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The old media coverage model is broken.
Example: MWC, Europe's largest tech event, is under way in Barcelona.
I attended several of these with the goal of helping my companies OPPO and OnePlus grow brand awareness and secure Tech media coverage.
However, the old media coverage model is broken (see below).
So what's changing?
1) AI Overviews - Started with Google Search broadly starting in mid-2024. For informational queries like "what is the best mid-range smartphone" or "best wireless earbuds 2026," Google now generates an answer directly in the search results. The user gets what they need without clicking through to a publisher.
2) Reddit & UGC social - UGC has gained ranking position for the keywords that historically belonged to these publications.
3) AI Chat - Users are skipping Google entirely for product research, going directly to ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity.
It's likely some combination of all three. The timing of the steepest declines (second half of 2025) coincides with AI Overviews expanding to more query types and AI assistants reaching broader adoption.
To compound matters, many of the best journalists that made these publications what they were have gone in house to PR roles or are doing YouTube, Substack etc.
The media landscape has changed across other verticals too.
Adjust accordingly.