Three structural shifts changed media relations: AI citation authority, the newsletter layer, and a new outlet hierarchy. What the updated model looks like for 2026 and what to stop doing.
Media pitching in 2026 is a different discipline than 2023. The journalists are fewer, the inboxes are heavier, the AI-generated pitch volume has saturated every newsroom. Toyota, Red Bull, Amex, Patagonia, Liquid Death, Glossier, Duolingo, HubSpot — how the brands compounding actually pitch.
Media outreach in 2026 — the two-discipline model. Why the wire layer (AP, Reuters, Bloomberg) anchors AI retrieval, why pitch lists should be 40 names not 200, and how the strongest operations actually structure coverage for citation.
