There is already more content on the internet than anyone could reasonably consume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And generative AI is about to make the problem considerably bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A company that once produced four blogs a month can now produce forty. Social posts can be generated before breakfast. An acceptable 800-word article can be created in seconds. Everyone can publish more, faster and cheaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Which raises an uncomfortable question for marketers and PR professionals:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If everyone can create content, why should anyone read yours?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps we are focusing on the wrong objective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instead of asking, “What content should we create?”, brands should increasingly ask:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“What do we know that is worth citing?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is where source material for PR becomes important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Source material for PR <\/a>is original, credible information that journalists, publications, researchers and audiences can reference, quote, analyse or build upon. That is the difference between creating content and creating something worth citing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Search almost any business subject and you will find variations of the same articles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Five Trends Transforming Retail.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Seven Ways AI Is Changing Marketing.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Ten Predictions for the Future of Work.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is nothing inherently wrong with these pieces. Some are excellent. But AI has made competent, generic explanatory content abundant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Original information is different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A recruitment company knows which jobs are suddenly attracting higher salaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A property portal knows which neighbourhoods overseas buyers are searching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A jewellery retailer can see whether customers are moving towards lighter pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A university knows which courses are receiving unexpectedly high applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An e-commerce company knows which categories are growing fastest outside metropolitan cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is not just content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is source material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider two approaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A company publishes an article titled:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Recruitment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another analyses 100,000 job listings and discovers that demand for one particular AI skill has increased 240% in twelve months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Which one is more likely to interest a journalist, earn backlinks, generate discussion and become a reference point in AI-powered search?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second company has created something the first has not: original information that others can reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is an important distinction for PR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most powerful position in the information ecosystem isn’t always being the publication carrying the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes it is being the source the story refers to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Companies routinely possess information that communications teams overlook. This information can become valuable source material for PR when it is identified, verified and presented responsibly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Customer behaviour. Search trends. Transaction patterns. Regional differences. Pricing movements. Consumer preferences. Survey findings. Manufacturing data. Hiring patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much of it remains trapped inside dashboards and presentations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n PR teams should start spending more time with the people who see this information first: sales heads, researchers, customer service teams, HR leaders, product managers and data analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ask them:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “What are you seeing that you didn’t expect?”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That question can produce better PR ideas than a two-hour brainstorming meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Naturally, customer privacy, commercial confidentiality and statistical integrity must come first. Data should be aggregated, responsibly interpreted and its methodology explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where research or surveys are used, sample size, methodology and relevant limitations should also be clearly stated. Credibility is the entire point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not every organisation has millions of data points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Almost every organisation has accumulated experience that can become valuable source material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A CEO who has spent 25 years manufacturing furniture knows things about supply chains that a generic business writer probably doesn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A university dean may recognise changes in student aspirations years before they appear in formal research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A financial executive may see behavioural shifts before they become headlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mistake is asking these people for generic quotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We remain committed to innovation and excellence” is not source material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “What are you seeing that others haven’t noticed yet?”<\/strong> is a much better question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Expertise becomes valuable when it contains an observation, argument, prediction or experience that somebody else might want to quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This also changes how brands should think about press releases and source material for PR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A press release announcing a new product has a limited story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Add proprietary consumer research, market observations, a meaningful leadership perspective, photographs and useful background information, and it becomes considerably richer source material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Professional press release distribution can then extend that information across relevant media and online publications, helping create a broader searchable digital footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The objective should never be to manufacture hundreds of artificial mentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is to make genuinely useful information easier to discover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Generative AI does not diminish the value of journalism. Arguably, it increases it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When producing plausible-looking information becomes almost effortless, verification, context and editorial judgment become more valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Journalists don’t need brands to send them more words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They need useful information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Original data. Access to credible experts. Transparent methodology. Interesting contradictions. Evidence behind claims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best PR professionals understand that distinction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For years, marketing departments were encouraged to “become publishers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next evolution may be more ambitious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Become a source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Create the survey journalists reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Publish the statistic competitors quote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Develop the executive journalists call when something changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Release the research that becomes part of an industry’s annual conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Content will continue to matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in an internet where anyone can generate content, possessing something genuinely worth saying becomes the scarce advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So before commissioning your next article, ask one question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Are we creating another piece of content, or are we creating something other people will want to cite?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Increasingly, the greater opportunity lies in creating something others will want to cite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Source material is original, credible information others can use or reference, including proprietary data, surveys, research, expert observations, statistics and informed leadership commentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Original data can provide genuine news value, giving journalists and other researchers information that is unavailable elsewhere. It can also earn citations, backlinks and sustained digital visibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes. Strong press releases can contain original statistics, attributable executive commentary, research findings, factual corporate developments and multimedia that journalists and other audiences can reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Useful, original information can attract citations, links and wider discovery. It can also contribute to the broader body of information that search engines and AI-powered systems use to understand a company or topic. However, no specific search ranking or AI citation can be guaranteed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Talk regularly to sales, product, research, customer service, HR and data teams. Instead of asking “What’s new?”, ask “What are we seeing that we didn’t expect?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is already more content on the internet than anyone could reasonably consume. And generative AI is about to make the problem considerably bigger. A company that once produced four blogs a month can now produce forty. Social posts can be generated before breakfast. An acceptable 800-word article can be created in seconds. Everyone can…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5312,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,88],"tags":[18,50],"class_list":["post-5305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content-marketing","category-content-distribution","tag-content-strategy","tag-press-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvoir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvoir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvoir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvoir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvoir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5305"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/newsvoir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5314,"href":"https:\/\/newsvoir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5305\/revisions\/5314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvoir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsvoir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvoir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsvoir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Internet Doesn’t Need Another “Five Trends” Article<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Become the Statistic Everyone Else Quotes: Source Material for PR<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Your Business Is Probably Sitting on Stories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Your Executives Are Source Material Too<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Press Releases Should Carry Information, Not Just Announcements<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Journalists Matter More in a World of Infinite Content<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
From Content Factory to Knowledge Source<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nFrequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What is source material in PR?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Why is original data valuable for PR?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Can press releases be source material?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Does source material help with SEO and AI search visibility?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How can brands find original stories inside their businesses?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Read More About PR, AI and Digital Visibility<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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