Apologies for the delay in last week’s newsletter. This is the noon service from 25 July, running approximately 75 hours late. Please do not apply for compensation. We follow the Ryanair customer service approach. Normal service will be resumed on Friday.

I recently wrote about how Large Language Models (LLMs) are turning to earned media in their search for answers, and now media monitoring group Muck Rack has analysed more than one million links from AI responses to see which sources dominate.

Its analysis What is AI reading? sought to answer the question Does media coverage materially affect what AI says? The answer, Muck Rack claims, is an unequivocal yes.

Greg Galant, co-founder of Muck Rack, claims this ‘changes the stakes for PR’, adding: ‘The way businesses are represented by AI now ties directly to the media coverage they earn.’

The analysis found that 89% of links cited by AI are from earned media, such as journalist content, corporate blogs, aggregator sites, like Wikipedia and press releases (which can be published on any site). Paid content and advertorials do not feature.

More than a quarter of links – 27% – are directly attributable to journalism, but if the query relates to a recent event, such as a prompt on ‘car rental shortages in the US’, then this percentage rises to 49% as the models seem to prefer information published within the past 12 months.

The report considers six types of queries, from advice to step-by-step instructions, and found that objective queries, such as checking facts or looking for recent updates, tend to cite journalistic sources, while subjective queries prefer other sources.

Interestingly, Claude cites journalism significantly less frequently than either ChatGPT or Gemini. In fact, Claude cites Reuters 20 times less frequently than Gemini, and 50 times less frequently than ChatGPT. Strangely, one of Claude’s top media outlets is Good Housekeeping while another is TechRadar.

In general, though, high domain authority outlets, such as Reuters, Financial Times and CNN, are frequently cited. But their dominance depends on the sector in question. The top industry sources for hospitality, for example, appear to include Wikipedia and the US Department of Agriculture, but it is actually owned media that dominates. (It should be noted that the study has a US bias, but nonetheless the conclusions have resonance.)

Galant believes communicators need to evolve their strategies to take account of this ‘new layer of visibility’, suggesting new KPIs and new tactics are required. PR teams should ‘prioritise high-authority outlets and align publishing cadence with the recency preferences of generative AI’, says the report.

He adds: ‘Brands that thrive will be those that proactively track their position and adapt in real time to stay ahead.’

You won’t be surprised to discover that Muck Rack has created a special tool for just that purpose!

Corporate Affairs Summit London

It has come to my attention that another London summit is being planned for 8 October – the date of our third Corporate Affairs Summit – by a publication called PR Week, with which I am unfamiliar. (Imitation is always the most sincere form of flattery.) But I can reiterate – as I’ve been asked by a few people – it is nothing to do with us!

I am currently putting together the programme for our London event, which is being held at the British Library, and can promise that it will be as compelling as in previous years. Once again, the Corporate Affairs Summit is restricted to senior in-house communications professionals, allowing for open and frank discussions and, of course, a spot of networking.

You can reserve your space for just £50. It’s not an early bird rate or a first instalment. That’s it! Or you could attend another event and spend as much as £635 plus VAT. Your choice! https://buytickets.at/corporateaffairssummit/1734090

And if you are in Dublin, you are invited to the second Corporate Affairs Summit Ireland on 16 September. Our inaugural event proved a great success – and we’re going to build on that, again creating a safe space for discussions.

(I am sure that somebody will share this comment with old Giant Haystacks, but c’est la vie!)

LEADERSHIP

What Microsoft could learn from AI

I fear that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella may not read Corporate Affairs Unpacked. (I know, I’m as surprised as you.) In a recent issue, I cited research by We.Communications that suggested when delivering bad news, it was best to acknowledge that at the outset. And also to avoid using acronyms or corporate gobbledegook.

Despite exceeding Wall Street expectations with first quarter revenues of $70bn (up 13%), Microsoft recently announced plans to lay off 9,000 employees this year, following 6,000 job losses in May and a culling of non-performing employees in January.

In an otherwise empathetic memo to all staff, in which Nadella conceded that such decisions are among the most difficult to make and thanked those leaving for their contributions, he added the paragraph: This is the enigma of success in an industry that has no franchise value. Progress isn’t linear. It’s dynamic, sometimes dissonant, and always demanding. 

For a company that aspires to be an ‘intelligence engine’, this seems a misfire. What does it mean? If only there was some way to find out. I know, I’ll ask Microsoft Copilot. It takes 96 words – four times as many as the original quote – but eventually I get the gist.

But is this paragraph compassionate, I ask Copilot.

Here is Copilot’s response.

It is not inherently compassionate. It’s more analytical and reflective. It uses abstract language to describe the challenges of working in a fast-moving or unstable industry, but it doesn’t directly acknowledge the emotional impact on people—especially if it's being used in a context like layoffs or restructuring.

Why it might feel distant:

• It focuses on the nature of the industry, not the people affected.

• It uses intellectual terms like ‘enigma’, ‘dissonant’, and ‘franchise value’ which can feel impersonal.

• It doesn’t express empathy, gratitude, or support.

If the goal is to communicate with compassion—especially in difficult moments like letting people go—it’s important to center (sic) the human experience, acknowledge emotions, and offer reassurance or support.

How would you rewrite this paragraph with compassion, I ask.

We know this is incredibly difficult, and we want to acknowledge the weight of today’s news. The truth is, we operate in an industry where long-term stability is rare—there’s no built-in safety net or lasting advantage. Success here is never straightforward. It moves in fits and starts, often in ways that feel disjointed or uncertain. And it always demands more than we wish it did.

This decision does not reflect your talent, your effort, or your value. It reflects the hard reality of a path that isn’t linear, and the painful choices we sometimes have to make to keep moving forward. We are deeply grateful for everything you’ve contributed, and we are committed to supporting you through this transition.

If only Nadella had access to such insight…

FINANCIAL MEDIA

Is financial media dying?

The closure of the City pages of The Sun has sparked multiple debates about the future of financial journalism, particularly when every week seems to bring news of redundancies and departures (including a rumoured biggie I can’t quite prove yet.)

Having worked with four former Sun City editors in my career, and even completed a week-long stand-in stint many years ago, it seemed a good subject to explore.

My former colleague Andrew Cave has investigated. His conclusion (a longish-read for paying subscribers) suggests that financial media is not dying, but it is evolving with more investigative reporting and analysis rather than old-fashioned company reporting.

And, with a few notable exceptions such as the Financial Times, print titles that once dominated the sector are being displaced by online services, such as Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters, or newbies like Business Leader.

But it is also reflective of the times we live in. Let’s be honest, most media organisations had little interest in City news (apart from scandals, trader bonuses and fat cats) until Northern Rock’s collapse in 2007, swiftly followed by the financial crash.

The City is a less colourful place of late. When algorithms dictate what readers might see, based on their past preferences, a news report on an obscure FTSE 250 company is barely going to get a look in. It might take another disaster for financial media to regain its position.

ODDS & SODS

🏆 And the award for this week’s dumb PR advice goes to Matt Baldwin from Coast Communications. In a LinkedIn post, he bemoans the fact that new appointment announcements are swiftly relegated to People Moves.

Having used all their creative juices to write the releases, using words such as ‘thrilled’ and ‘delighted’, PRs watch with dismay as the fanfare dies down and the ‘star signings’ have to ‘knuckle down and get on with the job’. Heavens forfend!

Looking to the Premier League for inspiration – ‘Can you imagine [insert football team here] happy with a ‘We’re delighted to announce…’ press release?’ he asks – Baldwin proposes a three- to six-month period in which PR teams ‘wrap their arms around that individual’, while the media is ‘flooded’ with editorial, commentary or commentary and social media is deployed to remind past and future clients why they moved.

Oh, please. Hasn’t the media suffered enough? We’re usually talking Joe Bloggs, new finance director at Widgets R Us, not Arsenal’s £13m signing of Valencia’s Cristhian Mosquera, with his 133,000 followers on Instagram. Bloggs’ social media followers could barely fill a bath.

With a few notable exceptions, most appointment announcements are white noise. They’re fodder for the intranet and a source of great joy to proud mothers. And which in-house team – already stretched – has time to devote to such promotional activities? Oh, wait. Baldwin has a solution: ‘it is the perfect project for an external PR consultant’. Quelle surprise!

⌚Chris Stokel-Walker, a freelance journalist specialising in AI and tech, wishes PRs understood the realities of journalism. Pitching an embargoed press release to a freelance journalist at 5pm for publication the following day is, he says, impossible.

Whereas a staffer can quickly get agreement, a freelance journalist cannot pitch and write. They need to pitch editors, await replies, negotiate rates and, possibly, secure multiple approvals, before a word is even written.

If you want coverage, give freelancers time to lay the groundwork.

📋Apella Advisors has compiled a list of 101 Things Every Corporate Affairs Professional Needs to Know, which prompts the question: only 101? It’s the subject of the agency’s Little Questions podcast, and to mark the occasion, Apella has released the first 20 ‘things’… each week, it will release a further 20 (even if the ransom is not paid).

Three stand outs from the first batch.

1) Never apologise for asking a dumb question. Your job is to be the smartest idiot in the room.
2) Make sure you know how your business works and that you do so from first principles, which is closely aligned to …
3) Make sure you know how your business makes money.

A few years ago, I was chatting to an in-house corporate affairs professional who effectively reiterated the latter two points, but also went further. He carefully read the risk reviews in the annual reports of his clients, because that way he better understood their concerns and how his organisation could help with these.

And he also read every analyst report about his organisation; where it threw up issues he had not fully appreciated, he then interrogated his relevant colleagues to better understand the rationale.

Commerciality is important; a lack of understanding hinders the progress of the corporate affairs function.