1. NEW DATA
A recent study involving months of painstaking work shows that traditional media is not only still influential and agenda-setting, but packs a punch even with younger people.
Goldbug’s Engagement Index 2025 – in partnership with Opinium – analysed a month’s worth of content, stories and moments in the UK and created an index based on what motivates people to engage, share, talk and change behaviours or perceptions.
One of the most surprising elements was that the main source of 60% of the most engaging moments was traditional media.
So end-consumers might well be discovering news and information on social media but it originated from traditional press.
2. TRUST
Traditional media outlets have an established reputation and history – and being interviewed and covered by the UK’s most prominent journalists brings credibility and trust to your brand.
UK journalists are still renowned for breaking agenda-setting stories that are fact-checked, contain new information and pass editorial standards.
Targeting and securing print media coverage doesn’t mean you’ll be left unread. Far from it.
For a start, the journalists will share that story and information on their own media channels and so will the news brand – which makes it all the better. It becomes a shop window for other media.
In 2024, the Advertising Association and Credos reported that UK consumer trust in advertising rose, with traditional channels like TV and print seen as significantly more credible than digital or social platforms.
It’s the same for earned media.
3. SEARCH
And the credibility of being in the most trusted media earns you valuable visibility in the new era of LLM-fuelled search, such as ChatGPT and Google’s ‘AI Overview’.
The days of SEO are fast disappearing and being replaced by AI-powered search results.
And the more credible and authoritative the source, the more likely it will appear when you ask ChatGPT or Google for help.
This means that traditional media coverage is developing from ‘a nice to have’ to a must-have in brand discovery and awareness.
In 2025 if your story runs in a national paper or covered by a trusted news brand – and has engaged an audience – it will pay dividends beyond the initial audience.
4. LAZINESS
But with less journalists with higher workloads, getting traditional media coverage has become harder to do.
It takes effort, investment and faith that it will be worthwhile.
Too many PR leaders are shying away from traditional media sell-ins because ‘they don’t work’. It becomes more convenient to just make a video and promote it on social media – which is also easier to measure and give lip service to KPIs.
So marketing budgets are geared away from earned media and even PR agencies are advising clients to avoid traditional approaches.
Not enough time is spent on crafting stories, messaging and making them compelling for the audience.
And more time needs to be spent nurturing relationships with journalists.
5. IT’S COMING FULL CIRCLE
Wolfgang Riepl was the editor of the biggest-selling newspaper in Nuremberg, Germany in 1913 when he devised a hypothesis that still stands today.
Riepl’s Law is based on new media never entirely replacing existing modes of media and their patterns of usage.
For example, people feared for books when magazines were launched, and they feared for radio when TV came along. The same happened with vinyl records and CDs. And print titles in the digital revolution.
Yet all of these mediums still exist thanks to Riepl’s Law.
And the irony is, because of AI and LLM-powered data discovery, it is technology that is giving traditional media a lifeline.
