84% of AI citations come from earned media, not your website
Muck Rack's May 2026 Generative Pulse study of 25 million AI links shows earned media drives 84% of all AI citations. Brand blogs account for about 16%. Here's what the data shows and what to do.
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Stephan Ochse
10 min read
May 18, 2026
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Earned media accounts for 84% of all AI citations, according to Muck Rack's Generative Pulse study of 25 million AI-generated links across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Your brand website, blog, and product pages account for the remaining 16%. BrandCited is an AI visibility intelligence platform that monitors 9 AI platforms and tracks which third-party sources are driving your brand's citation footprint.
On May 7, 2026, Muck Rack published the third edition of Generative Pulse, their running study of what AI models read and cite when answering real user queries. The earned media figure held consistent across all three editions, ranging from 82% to 89%. A separate study by 5W PR on May 15 put the figure at 85.5%, drawing from more than 90 data points across global markets. The implication for most brands: the content consuming most of their budget generates citations at about one-sixth the rate of third-party coverage.
What the 84% figure actually means for your brand#
The May 2026 Generative Pulse study analyzed more than 25 million links from AI responses across ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, covering 17 industries and multiple query types. Professional journalism accounts for 27% of all AI citations, a figure that has held stable across all three study editions since July 2025. Press releases account for 1.1% of citations. Paid and advertorial content accounts for 0.3%.
Content type
Share of AI citations
All earned media (journalism, research, industry sites, communities)
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84%
Professional journalism alone
27%
Brand-owned websites and content
~16%
Press releases
1.1%
Paid and advertorial content
0.3%
Query type changes what gets cited. Industry trend queries drive journalism citations at more than double the rate of how-to questions. Press releases appear in trend-based responses at 3.5 times the rate they appear in best-of or "what is" queries. The questions your buyers ask determine which source types AI models surface — and most commercial queries favor editorial coverage over brand announcements.
BrandCited's Citation Sources audit check measures your brand's earned media footprint across each AI platform and flags the gap between your owned content and the third-party coverage that drives citations.
Muck Rack analyzed 25 million AI-generated links in May 2026. Journalism: 27% of citations. Press releases: 1.1%. Brand-owned content: about 16%.
Which earned media sources get cited most by AI models?#
Professional journalism from wire services and specialist outlets dominates AI citations across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini. Reuters and Axios are cited at rates far above their general media footprint, according to Nieman Journalism Lab analysis of AI citation patterns. Fast-moving news outlets with high domain authority and clear author bylines carry more citation weight than legacy brand-recognition outlets.
Reddit is the top-cited single domain across every major AI engine at 40% frequency, according to the 5W AI Platform Citation Source Index, which synthesized 680 million citations across six major studies. The top 15 domains capture 68% of all consolidated AI citation share. Niche industry publications and topic-specific resources account for 48% to 77% of citations across AI engines.
BrandCited shows which of these source categories are generating mentions for your brand and which are absent from your citation footprint across each AI platform.
Why AI models prefer third-party content over your brand pages#
AI models distrust brand-owned content because it is structurally self-serving. Training data contains many examples of brand claims that are exaggerated or inaccurate, so models learn to discount them. Third-party sources carry implicit verification: a journalist at a named outlet chose to write about your product, which signals the claim has been independently evaluated.
University of Toronto researchers ran controlled experiments across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini and found that AI engines cite earned media five times more than brand-owned websites. The researchers described the pattern as "a systematic and overwhelming bias towards earned media — third-party, authoritative sources — over brand-owned and social content."
The effect extends to how AI models describe your brand. When AI models describe your brand, the language mirrors the sources they have cited. A brand with accurate, specific earned media coverage gets described more accurately by ChatGPT than a brand whose AI footprint consists of marketing copy. BrandCited's audit shows the language patterns in your AI citations and flags when model descriptions of your brand are inaccurate or incomplete.
The citation lift from distributing content to multiple publications#
The same article, distributed to third-party news sites instead of published on the brand's own site, raised citation rates from 8% to 34% in a controlled study by Stacker and Scrunch analyzing 944 prompt-platform combinations across five AI platforms. That is a 4.4x lift from distribution alone, with no changes to the content.
The 5W PR research puts a larger number on the aggregate effect: distributing content across multiple publications increases AI citations by 325% compared to publishing on the brand site alone. The mechanism is reinforcement. AI models weight sources that appear across multiple indexed pages more than single-source claims. A brand mentioned in five separate industry publications on the same topic carries more citation weight than a brand with one comprehensive page on its own site.
The content does not need to be unique. The same research, the same data, the same angle — placed in an outlet AI models already cite — generates citations at a rate the brand site cannot match.
BrandCited scan data shows brands cited in five or more distinct third-party domains on a topic earn measurably higher AI visibility scores than brands with the same content published on their own site alone.
Why your PR team is pitching the wrong journalists for AI visibility#
The journalists brands pitch most have a 2% overlap with the journalists AI engines cite most for those brands, according to Muck Rack's research. Ninety-eight percent of pitching effort goes toward journalists whose work does not generate AI citations for the brands pitching them.
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This is not an indictment of traditional PR. Those journalists drive awareness, deals, and investor interest through other channels. But if AI citation is a meaningful discovery channel — and with 31% of the US population using AI search in 2026, it is — the media list needs a parallel track built on citation data.
Wire services, fast-moving tech publications, and high-authority specialist outlets generate AI citations at rates far above their traditional PR value. Brands that have coverage in these outlets hold an earned AI visibility advantage that does not show up in standard PR measurement. BrandCited shows which publications are generating citations for your competitors so you can identify which outlets to prioritize before your next campaign.
Google AI Overviews: Google shipped five updates on May 7, 2026 — inline links next to relevant text, website hover previews on desktop, a "Further Exploration" panel, subscription-aware content labels, and Community Perspectives pulling Reddit quotes into responses. (Search Engine Land)
GPT-5.5 Instant: OpenAI's GPT-5.5 Instant became the default ChatGPT model on May 5, 2026, replacing GPT-5.3 Instant. It cuts hallucination rates in legal, medical, and financial responses while maintaining low latency. (TechCrunch)
ChatGPT personal finance: OpenAI launched personal finance tools on May 15, 2026 for ChatGPT Pro subscribers in the US, connecting over 12,000 financial institutions via Plaid. (OpenAI)
Perplexity Personal Computer: Perplexity launched Personal Computer, a 24/7 AI proxy on a dedicated Mac mini that monitors triggers, executes proactive tasks, and carries work forward continuously. (SQ Magazine)
Gemini market share: Gemini's share of AI search grew from 5.7% to over 25% in 14 months, while ChatGPT's share fell from 87% in January 2025 to 56.7% by March 2026. (First Page Sage)
How BrandCited audits your earned media citation footprint#
BrandCited's audit engine checks for earned media presence as part of its Citation Sources score — one of 30-plus checks across 9 AI platforms. Brands cited in fewer than three distinct third-party domains per AI platform receive it as a critical finding, with specific publication categories flagged for each platform. The BrandCited scan shows which publications generate mentions for your brand, which competitors earn coverage you do not, and which queries your brand is absent from despite having relevant content. Run the audit free at brandcited.ai.
1Audit your citation sources. Run a BrandCited scan to see which publications generate AI citations for your brand. Brands cited in fewer than five distinct third-party domains have earned media as their highest-impact AI visibility fix.
2Map your content to citation-heavy outlets. Identify the 10 to 15 outlets that AI models cite most in your space. These are your priority targets for pitching, guest contributions, and data placement — ahead of traditional readership metrics.
3Rebuild your media list using citation data. The journalists AI models cite for your industry have a 2% overlap with most brands' current pitch lists. Start with outlets generating citations for your competitors.
4Distribute existing content to third-party publications. Content on your site generates citations at about one-fifth the rate of the same content in a relevant industry publication. Repurpose one research piece per month to a target outlet.
5Design content for trend queries. Journalism and editorial coverage appear at double the rate in trend-based queries. Issuing original research that journalists will report on generates more citations than how-to guides.
6Track citation source changes each week. AI models replace 56% of cited sources per week on Google and up to 74% on ChatGPT. Earned media placements need to be a continuous effort, not a one-time campaign.
AI visibility is a PR and editorial problem as much as a content and SEO problem. The brands that appear in AI answers are the ones other people have written about. Run a free AI visibility audit at brandcited.ai — you will see your citation sources across 9 AI platforms in 30 seconds, with every gap ranked by impact.
What is earned media in the context of AI citations?
Earned media is coverage from independent third parties: journalists, researchers, industry analysts, community forums, and review sites. In AI citations, it is any content in an AI-generated answer that your brand did not produce or pay for. BrandCited tracks earned media citations across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and five other AI platforms, showing which sources generate mentions and which are absent from your footprint.
How do I get my brand mentioned in ChatGPT and Perplexity?
Getting mentioned in ChatGPT and Perplexity starts with earned media, not brand publishing. Both platforms favor third-party sources — journalism, industry publications, and authoritative review sites — at rates five times higher than brand-owned content. Getting cited requires coverage in publications that AI models already cite: wire services, fast-moving news outlets, and specialist industry publications. BrandCited shows which outlets generate citations for your competitors so you can prioritize outreach.
Earned media vs. owned content: which drives more AI citations?
Earned media drives five times more AI citations than owned content, according to University of Toronto research on millions of AI-generated responses. The Muck Rack Generative Pulse study of 25 million AI links shows professional journalism accounts for 27% of citations, while brand-owned websites account for about 16%. This ratio has held consistent across three separate study editions since July 2025.
How long does it take for earned media to appear in AI citations?
New coverage begins appearing in AI citation pools within 2 to 4 weeks for Perplexity and ChatGPT web search, which index fresh content at regular intervals. Google AI Overviews follow Google's standard indexing timeline — 1 to 2 weeks for high-authority publications. Platforms with training cutoffs incorporate earned media during the next model update cycle, which can take months. BrandCited tracks citation changes week-over-week so you can see which placements are generating AI responses.
Does publishing more blog posts improve my AI visibility score?
Publishing more posts on your own site has limited impact on AI citations. Brand-owned blogs account for about 16% of AI citations across all platforms, regardless of volume. The same research effort placed in a high-authority third-party publication generates citations at a rate the brand blog cannot match. BrandCited's audit checks for this: a large content library with low earned media presence appears as a high-priority finding with specific actions to close the gap.
