How to make the case for brand journalism

Amid continued turmoil in the news business, recent surveys strengthen the case for a shift from traditional public relations to brand journalism to connect directly with audiences using the tools of reporting and storytelling.

Brand journalism fills the gap created by the steadily falling number of mainstream journalists, which means many good stories go untold. Meanwhile, marketing teams can’t count on search engines and social media to deliver people to corporate web sites.

Like the glam-rock band Mötley Crüe sang in 1989, “Now it’s time for a change.”

Brand journalism is a management tool that uncovers the best stories about an organization. It establishes a hub-and-spoke structure with the comms team at the center. It then builds a following by focusing on what audiences want to learn and need to know rather than on what the organization wants to promote.

For communication leaders thinking of making the leap, this is the case for brand journalism, 2026 edition.

Less from search
Communications teams have tried to offset the decline in so-called “earned media” by catering to Google to drive traffic to their corporate websites.

Yet those websites are likely to see the same reduced referrals from search engines that news sites are experiencing.

Google traffic from organic search to nearly 800 news sites fell 38% in the U.S. during the 12 months ending November 2025, according to a report issued Jan. 12, 2026, by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. This’ll likely get worse.

“Publishers expect traffic from search engines to almost halve (-43%) over the next three years, following recent dramatic declines in referrals from social media,” according to a survey of 280 news media executives included in the Reuters report.

Google’s AI generated summaries of search results, called AI Overviews increase the number of “zero-click searches” in which a user doesn’t select any links, the Reuters report notes, although the company denies this.

Social media
The drop in search engine traffic is bad enough, but it comes on top of a steady decline in referrals from social media.

More than half of adults  say they get at least some news from social media, according to a Pew Research Center survey  released in September. Yet social media sites aren’t sending those people to the original internet sources.

The number of clicks from social  media posts to the top 100 global news sites have fallen by nearly 30% over the last three years, according to a report by Similarweb released in October.

Traffic fell to 1.218 billion in September 2025, from 1.732 billion in September 2022, the internet research firm said.

Video on social media has grown in popularity, surpassing posts that require a click. Moreover, video offers few opportunities to link out to a website. LinkedIn and X have also reduced the visibility of posts with links to encourage people to stay on the platforms.

Fewer reporters
Meanwhile, the number of local journalists has dropped 75% since 2002, according to a report released in July by Muck Rack, public relations data firm, and Rebuild Local News, an advocacy group that favors government support of local news media.

“Many counties with large populations — including big cities — are severely undercovered,” the report says.

No wonder that just 36% of people say they’re following the news closely compared to 51% in 2016, according to Pew survey released in December.

Journalists not responding to story pitches has long been a problem for PR pros. That’s seemingly getting worse, according to a survey of PR pros by Muck Rack released in August.

Low response rate from journalists was the biggest obstacle last year to placing stories in the news media, cited by 72% of those surveyed. Smaller or shrinking media lists was the second most common challenge, cited by 62%.

Shared problem
Large corporations share a problem with the news media ― a lack of trust.

Just 28% of people have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in newspapers, television and radio to report the news fully, accurately and fairly, according to a Gallup survey released in October. Yet just 15% of people have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in big business, Gallup found.

To be sure, some brands are beloved. But those brands have overcome widespread skepticism about business.

Catherine Happer, a professor of media sociology at the University of Glasgow, has conducted focus groups to study people’s views of the news media since 2011.

“Focus group participants told me and my colleagues over many hours of discussions that they see mainstream journalism as being bound up with a political system that is failing,” she wrote in an article published by The Conversation in November.

People increasingly may feel the same way about business. The percentage of Americans who say big business is the biggest threat to the country has jumped to 37%, up from 26% in 2016, Gallup found this month. The percentage of Americans who say big government is the biggest threat has fallen to 57%, down from 67% in 2016.

What to do
Brand journalism builds the trust with audiences that is lacking. Well-reported stories are more persuasive than self-serving press releases. Organizations that practice brand journalism still pitch stories to the media. But their pitches are based on reporting and writing that journalists recognize and respect.

Most important, brand journalism stories can go direct to targeted audiences through e-mail newsletters and by posting on website pages that already get regular traffic.

Corporate communications, both internal and external, have seldom been harder. Comms teams that embrace brand journalism are rejuvenated.

As Vince Neil, the front man for Mötley Crüe, once said, “You may have crap that wants to drag you down, but if you really like what you’re doing, there’s always a silver lining.”