Why Press Releases Alone Aren't Enough Anymore, and What PR Teams Are Doing About It

Press releases may still be the starting point, but the article argues they are no longer sufficient for earning media impact. PR Newswire’s 2025 State of the Press Release Report says 33% of PR professionals identify generating the media pickup they expected as their biggest challenge, reflecting structural changes in how audiences discover brands. It cites Gartner’s prediction that some earned media budgets could double by 2027, driven by AI replacing traditional search as the primary discovery method. Similarweb’s 2026 Generative AI Brand Visibility Report reports that 35% of U.S. consumers use AI during product discovery versus 13.6% for traditional search. The article also notes that AI-driven traffic converts at 7%, compared with 5% from Google referrals, while losses for brands not mentioned in AI answers can be harder to see. It adds that journalists receive more than 50 pitches per week, so generic outreach is frequently deleted.