How to become the expert your industry's media quotes

Most firms that feel overlooked by the media have the expertise. What they lack is visibility at the moment a journalist, editor, podcast host or conference organiser goes looking for someone to quote. The competitor who gets the call is not always the one who knows most. It is the one who is relevant, easy to find and ready.

All three can be built. This guide sets out what the latest surveys of journalists say, where the evidence is thin, and what to do about it.

How journalists find and choose expert sources

They rely on outside input, but they choose

Newsrooms are stretched. In Cision’s 2026 State of the Media survey of 1,899 journalists across North America, EMEA and APAC, 49% cited shrinking budgets, staff cuts and heavier workloads as their biggest obstacles, and 66% said they rely on PR-provided content for story ideas[1]. Half named accuracy, fact-checking and combating misinformation as their top challenge[2].

Journalists also decide what they cover. In Muck Rack’s State of Journalism 2026, 40% said they pitch and choose their own stories and 55% said it is a mix of pitching and assignments; only 3% have stories fully assigned[3]. The reporter you want to reach usually decides whether your expert fits.

Where they look

LinkedIn is the platform to take seriously. Cision found 62% of journalists use it professionally and 33% rank it as the single most valuable platform for their work[1]. In Muck Rack’s survey, LinkedIn was the most trusted platform, with 58% trusting it to treat journalistic content fairly, and 47% of journalists spent more time there over the past year[3].

AI is part of research too. Muck Rack found 82% of journalists used at least one AI tool in their work over the past year[3], and Cision found 43% had used AI for research or fact-checking[2]. If an assistant cannot find evidence of your expertise, a journalist using one may not either.

A caveat: these surveys ask mainly about pitches and platforms, not how a reporter picks one expert over another, and Muck Rack’s respondents were 81% North American[3]. For European and Cypriot markets, treat the figures as direction, not rule.

What journalists want from a pitch, and what they delete

Asked what a pitch should offer, 70% of journalists in Muck Rack’s survey said clear relevance to their beat, 58% interview access to relevant sources and 40% original data or research. Pre-written quotes scored 14%[3]. Cision reports that 47% want compelling data in a pitch and 45% want embargoed or early access[2].

Rejections are just as clear. In Muck Rack’s survey, 88% immediately disregard pitches that are irrelevant to their coverage, 71% reject overly promotional ones, 50% are put off by mass emails and 40% by pitches that are too long or unclear[3]. Cision found 72% say fewer than a quarter of the pitches they receive are relevant, and 53% oppose AI-generated pitches[1].

On format, Muck Rack’s summary of eight years of its surveys shows 69% prefer pitches under 200 words, 62% prefer one-to-one email, 78% want pitches before noon and 50% say one follow-up is ideal[3].

So offer your expert’s view on the journalist’s story, not your company’s news, and start relationships before you need them: 84% of journalists in Cision’s survey said the best way to begin is an introductory email, even without a story, explaining why you want to connect[2].

Use contributor bylines in specialist trade publications

A quote in someone else’s story is borrowed authority. A byline in a respected specialist title is your own argument, under your name, edited by people who know the field.

Publishers want this kind of material. In the Reuters Institute’s 2026 survey of 280 news leaders, respondents said it will be important to do more analysis and framing (a net score of +82) and more opinion or commentary (+55), and less service journalism and evergreen content, which many expect AI chatbots to commoditise[4].

Write for the publication’s readers, not your sales funnel. Editors screen out promotion just as journalists delete promotional pitches. Bring one clear argument, its evidence and a practical point readers can act on.

Bylines also count in search. Google asks whether bylines lead to information about the author, and states: “We strongly encourage adding accurate authorship information, such as bylines to content where readers might expect it.”[5] Its systems give even more weight to strong experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust on topics that could significantly affect people’s financial stability[5], which covers much of what brokers, wealth managers and advisers write about.

Evidence on the commercial return of bylines is thin: we found no robust independent research isolating it. Judge them by what follows, such as inbound requests and invitations.

Make podcasts and interviews work harder

Long-form interviews show how an expert thinks, which a two-line quote cannot. In the US, Edison Research’s Infinite Dial 2026 found 58% of people aged 12 and over had consumed a podcast in the last month, and 57% had both listened to and watched one[6]. Globally, the Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2026 puts news podcast use at 11%, unchanged, with many podcasts now video-led[7]. News leaders also say it will be important to do more audio (+71) and live events (+75)[4], which means more slots for guests and speakers.

Choose shows and events your clients follow, not simply the largest. Prepare three stories with numbers and ask for clips you can reuse. There is little reliable data on how often guest appearances turn into business, so track it yourself. If you would rather host than guest, see how to launch a company podcast that listeners finish.

Be media-ready before the call comes

Readiness turns relevance into a quote. Prepare four things.

Clear messages

Write three positions your expert can defend in a sentence each, with evidence. If a view cannot be said simply, it will not be quoted. Then rehearse them out loud: our guide to preparing your spokespeople so every interview builds trust covers the hard questions to practise and the ground rules to agree.

Data

Journalists rank original data highly, as the surveys above show. A short quarterly client survey, or market data you already hold, published with a note on method, is enough to start.

Availability and speed

Journalists are stretched, and 62% say their responsibilities have expanded beyond their core role[3]. No survey we found sets a response-time threshold, but the source who answers today is often more useful than a better one who answers next week. Name a spokesperson and a backup, and set a same-day reply standard. In regulated firms, agree in advance what the expert may say without fresh compliance sign-off. A rule change is one of the best moments to be ready: see how to turn a regulatory change into a reason clients trust you.

An expert page

Keep a page on your site with the expert’s biography, topics, photograph and past coverage. It helps journalists check credentials and follows Google’s guidance that bylines should lead to information about the author[5].

Build a body of work that compounds

Every quote, byline and interview becomes a public record that journalists, search engines and AI assistants can find.

Muck Rack’s May 2026 analysis of more than 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini in answer to consumer-style prompts found about 84% came from earned media and about 27% from journalism; paid and advertorial content made up 0.3%[8]. Finance and insurance queries had the second-highest journalism citation rate of 17 sectors, at 32.1%. Questions about industry trends cited journalism in 46% of responses, and 57% of journalism citations with a known date were less than a year old[8]. Journalism citations were spread across more than 20,000 outlets, including a long tail of trade press[8].

That is vendor research, and AI behaviour shifts as models change, but the direction is clear: AI answers draw on recent, independent coverage. Audience use is growing, not dominant. Weekly use of AI chatbots for news rose from 7% to 10% globally, and 16% of under-35s use them for news[7].

Be sceptical of shortcuts. Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no need for new machine-readable or AI text files[9]. The work is the same: consistent topics, recent coverage in credible titles and pages that make clear who your experts are.

How to measure progress

AMEC’s Barcelona Principles 4.0 say advertising value equivalents (AVEs) should not be used, and that communication should be measured by its outcome and impact against clear, measurable objectives[10].

For AI visibility, AMEC’s GEO Principles look at three connected areas: upstream reputation, such as media coverage and expert content; how well your digital presence can be read by search engines and AI systems; and how you appear in AI answers, including accuracy, framing, citations and omissions. They warn against vanity metrics, opaque scores and false precision[11].

In practice, keep a short monthly log:

• Outputs: pitches sent, bylines published, interviews and talks given.
• Outcomes: inbound media requests, quotes in target titles on your topics, repeat invitations and accurate descriptions of your expert.
• AI answers: a fixed set of 10 to 20 questions your clients ask, checked monthly in the main assistants, noting whether you are named, how, and on which sources.
• Impact: enquiries, mandates and speaking invitations that mention your coverage.

Your next steps

1. Choose three topics where your firm has evidence and a defensible view, and write each as a one-sentence position.
2. Name a spokesperson and a backup, publish an expert page for each, and agree a same-day reply standard with compliance cleared in advance.
3. List 15 publications, podcasts and events your clients follow, and the journalists and hosts covering your topics; follow them on LinkedIn.
4. Send five of them a short introductory email saying who your expert is and how they can help, without a pitch.
5. Commit to one piece of original data each quarter, published with its method.
6. Pitch one contributor byline a month to a specialist publication, written for its readers.
7. Start the monthly measurement log, including the AI answers check, and review it every quarter.