In a recent “PR’s Top Pros Talk…” podcast episode, Will Reese, Chief Innovation Officer at Inizio Evoke, and Theresa Dolge, Chief Media Relations Officer at Inizio Evoke, joined Doug Simon, CEO of D S Simon Media, to discuss the growing influence of AI on earned media, local journalism, and public relations.

When asked why local media is becoming more significant in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, Will emphasized the community-centered nature of healthcare decision-making. “When you think about healthcare, so much of the healthcare decisions are local and very personal, tied to your community,” he said.

Will shared that local news organizations play a critical role in providing trusted information. Doug emphasized the value of local news by sharing survey data. “We did a nationwide survey of what media people trust,” he said. Despite political differences, he noted that respondents across party lines showed strong confidence in local television news compared with social media. “Republicans and Democrats actually were within a half a percentage point 85% to 15%. They trusted local TV news more than social media.”

Theresa also explained that trust in local media is creating meaningful opportunities for both PR professionals and journalists. “I think for a long time in PR, we were strong advocates of doing local market outreach. That kind of changed over time, people wanted to be more national,” Theresa said.

As audiences and AI-driven platforms increasingly turn to local sources, local media remains a strategic priority. “I do think there are opportunities not just for PR professionals to be creating, suggesting, and recommending local market campaigns, but also for journalists who are locally based,” Theresa said. She believes this will increase job opportunities across the media landscape. “There’s going to be more job opportunities, especially when you have something like Axios, who’s forging, you know, relationships and bartering with the LLMs to create local market newsrooms because they’re hungry for content.”

Doug agreed, observing that demand for local news content is increasing despite years of newsroom staffing declines. He added that PR professionals are playing an increasingly important role in helping news organizations meet content demands. “I sort of view good PR professionals now as a staff extension of the TV newsroom.”

As search behavior changes, discoverability is becoming just as important as traditional website traffic. Doug referenced data showing that a much smaller percentage of Google searches now result in clicks compared to previous years, as people increasingly get answers directly from LLMs.

Brands must now be more intentional about the content they produce and how it is being shown in AI-generated search results. “Visibility and discoverability are important,” Will explained. “I think many brands are not as visible as they should be or as visible for the breadth of questions that are coming in.” He emphasized that simply appearing in AI search results is not enough.

“The other big piece is the quality of the citations and quality of the language,” Will said. He highlighted the importance of language, noting that the adjectives brands use should reflect and reinforce how they demonstrate their values in practice. As more people are turning to LLMs to provide direct answers, the way brands are described can have a significant impact on public perception.

Theresa believes that many of the factors that have shaped credibility in earned media will also become critical drivers of visibility in AI-powered search results. “We need the message that we’re putting out there to be spread across all of those things in different places in order to be optimized in the rankings when we go in there and people are doing their searches,” she said.

A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the importance of freshness. While many organizations continue to focus on major campaigns and announcements, Theresa, Will, and Doug emphasized that ongoing visibility is critical.

“You have to be out there consistently because otherwise somebody else is going to come out and be fresher, and then their content is going to rise higher,” Theresa said. This reflects how AI systems evaluate relevance.

Will noted that fresh content can help smaller organizations compete against larger, more established brands. “I could be a smaller brand, but because somebody put now or today, I show up higher, even over a bigger brand, because my content is fresher,” he explained. In healthcare, where new research and treatment advances can quickly reshape the standard of care, access to timely information can be life-changing.

As the conversation drew to a close, Theresa emphasized that communicators must adapt their approach when building campaigns in an AI-driven environment. “It’s very different than probably we were building our campaigns and going about creating programs and public relations for all those years.” Success will require a shift toward strategies that prioritize ongoing visibility, relevance, and accessibility.

Despite the rapid evolution of AI, Will, Theresa, and Doug agreed that the core principles of effective communication remain the same. “Quality communication and authenticity matters in the AI world, so it is the mastery of both,” Will shared. The conversation demonstrates why PR professionals remain essential to GEO, as they create valuable content that enables AI systems to deliver accurate, relevant information to millions.