Help a Reporter Out (HARO), the platform connecting journalists with expert sources, today published a report titled “What is PR in 2026?” based on interviews with 39 public relations practitioners. The report identifies 38 distinct practices organized across eight themes, highlighting the evolving nature of the industry.
The central finding: PR now serves two audiences—the people who read a story and the AI systems that summarize it. Practitioners described an emerging discipline of “machine relations” alongside traditional media relations, while insisting that human work that machines cannot do has become the industry’s differentiator.
Key findings from the report include that AI answer engines are now a primary PR surface. Practitioners conduct prompt research, reverse engineer AI answer summaries across models, and optimize content for citations. Earned media does double duty: one practitioner’s 16-month analysis of 166 media placements found 84% landed in outlets with measurable AI visibility in large language models. Another agency’s client research found that 30-45% of AI prompt answers draw on editorial and earned media.
The press landscape has fragmented into a longer tail, with op-eds, industry trade publications, independent Substacks, and source-request platforms replacing single big-splash placements. Creators now function as media outlets, as PR teams research influencers like journalists, commission editorial-style content, and broker non-paid YouTube collaborations.
The human layer is the differentiator: as AI-generated pitches flood journalist inboxes, practitioners are returning to phone calls, in-person events, and long-term journalist relationships. “HARO has sat at the intersection of journalists and sources since 2008, so we hear how the job is changing from both sides,” said Brett Farmiloe, CEO of Featured, which owns and operates HARO. “The biggest shift in 2026 is that every placement now has two audiences: the readers who see the story, and the machines that cite it. The practitioners in this report are mastering both.”
The report opens with Devon Blaine, who has owned and operated The Blaine Group for 51 years. “PR has always been about delivering a timely and honest message in an interesting way,” said Blaine. The full report, including all 38 practices and a practitioner FAQ, is available at https://blog.helpareporter.com/what-is-pr/.
This report underscores the importance of adapting PR strategies to the dual-audience reality, where visibility in AI summaries is as crucial as traditional media coverage.
