Insights

July 30, 2025

The way we find information online is shifting fast. Browser-based AI search has more than doubled since June 2024, now accounting for 5.6% of all search traffic. This transition is disrupting how information is discovered, how publishers drive traffic and how brands reach their audiences.

In today’s edition, we take a closer look at a new report from Muck Rack, the media intelligence platform, called “What Is AI Reading?”

ICYMI: We crowdsourced newsletter, podcast, book, TV and movie recommendations from our team and friends of the firm. Click here to explore the picks that are inspiring and informing them this summer.

The content that feeds AI

Muck Rack’s new report analyzed over 500,000 user prompts — covering a wide range of industries and topics — entered into ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude to better understand the characteristics of AI-generated citations across various contexts. Here’s what communications professionals need to know.

1. Earned media matters

AI cites non-paid media more than 95% of the time. Corporate blogs and journalism lead, while social and marketing content and press releases account for just 2% and 1% of citations, respectively.

• What they’re saying: “Based on the data, we can see that the models are pretty clearly avoiding marketing materials,” said Matt Dzugan, senior director of data at Muck Rack. “Essentially, the models are trying to earn the trust of [their] audience and don’t want to regurgitate salesy materials.”
• Go deeper: Generative engine optimization (GEO) is quickly replacing search engine optimization (SEO). By 2026, SEO is expected to drop by 25% as more people turn to AI chatbots and Google’s AI-generated responses, according to Gartner. Read our deep dive on how to win in GEO.

2. Fresh is favored

Among journalism sources cited, there was a clear preference for stories published within the past 12 months.

• By the numbers: 56% of journalism citations by OpenAI were published in the last year.

3. Outlet authority

The most frequently cited news organizations include the Associated Press, Reuters, Axios, the Financial Times, Forbes and Time — several of which have formal partnerships with large language models.

• Yes, but: When asked about specific industries, AI often turns to niche and trade publications, as well as Wikipedia, which ChatGPT consistently cites for industry-specific trends.

The bottom line: As LLMs undergo updates and retraining, this space will continue to evolve quickly. Communicators must stay on top of how AI finds, filters and cites information in order to remain visible, credible and competitive. Download the full report from Muck Rack here.

Media news + moves

What we’re reading and watching:

• Substack raises $100 million in Series C funding: The latest funding round values the platform at $1.1 billion. “We’re doubling down on the Substack app, which is designed to help audiences reclaim their attention and connect with the creators they care about,” its founders wrote in a post. Read it in full here.
• Fortune launches ‘Success’ newsletter: Written by Orianna Rosa Royle, the weekly newsletter will share lessons from top CEOs, career trends, and rituals and habits that drive real change. Subscribe here.
• A ‘new era’ for WIRED: Going forward, the publication will focus on connecting readers more directly to its journalism and reporters through five weekly newsletters, twice-monthly livestream AMAs, comments sections and subscriber-only narrated articles. Editorial director Katie Drummond called the effort a “solution to this so-called ‘traffic apocalypse’ and the AI sloppification of the internet.” Learn about the new newsletters + subscribe to them here.
• The power of the pod: New York-based podcast startup Kaleidoscope, which heavily features science and tech content, completed its Series A, raising $5 million. Keep an eye out for a new investigative series on Othram, the genetic forensics lab behind key breakthroughs in the Gilgo Beach murders and Idaho college killings. Learn more.
• A $200 million valuation for The Free Press? Bari Weiss, currently in talks about a sale with David Ellison, the incoming owner of CBS News, is seeking that amount for her three-year-old media startup. For context, Jeff Bezos paid $250 million for the Washington Post in 2013, unadjusted for inflation. Learn more.
• The Economist’s first AI deal: The outlet has partnered with Google’s NotebookLM. More here.

Media moves:

• Bloomberg News hired Nikki Waller as managing editor of equality and work. The enterprise also added Andrew Mendez as a breaking news editor in its San Francisco bureau, and Dhruv Mehrotra, formerly an investigative data reporter at WIRED.
• David Cho was hired by CNBC to be its editor in chief, while news leaders Dan Colarusso and Jay Yarow announced they are leaving the organization.
• Amanda Freidman joined Politico as a health care reporter, covering the surgeon general and writing the Pro Health Care PM newsletter.
• Politico also hired Noah Baustin as an energy and environment reporter.
• Brandon Doerrer was named creativity and media innovation reporter at Ad Age.
• The Wall Street Journalhired Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky as a data reporter.
• Yahoo Finance hired Francisco Velasquez as a reporter.
• The Financial Times hired Julie Steinberg as a property correspondent.
• Business Insider senior editor Clementine Fletcher left the organization.