For decades, B2B companies relied on trade press to explain their categories. A specialist reporter covered the beat, interviewed the leaders, compared vendors and told buyers what mattered. That system is shrinking fast.

State of Brand’s October report collected the cuts. Future plc let go of Android Central’s six remaining employees. McClatchy laid off more than 90 people, with some newsrooms losing upwards of 40% of staff. Future told investors its audience had fallen roughly 20% in each of its last two financial halves. One industry analysis puts the ratio at about six PR people for every working journalist.

Fewer reporters, same appetite

Buyers haven’t stopped wanting expert explanations of their market. They’re getting them from fewer places, and increasingly from people inside the industry.

Journalists who remain are stretched. In Cision’s latest survey, 49% of journalists said resource constraints were their biggest problem, and Muck Rack found 86% still take at least some story ideas from pitches. A company with a credible expert who can explain a trend clearly is more useful to an overworked reporter than ever.

Why this matters for AI answers

The shift has a second effect that most leadership teams haven’t noticed yet. AI engines lean heavily on journalism and third-party sources. Muck Rack’s study of 25 million links cited by ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini found 84% came from earned media. State of Brand also reported that identical content was cited 8% of the time on a brand’s own site and 34% of the time when it ran on a third-party outlet.

So as trade coverage shrinks, there’s less independent material for AI to draw on, and the companies whose leaders are quoted, interviewed and published elsewhere get a larger share of the answers.

Companies are starting to report on their own markets

Some companies have already moved. Ford brought on a former AP bureau chief as editor-in-chief. Autodesk and the recruiter LHH both advertised for editors-in-chief this year. Robinhood hired former Verge editor Josh Topolsky in 2023 to build Sherwood. Andreessen Horowitz has spent the past year building a new media team with in-house writers and producers.

Not every company needs a newsroom. But every company in a specialist B2B category needs at least one or two people who can cover what’s happening in the market credibly, in public, on a regular schedule.

Why that person should be a leader

Corporate blogs rarely fill the gap, because readers discount content that sounds like marketing. A named senior leader with real experience is different. Readers follow people. Journalists quote people. Conference programmers invite people.

The best candidates are usually leaders who already talk to customers and see patterns across many accounts: a CTO, a head of product, a chief customer officer. They don’t need to become reporters. They need to share what they’re seeing, with enough specificity that it’s useful.

What covering the category looks like

• A regular read on the market. A short monthly piece on what customers are asking about and what’s changing.

• Clear takes on news. When something significant happens in the category, a quick, informed view within days.

• Data where you have it. Anonymised patterns from your own work are often more useful than anything a reporter can find.

• Help for the remaining press. Make your leaders easy to quote: clear expertise, available, and willing to say something specific.

Where to start

Pick one leader and one theme. Commit to a monthly piece and a weekly short post for a quarter, and track whether journalists, event organisers and AI engines start citing you.

AstrolabeX shows which sources AI engines cite for your category today and who they name. Our Founding Teams program helps leadership teams take on this role together.

Sources

• State of Brand: The reporters covering your industry are disappearing (Oct 2026)