Like the moustache, traditional media coverage is back in fashion. For businesses whose prosperity depends on customers finding them, it is as important as ever.
For a while it felt like social media hits and SEO mattered most. Fragmentation of audiences meant traditional media mattered less. Not anymore.
When AI models respond to search prompts, they consider what a business says about itself (its website) and its competitors, but also broad number of publicly available references.
Gemini and Claude both say they put a premium on news stories from established mastheads with editorial standards, corrections policies, and named reporters.
ChatGPT assesses presence in the following (in order of importance):
1. Primary / official sources (government documents/ASX announcements)
2. Major wire services (eg Reuters, Bloomberg)
3. Established national/public broadcasters and newspapers
4. Strong local or regional outlets (Brisbane Times, regional radio)
5. Trade, industry and advocacy publications
6. Aggregators, blogs and social media
For Three Plus, Generative AI has become a useful tool as a baseline for building a strategic communications plan and measuring success.
Increasingly, it is apparent that some third-party reporting is a critical element.
Demonstrating market leadership, not just claiming it, by building citable content, is the task.
Because AI search synthesises answers from what others say about a brand rather than just reading the brand’s own site, earned media relations and third-party validation are now critical pillars of modern SEO.
Peter Kelly, Executive Director of corporate communications consultancy Three Plus.