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Digital PR turns data, research or expert opinion into stories and mentions published by third-party outlets and websites. In AI search, those stories also become sources for answers about your industry. This guide covers what digital PR is, which pitches work, what doesn’t count and when to hire a digital PR agency.
In short
- Digital PR earns coverage with its own story angle, such as data, an expert or a trend analysis, without paying for space.
- In the Muck Rack study, paid and advertorial content made up just 0.3% of citations by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.
- In a Muck Rack survey of journalists, for example, 88% immediately disregard pitches that miss their beat.
- In Brazil, paid articles must be labeled under the CONAR code, and Google asks for the sponsored attribute on paid links.
What is digital PR and how does it differ from media relations?
Digital PR is media relations built for the internet. The goal is to earn stories, interviews and mentions on outlets and websites with their own audience. However, the difference lies in how you measure it. While traditional media relations counts published stories, digital PR also tracks links, branded searches and presence in AI answers.
PR stands for public relations. In practice, however, digital PR sits next to three similar activities that people often mix up:
| Practice | What it seeks | How it gets there |
|---|---|---|
| Media relations | Stories and interviews | Relationships and press releases |
| Digital PR | Stories, mentions and links | Pitches with data or experts |
| Link building | Links to the site | Outreach, swaps or purchases |
| Advertorial | Guaranteed space | Payment to the outlet |
So what separates digital PR from advertorials is who decides to publish. In digital PR, the journalist picks the story because it matters to the outlet’s readers. As a result, the mention works as proof that third parties talk about the brand. Within a plan for content marketing in the AI era, digital PR is the part that happens off your site.
Why does digital PR matter in AI answers?
Digital PR matters because the press is among the sources AI cites when it answers questions about an industry. So if the brand is missing from those stories, AI has less third-party material to mention it. Meanwhile, the brand’s own site still answers questions about products, pricing and support.
The numbers from each study, with country and method, are in the guide to the sources ChatGPT cites most. One of them, for example, is the What Is AI Reading? report from Muck Rack. The company sells public relations software with AI brand monitoring. In the report, it analyzed more than 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. The questions covered several industries. However, the report doesn’t state the country of the questions, and the published examples are in English, mostly about US brands.
The same study also looks at the age of the coverage. Among journalism citations with known publish dates, 57% came from stories published in the previous 12 months. In other words, an older story can still show up, but most citations come from recent coverage. That is why digital PR works as an ongoing program, not a one-off campaign.
Finally, coverage also counts outside search. On Portuguese-language Wikipedia, for example, notability requires significant coverage in reputable, independent sources. However, press releases don’t count as independent sources.
Which pitches do journalists want: data, experts or trends?
Journalists want pitches that match their beat and bring something they don’t have. That means new data, an available expert or a trend analysis with examples. In general, a generic pitch about the company doesn’t become a story, because it answers no question the outlet’s readers have.
Muck Rack surveyed 1,044 journalists for its State of Journalism 2026 between January and March 2026. Then it used 897 responses, mostly from the US. According to Muck Rack’s own press release, 86% of journalists say at least some of their stories come from PR pitches. However, 88% immediately disregard pitches that miss their beat.
Journalists name four elements as the most valuable in a pitch. They are clear relevance to their beat, access to relevant sources, original research or data, and high-resolution images. So each type of pitch calls for a different asset:
- Data: a survey, an index or usage data that only the brand has.
- Expert: a spokesperson who comments quickly on the news of the day and writes opinion pieces.
- Trend: an industry analysis with numbers and examples, offered before the topic becomes news.
How do you turn a blog post into a pitch?
Start with the finding, because the journalist isn’t looking for the company. A post with original data becomes a pitch when the subject line says what the data shows, for whom and over what period. For example, a headline about how much small clinics lose to no-shows beats “company releases report.”
Next, send the journalist the link to the page with the methodology and the spokesperson’s contact. Likewise, think about the outlet’s audience. After all, in the Muck Rack survey, 78% of journalists say a pitch feels relevant when it directly affects their audience’s community. So it pays to offer cuts by city, region or industry.
How to do digital PR in 7 steps
A digital PR program starts by finding out which outlets AI and customers read. Then it ends with monthly measurement. In between, the brand creates an asset worth covering, finds the right journalists and pitches each one individually.
- Map the cited outlets. Run your industry’s questions in AI tools and note which outlets appear as sources. Then add the outlets your customers read.
- List journalists by beat. Before writing, however, read what each one has published in recent months.
- Create an asset. It can be a study, usage data, a recurring index or an expert with a clear opinion.
- Publish the asset on your site. Use a text page with the finding at the top and the methodology right below.
- Write the pitch. Keep it to a few lines, with the finding in the subject line and why it matters to that outlet.
- Send one pitch per journalist. Keep the spokesperson available, since journalists work on tight deadlines.
- Measure and repeat. Track stories, mentions, links and presence in AI answers every month.
When the news is about the company, see how to write the press release that goes with the pitch. When the asset is a study, the press release puts the finding in the headline and the methodology at the end.
Do paid articles and advertorials count for AI?
Barely. In the Muck Rack study, paid and advertorial content made up just 0.3% of citations. In addition, Brazilian rules require paid articles to be labeled as advertising. Therefore, advertorials can help with reach, but they don’t replace the earned coverage of digital PR.
Under Article 30 of the code of CONAR, Brazil’s advertising self-regulation council, paid articles must be labeled:
“A journalistic piece in the form of a report, article, note, caption or any other that runs in exchange for payment must be properly identified so that it is distinguished from editorial content and does not confuse the Consumer.” (translated)
Brazilian Code of Advertising Self-Regulation, CONAR
Similarly, Article 36 of Brazil’s Consumer Defense Code (CDC) requires that consumers can identify advertising as such, easily and immediately.
What does Google say about links in paid articles?
Google’s spam policies treat paid advertorials with links that pass ranking credit as link spam. The same list includes links with optimized anchor text in articles, guest posts or press releases distributed on other sites. That’s why Google asks for the sponsored value in the rel attribute of paid links, according to its documentation on outbound links.
| Practice | Allowed? | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| Story earned with a pitch | Yes | Outlet’s decision |
| Advertorial labeled as advertising | Yes | CONAR and CDC |
| Advertorial without a label | No | CONAR, Article 30 |
| Paid link without rel=”sponsored” or “nofollow” | No | |
| Press release with optimized anchors on other sites | No |
How do you measure mentions and citations from digital PR?
Measure in three layers: coverage, with stories and mentions; search, with links and branded searches; and presence in AI answers. Above all, the third layer shows whether the stories became sources. Because the answer changes with each run, always use the same prompts and repeat the collection every month.
| Layer | What to count | Where to look |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | Stories, mentions and quoted spokespeople | Clipping and search alerts |
| Search | Links and branded searches | Search Console |
| AI | Answers that cite the story or the brand | Prompt collection |
In the AI layer, include questions about industry trends, because AI cites more journalism there, according to Muck Rack. Then separate two cases. If the answer cites the story and names the brand, digital PR worked. However, if it cites the story without naming the brand, review how the spokesperson and the data appeared in the outlet’s text.
The full protocol, with the number of prompts and the margin of error, is in the guide to measuring brand mentions and citations in AI.
Should you do digital PR in-house or hire an agency?
Do it in-house when the company already has a spokesperson, its own data and time to talk to journalists. Hire a digital PR agency when you lack relationships with the press in your industry. The same applies when the volume of pitches outgrows what the team can handle. Still, the two models can also work together: the team produces the data, and the agency pitches the story.
| Criterion | In-house | Digital PR agency |
|---|---|---|
| Product knowledge | High | Depends on the brief |
| Relationships with journalists | Must be built | Already exist |
| Cost | Salaries and tools | Monthly retainer |
| Scale | Limited to the team | Larger |
Before you hire a digital PR agency, ask four questions:
- Does the agency guarantee stories? Guaranteed space depends on payment to the outlet, and in that case it’s labeled advertising.
- Does the report separate earned and paid coverage? Without that split, you can’t tell what the pitches actually earned.
- Does it measure presence in AI answers? In fact, it should show which outlets AI cites and whether the brand appears.
- Does it use paid links or optimized anchors in press releases? If so, the risk is link spam under Google’s rules.
On the other side, an agency that wants to sell digital PR can add it to its scope next to content and measurement. The guide to GEO for agencies shows how.
Which formats support a digital PR program?
A digital PR program rests on three formats. Original research creates the data, the press release carries company news, and the bylined article showcases the expert. So each format has its own guide in this series, with the steps and the most common mistakes.
- Original research: the guide to original research shows how to build the sample, the methodology statement and the outreach for a study the press cites.
- Press release: a press release carries company news, such as a launch, a result or a new hire, with a headline, a lead and contacts.
- Bylined article: the guide on how to publish articles on LinkedIn and in newspapers shows how to sign the spokesperson’s text to strengthen authorship.
Want to know how your brand shows up in AI answers today?
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Main sources
- Muck Rack, What Is AI Reading?, May edition (2026).
- Muck Rack, State of Journalism press release, survey of journalists (2026).
- CONAR, Brazilian Code of Advertising Self-Regulation (2025).
- Google Search Central, spam policies for Google web search (2026).
- Google Search Central, qualify your outbound links to Google (2025).
