A reporter needs perspective on a changing industry? We find the executive who knows it inside and out.
A major news story breaks? We identify the client who can explain what it means.
A trade publication needs insight? We connect them with someone who knows the space.
But the media landscape is changing, and with it comes a significant opportunity for PR.
We recently explored the rise of the public-facing expert and why subject matter experts are becoming influential voices for the organizations they represent. Now, we’re looking at what that shift means specifically for PR.
The Reuters Institute’s Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2026 report found that 76% of publisher respondents planned to encourage their journalists to behave more like creators this year.
Journalists are increasingly appearing in videos, hosting podcasts and newsletters, and engaging directly with audiences beyond the publications they work for. As a result, a story may no longer live only on a publication’s website or in print. It can travel across LinkedIn, newsletters, podcasts, video and other channels.
In other words, the value of earned media increasingly includes not only where the story is published, but the audience the journalist brings with them.
If media organizations are deliberately building personalities around their journalists, brands should be thinking just as deliberately about the people representing their organizations.
There is a difference between having someone available for interviews and building someone reporters and industry audiences recognize.
The first is reactive. The second is a strategy.
Executives who can take something complicated—a regulatory change, new industry data or an emerging business challenge—and explain why it matters can become more than a source for a single story.
When that perspective is reinforced through media interviews, contributed articles, LinkedIn content, podcasts and speaking opportunities, the executive can become associated with the subject itself.
The goal is consistency. When a reporter starts working on the next story, there is already a name that comes to mind.
Executive visibility can no longer live exclusively inside traditional media relations.
A strong point of view might begin as a media pitch and become a LinkedIn article, video, podcast conversation or speaking topic. Each channel builds on the others. Earned media provides third-party credibility. Thought leadership creates room to develop an idea. Social media builds familiarity. Podcasts and speaking opportunities allow for deeper engagement.
That does not mean every CEO needs a ring light and a daily LinkedIn video. Building a public-facing expert should start with expertise, not visibility for visibility’s sake.
The strongest strategies identify what someone genuinely knows, what the organization wants to be known for and what audiences want to understand. The point is not to be everywhere. It is to consistently show up around the right topics in the right places.
When an industry suddenly finds itself in the news, organizations that have already established their experts are better positioned to join the conversation.
That recognition does not happen because of one great pitch. It happens because of the work that came before it.
The fundamentals of PR still matter: relationships, credibility, timing and useful expertise. But our job increasingly begins earlier.
Don’t wait until you need an expert to introduce one.
Build the expert first. We can help.
