Opinion: Why PR agencies should budget for publisher support

For too long, parts of the PR industry have sold "earned" coverage as if media were a free utility: pitch the story, land the mention, send the report, move on.

That model is broken.

Not because journalism no longer matters, or because clients no longer need credible media. It is broken because the economics behind specialist publishing have changed.

At TechDay, advertising bookings are now effectively zero. That should shock people.

The money has not disappeared from the market. Brands are still spending on paid social, creators, content marketing, events, webinars, sponsored distribution, podcasts, and thought leadership. But too little of that money reaches the specialist publishers that create trusted editorial environments, build industry audiences, and give PR campaigns somewhere credible to land.

At TechDay, we have stopped pretending the old model is coming back.

Between 2024 and 2025, TechDay grew by 40%, built on sponsored content, commercial partnerships, and PR agency budgets. That growth came from agencies that understood a simple point: if you sell your ability to secure media outcomes, you also need to help fund the ecosystem that makes those outcomes possible.

This is not pay-for-play. It is not hidden influence. It is not a backdoor route to editorial coverage. It is about building a healthier media ecosystem where small, specialist publishers are not expected to subsidise the communications campaigns of massive global corporations.

Earned media was never truly free. Publishers carried the cost through advertising, print revenue, subscriptions, events, directories, and other commercial models. As those income streams have dried up, the expectation that publishers can keep absorbing the cost of everyone else's campaigns no longer works.

PR agencies still need strong publishers. They need titles that understand the market, know the audience, separate signal from noise, and provide a credible environment for their clients' ideas. They need publishers with editors on the ground, not just centralised content desks recycling global announcements.

That is exactly where TechDay is investing. We are putting serious money into editors around the world, strengthening local coverage, backing more non-commercial stories, and building deeper editorial capacity in the markets we serve.

That work costs money. It takes editors, production, systems, audience development, newsletters, publishing platforms, and local market knowledge.

It also matters more than ever.

Trade media is becoming part of the infrastructure behind AI visibility. The old SEO world was about links, rankings, keywords, and search traffic. The new world is about whether brands appear accurately and credibly in AI-generated answers.

Call it AEO, AIO, GEO, AI search visibility, or generative engine optimisation. The acronym matters less than the reality.

When customers, partners, investors, analysts, buyers, and journalists ask AI tools about a company, category, trend, or technology, those systems look for credible third-party sources. They do not rely only on a company's own website. They look for independent signals, corroboration, and trusted media coverage.

That makes trade media like TechDay more important, not less.

Muck Rack's research makes this clear: earned media and journalistic content are central to how AI systems find, interpret, and cite information. A story in a credible specialist publication is no longer just a media hit. It is a reputation asset, a discoverability asset, and part of the evidence base AI systems may use to understand a company, product, market, or executive.

This is exactly why publisher support belongs in the budget.

The most successful agencies we work with already understand this. They are asking clients to add a dedicated publisher-support allocation on top of their existing PR retainer or project fee, typically between 7% and 12%.

That money is not an agency margin grab. It is not a hidden fee. It is not a vague "media relations" charge. It is a transparent budget line for paid publisher support programmes.

At TechDay, this is exactly what we are advocating for.

If a client is paying an agency to build visibility, credibility, and influence in a specialist market, then part of that communications budget should support the specialist publishers that make those outcomes possible.

That budget can be used for clearly labelled commercial activity: sponsored articles, newsletters, interviews, webinars, podcasts, research, events, and other publisher-led formats. It does not buy editorial coverage, guarantee favourable reporting, or replace earned media. It simply recognises that a healthy media ecosystem needs commercial support.

There is a hard truth here. Clients cannot keep expecting credible specialist publishers to cover their industries while none of their budget reaches those publishers. Agencies cannot keep promising media outcomes while ignoring the collapse of the commercial model that supports media. Publishers cannot keep pretending that exposure, goodwill, and "relationship building" will pay salaries.

At TechDay, we are a small business. Many of the companies seeking coverage through PR agencies are large, profitable, multinational corporations. It is not sustainable for small publishers to subsidise the communications activity of companies many times their size.

That is not a media strategy. That is extraction.

Clients already understand paid social, creator partnerships, content marketing, events, webinars, research, and sponsored distribution. Now they need to understand publisher support.

In an AI-driven information environment, credible third-party media is not a nice-to-have. It is part of how brands are found, understood, cited, and trusted.

This does not replace earned media. Editorial independence still matters. Journalistic judgement still matters. Genuine news value still matters. But the commercial model around it has to mature.

A serious agency should be able to say to a client:

"We will pursue earned coverage where there is genuine news value. But we also recommend a dedicated publisher-support budget so we can invest in credible, clearly labelled commercial partnerships with the specialist media your audience already trusts."

That is not a weakness in the PR model. It is an upgrade.

At TechDay, we are proud of the business we are building. We are growing, hiring, investing in editors on the ground, and increasing our focus on local stories and non-commercial coverage.

But we are also being clear. The old model is gone.

Advertising bookings are not coming back in the way they once existed. Specialist publishers cannot survive on unpaid PR support, friendly relationships, and the hope that someone else will fund the journalism.

The future of media is not earned or paid. It is both: clearly labelled, properly separated, and commercially sustainable.

The message to PR agencies is simple: if you want strong specialist publishers in your media plans, put them in your budgets. If you want credible third-party signals for AEO, AIO, GEO, and AI search visibility, put specialist media in your budgets.

Not as charity. Not as pity. As strategy.

Because clients do not benefit when the publications they rely on disappear. And in the AI era, they may not even be found.