Muck Rack has released the fourth edition of its report “What is AI Reading?” The data provides new insight into how paid, earned, social and owned media feeds into the answers served up by LLMs.
The data isn’t drastically different from what was returned in the last report, published five months ago. But there are some tweaks PR pros trying to play the GEO game should stay on top of:
- 84% of AI citations come from unowned, unpaid media. This includes traditional earned media, such as journalism (22%, a 5-point drop), as well as corporate blogs (25%), encyclopedias such as Wikipedia (18%) and government and NGO content (10%). Social media makes up about 3%, while press releases make up 1%. Just 0.3% of citations were from paid media.
- Owned media represented 15% of citations — an underdiscussed but still important opportunity for communicators of all kinds creating content.
- Each search engine operates differently: ChatGPT overindexes on government content relative to its peers, while Perplexity leans most heavily on journalistic content of all the LLMs surveyed. Knowing which tools your audience uses is key.
- The question a user asks strongly influences what content the LLM will cite. Looking for a how-to guide? The bot will cite a how-to guide in 68% of prompts. If someone is looking for a purchase recommendation, the LLM will return a buyer’s guide in 45% of searches. It’s logical but important information to have, depending on your product or service.
- The exact mix of news sites the LLMs favor is constantly changing. The research found that ChatGPT had shown abrupt shifts away from news sources such as Reuters, AP, Business Insider and the Wall Street Journal over the last 10 months. In other words, it may not be worth it to try to gauge the bots’ favorite sites, favoring instead a broad mix of media relations to maximize placement.
- Among owned media, the most commonly cited content are product and service pages (cited 58% of the time) and guides (24%).
Google is showing early signs of search weakness
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, revealed some early warning signs showing just how LLM search behavior is impacting its traditional core search model. In an earnings report earlier this week, Alphabet revealed that while revenue in the search category grew 12% year-over-year, that was still below expectations. This miss is directly attributable to the pivot toward AI search. And there could be bad news on the horizon as agentic AI shopping tools could take further bites out of Google’s business.
Google is still making money on search — for now. But even with its own suite of AI tools, this internet stalwart will need to grow, adapt and pivot. If this isn’t the final wake-up call you need to start optimizing for GEO in addition to SEO, this is the moment. The pivot toward AI search is not going away, and even the king of search knows it.
Reddit will soon be available only for logged-in users. That’s a big shift.
In one final piece of LLM search-related news, Reddit has announced that soon, only logged-in users will be able to read content. For years now, Reddit has been a valuable tool for people Googling and looking for lived human experiences over polished corporate content. Content was easily indexed and available at a click.
Now, users will need to create a Reddit account and be logged in to figure out how to fix their weird iPhone glitch.
CEO Steve Huffman, posting to Reddit under the username Spez, attributed the shift to an increased need for personalization, to help its ad business and comply with legal requirements.
In a question posed by a user, he clarifies the intent of the move: “The one-off visitor from a shared link or search referred user aren’t the primary target here,” he said. Bots scraping data are.
The note from Huffman is honest, human and explains the rationale clearly, complete with tl;dr. Not everyone will agree, of course, but Huffman lays out both the financial and the community-focused benefits of the shift.
This may make Reddit a slightly less attractive social choice for those looking to gain SEO or GEO favor. Or it may help bolster authentic conversations. We’ll just have to see.
Popular ‘Diary of a CEO’ podcast makes changes after health misinformation accusations
“Diary of a CEO” is one of the most popular business podcasts. But it also has a history of spreading health misinformation on its platform. Now, it’s trying to change its reputation.
In 2024, a BBC investigation found that more than half of its health-related episodes contained misinformation — an average of 14 per show. Now, health-related episodes are run through three LLMs for fact-checking, plus review by a medical researcher.
For video podcasts, fact checks are shown directly on screen. In the audio version, there is no fact-checking and claims are simply cut if they’re deemed inaccurate. Show notes contain more information.
As Business Insider notes, this approach is part of a trend of podcasters and other new media to act, well, more like old media. Advertisers and guests don’t want to be associated with misinformation. Fact-checking can offer reassurance to vetting PR professionals that the show is acting with rigor to present the best information possible.
Allison Carter is editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.
