’s draining what was once the media’s centralized influence.
Many of these new outlets present earned media opportunities. It’s not just the biggest influencer that matters, either. Many of the so-called “micro influencers” have greater influence over a smaller audience because they are real people. Authenticity is rare, but it goes a long way.
2. What you do with a mention matters as much as the mention
It used to be that a media mention in a national news outlet was the end of it for PR. That’s no longer the case – and hasn’t been for years. What you do with a media mention after earning it matters as much as getting the placement itself. There are at least 12 things you should do to amplify a media mention once you’ve earned it.
3. Be the media – “every company is a media company”
“Every company is a media company” was a common refrain a few years ago. Some called it “content marketing” while others called it “brand journalism,” but both camps missed the key detail that makes this work: a subscribed audience.
My first experience with this was a long time ago, when I took a pitch that had been rejected and turned it into a blog post. The blog went viral and led to widespread media coverage, including from publications that had previously rejected the pitch.
Running a blog, or website, like a media publication will:
- Help you build relationships through content;
- Improve your ability to understand what makes a good story;
- Provide a proving ground for experimenting with new ideas;
- Dial you into audience analytics;
- Get more value from your existing media placements; and
- Make you better at your media relations job.
Publishing good content consistently is not an easy task – just ask any journalist. But that’s why PR needs to do it.
4. Aim for being believed rather than being seen
Too many in PR and comms worry about reach and the size of the audience. While I do think those are important, we live in a time of distrust and where being believed is a more pressing problem.
How? Be a sticker for numbers. Get the facts right. Bone up on statistics. Take the extra time to understand the nuance. Read, watch and listen to as much as you can about your niche, or industry or market. I started this blog in 2009 for my own personal professional development. There aren’t many blogs that live for 16 years, and there’s a lesson in consistency to be gleaned there.
Knowledge isn’t just power today; it’s a pathway to trust. Strive to be beyond reproach in all your public communications.
5. Trade media still has clout
The data in both of the surveys above is focused on mainstream, national media, particularly those covering politics. I don’t believe this translates to the trades. Trade media, by virtue of its role, tends to be less political and less polarizing. Of course, the audience may not be as large, but that doesn’t matter when you are aiming for a target audience.
Media influence naturally ebbs and flows
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time the influence of media has waned. I’ve read books (such as by Historian David McCullough) that suggest that the Presidential election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson was especially rancorous from a media perspective.
Those two politicians treated each other like mortal enemies, rather than political opponents. Interestingly, the two would later become regular pen pals, after they were both out of office, and both died within hours of each other on the Fourth of July.
Yellow Journalism, too, was a history quiz question when I was in grade school. It was characterized by sensationalism in publications, including those by icons of news like Hearst and Pulitzer. As a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Yellow Journalism’s link to the U.S.’s entrance to the Spanish-American War is not lost on me.
I personally believe free and independent journalism is essential to our Republic; it is the fourth pillar of government, but just as the government doesn’t always get it right, neither does the media (nor PR for that matter).
Our society is fairly good at correcting our wrongs in the long run. However, we tend to over-correct one way and then over-correct back the other way before settling into some equilibrium. I think the current state of trust in media is in the latter stages of that cycle.
Like medicine, I think journalism is a calling. There are dedicated news professionals cognizant of the existential problem of trust that it will work itself out over time. Trust will return; it’s the timeline that’s in question.
The credibility of third-party validation is enduring
The battle for brand, as Al Ries once wrote, doesn’t happen in a tactic; it happens in the minds of the audience. Tactics come and go, but that central tenet remains true and has been tested by time.
PR is similar in that respect. The once popular tagline, “As seen on TV,” gets to the heart of PR: There’s nothing you can say about yourself that has the same influence as someone else saying it about you. If PR keeps that in mind, then you are adaptable to whatever the future might bring.
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Image credits: Google Gemini and cited studies
