DTC’s Annual Digital PR Media Coverage

How do you measure success for digital PR content campaigns? Beyond tracking increases in organic visibility, brand awareness and domain authority, the most obvious metric is inbound media coverage.

Each year we look back at our annual media coverage for DTC’s digital PR clients to track success and identify changes in what the news industry wants to cover.

2022 Digital PR News Coverage

The news cycle was anything but normal in 2022. Repercussions from the Covid-19 pandemic continued to be a major storyline in local and national outlets, along with inflation, talks of an impending recession, and a volatile housing market. 

Our content and digital PR specialists strategically worked to navigate another tricky news cycle and lean into the top digital PR trends of 2022. 

Common themes in our 2022 digital PR campaigns included health and wellness, the impacts of the economy on personal finance, and real estate/housing topics.

Digital PR Campaigns in 2022

Between December 1, 2021 and November 30, 2022, our agency launched 139 digital PR campaigns for our clients that centered around fresh data and new ideas. These campaigns offered journalists a balance of evergreen narratives and timely newsjacking opportunities to gain widespread coverage. 

We found new ways to get inspired and created unique campaigns that stood out in a crowded news cycle. Our digital PR strategists came up with campaigns that balanced industry relevance with newsworthiness. These campaigns established our clients as subject matter experts on topics like moving trends, consumer shopping habits, eyecare, sports analysis, and much, much more. 

One size does not “fit all” when it comes to data and digital PR. Our clients come from all different industries, but we were able to create newsworthy campaigns for each one via national surveys, data scrapes, and analyses of search trends. 

2022 National News Coverage

Successful digital PR in 2022 connected our clients with the largest and most relevant audiences possible. What better way to grab widespread attention than to earn media coverage in the nation’s leading, marquee publications?

• 818 placements in national publications 
• 90% of placements from DA 50+ websites
• 69% of placements from DA 70+ websites

Earning media coverage in publications with a national audience not only increases a company’s exposure… it also plays a major role in SEO strategy. 

National outlets have an impressive domain authority (DA). Every time they mention or link to our client’s website, search engines take notice and view it as a sign of trust. Google crawls high-DA websites and assigns value to the links they cite. That value carries over to our clients, improving their website’s authority, keyword rankings, and ultimately their visibility in organic search.

2022 Local New Coverage

Local news continued to be a staple of our digital PR strategy in 2022. Roughly half (52%) of our inbound media coverage in 2022 came from the thousands of local television stations, radio stations, and newspapers serving Americans across the United States. These hyper-local digital platforms offer incredible SEO and PR value in the form of strong DAs and high traffic volumes (not to mention opportunities for amplified coverage through syndication). 

This year, our work was featured in 49 of the 50 states, reaching millions of local news consumers.

• 3245 local news placements
• 87% of all designated local media markets (DMAs)
• 42% of links in major media markets

We earned 3245 placements in local newspapers, television stations, and radio stations’ websites over the past 12 months. These digital publications, with geographically diverse audiences, also carry an average domain authority (DA) of 60. Making each local link earned a valuable asset to our clients’ websites.

Local news is often the preferred type of news in many communities across the United States. There are 107 million TV homes in the country broken up across 201 designated market areas (DMA). Our content was shared by 87% of the nation’s media markets.

Local news also carries additional, albeit harder to measure, PR value in the form of broadcast, print, and radio coverage. This year, our clients were featured in 556 different newspapers, 367 television stations, and 565 radio stations. 

DMAs are designated by population, with the top markets reaching the greatest potential viewerships in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. And of our total local news placements,  42% of all local placements earned by our clients’ research occurred in the 30 largest media markets in the US. Taking advantage of opportunities for coverage in both local and national media outlets is one of our top digital PR tips from 2022.

2021: Digital PR Media Coverage

The volatility of the 2020 news cycle carried over to 2021. Our content creators and outreach strategists navigated a particularly fickle news cycle dominated by the Covid-19 crisis, political unrest, and economic uncertainty.

Roughly half of our research supplemented the themes and trends we saw in our news feeds and watched on our TVs. Here’s what media coverage for DTC clients in 2021 panned out…

What our Digital PR team did in 2021

Between December 1, 2020 and November 30, 2021, our agency launched 75 pieces of content for our clients. These campaigns newsjacked media trends to gain widespread news coverage, and identified key themes in media appetites. 

We worked diligently to find tangential research topics that established our clients as subject matter experts, and were also newsworthy enough to capture the attention of journalists and lead to news stories.

The campaigns consisted of consumer and national surveys, data scrapes, as well analyses of search behaviors. While the topics varied from client to client, many campaigns shared a common theme of pandemic-related impacts on American life.

2021 National News Coverage

Successful digital PR connects businesses with the largest and more relevant audiences possible. What better way to grab widespread attention than to earn media coverage in the nation’s leading, marquee publications.

• 2658 national placements
• 64% of placements from DA 50+ websites
• 30% of placements from DA 70+ websites

What exactly does “national” news coverage look like? Here are just a few examples of the national media outlets that featured our digital PR clients’ work:

From an SEO perspective, publications with national audiences always maintain a high DA (Domain Authority). Which is why we pursue and build relationships with journalists at these leading media outlets by regularly producing data of interest to their target audiences.

Think of an inbound link as a digital signal of trust. Each time we earn linking media coverage from outlets like the Washington Post, or ABC News, some of those website’s credibility was passed along to our clients. Search engines, like Google, crawl high-DA websites and assign value and digital trust in the links they cite. Those citations can also lead to increases in referral traffic to our clients’ websites by curious readers looking to learn more about their digital PR research.

These evaluations can improve the ranking of our clients’ websites in organic search results. Not just for keywords found on the content pages, but other targeted keywords clients pursue for business-building purposes.

2021 Local News Coverage

Local news continued to be a staple of our digital PR strategy in 2021. We earned inbound media coverage from the thousands of local television and radio stations, newspapers, and hyper-local digital platforms. Each placement offers incredible SEO and PR value (and opportunities for amplified coverage through syndication). 

This year, our work was featured in all 50 states, reaching millions of local news consumers.

• 1480  local news placements
• 80% of all designated local media markets (DMAs)
• 49% of links in major media markets

One of the many benefits of local news coverage is the opportunity for geographic diversity of media placements. In reaching 80% of the nation’s designated media markets, our clients’ content spread far and wide across the United States.https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/PzPdT/5/

The 1400+ local news placement we earned had an average domain authority of 64, which transfers significant weight and strength to our clients’ websites.

Local news also carries additional, albeit harder to measure, PR value in the form of broadcast, print, and radio coverage. This year, our clients were featured by 411 newspapers, 500 television stations, and 467 radio stations, earning valuable brand mentions and linking coverage nationwide.

Our digital PR content earned repeated media coverage in top media markets including Chicago (#3), Philadelphia (#4), and New York City (#1). We tracked dozens of television segments, radio spots, and newspaper articles in these impressive market spaces.

Local news is often the most preferred type of news in many communities across the United States. There are 107 million TV homes in the country broken up across 201 designated market areas (DMA), according to Neilsen. Our content was shared by 81% of the nation’s media markets.

DMAs are designated by population, with the top markets reaching the greatest potential viewership in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. At the end of the year, 49% of all local placements occurred in the 30 largest media markets in the US.

2020: Digital PR Media Coverage

Between December 1, 2019 and November 30, 2020, our agency launched 60 digital PR campaigns for our clients. The campaigns were grounded in data and defined by tangentially relevant research topics. We selectively chose topics that could both establish our clients as subject matter experts, and appear newsworthy enough to capture the attention of the media.

Depending on the client and content focus, we turned to different modes of data collection to produce our research. Some campaigns consisted of consumer and national surveys, others scraped public data bases for trends and demographics information, while others dove deep into Google Trends to reveal insights into search behavior.

Even though the content topics varied from client-to-client, many digital PR campaigns in 2020 found ways to reflect how the global Covid-19 pandemic actively influenced different spheres of life.

2020 National News Coverage

Digital PR aims to connect brands of all shapes and sizes to the largest audience possible. What better way to do that than secure media coverage in the nation’s leading publications?

Over the past 12 months, our content marketing and digital PR teams secured impressive national news coverage:

• 1,441 national placements
• 47% of placements from DA 50+ websites
• 26% of placements from DA 70+ websites

Not only do national publications reach an enormous audience, they also maintain substantial domain authorities; making them incredibly desirable for link builders.

If inbound links are a sign of trust, then a referring link from Newsweek or CBS News signals to search engines that a website is an extremely trustworthy source.

From an SEO perspective, inbound links from national media carry with them some of their host website’s domain authority (DA). Nearly half of the placements we earned from publications with a national audience had a domain authority over 50. While one-quarter of the national placements we secured had a domain authority above 70.

From a PR perspective, a brand mention in one of these leading publications ostensibly conveys credibility. If ABC News cites your company’s research, then it’s often viewed by other journalists and audiences as a trustworthy source of information.

For these reasons, and more, our digital PR strategists constantly pursue and build relationships with journalists at national media outlets. Open lines of communication, consistent content, and strategic outreach provide our clients ongoing access and exposure for future content campaigns.

2020 Local News Coverage

In 2020, local news continued to be a staple of our digital PR strategy. 

While many may assume local news is an imperfect fit for their brand or marketing strategies, we see the bigger picture. We understand that there are inherent SEO benefits when you secure inbound placements on local media. Local news outlets, like national media, have high-DA websites. Any inbound link earned from those sites carries with it the authority and reputation of the platform.

This year, our work was featured in 48 states and 407 cities, reaching millions of local news consumers via content syndication and original placements.

• 1213 local news placements
• 82% of all designated local media markets (DMAs)
• 46% of links in major media markets

The average local news placement we earned in 2020, had a domain authority of 66.5. With more than 1,200 local placements, that’s a significant number of links carrying impressive SEO value.

Local news also carries additional, albeit harder to measure, PR value in the form of broadcast, print, and radio coverage across geographically diverse audiences.

There are 107 million TV homes across the country. Homes and local news audiences are broken up into 201 designated market areas (DMAs). DMAs are designated by population, with the top markets reaching the greatest potential viewership in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

This year, our clients’ research was featured by 308 newspapers, 421 television stations, and 352 radio stations. Further analysis revealed that our clients’ content was featured in 82% of the nation’s media markets. With 46% of the total local news placements occurring in the 30 largest media markets; reaching a potential audience of nearly 58 million viewers.

Not to mention, local news is often the most preferred type of news in many communities across the United States. A survey conducted in April revealed that local news is the preferred source of information for 32% of news viewers.

Combine the potential audience reach with the sheer volume of local news outlets, and local news coverage is ostensibly valuable from SEO and digital PR perspectives. For these reasons, and more, many of our content campaigns contained localized elements to make them more appealing to local journalists.

2019: Digital PR Media Coverage

We ended the decade with our best year of media coverage to-date. From features in major national news outlets to local news segments and articles across the US–2019 represents a new level of outreach success for DTC’s clients.

Between December 1, 2018, and November 30, 2019, Digital Third Coast launched 58 content marketing campaigns. These data-rich pieces consisted of surveys, data scrapes, and Google Trends analyses covering a range of topics from personal finance to travel to career development.

The graphics and research tapped into the year’s news cycles, earning our clients 3,083 media placements across 2,016 unique media outlets (including 117 overseas). 

2019 National News Coverage

• 2,760 total backlinks
• 26% of placements from DA 80+ websites
• 67% of placements from DA 50+ websites
• 695 national news placements

In 2019 we maintained a strong focus on getting our client’s content featured in national news publications for two primary reasons: audience size, and the value of the publications’ domain authorities.

This strategy of digital PR, focused on getting our clients featured in national news outlets; thus allowing our clients’ brands to be exposed to larger audiences and often leads to increased web traffic. When it comes to domain authority (DA), a metric developed by MOZ, national news outlets are extremely authoritative. 

The higher the DA, the stronger a link from that website is. Think of a link as a vote of trust from one website to another. Our objective with our outreach strategy is to earn as many high authority backlinks as possible to strengthen the domain authority of our clients’ websites. National media outlets also have the added benefit of name recognition. Audiences trust the sources cited by the national media; when our clients’ work is referenced in these types of publications, that credibility transfers to them.

2019 A Unique Approach: Local News

Half of our total media coverage in 2019 was earned in local news markets. Many PR agencies focus solely on pursuing national and digital publications when building backlink profiles, while we execute a more holistic approach to digital PR that recognizes the value of local television, radio, and newspaper to amplify coverage geographically.

2019 Media Coverage Highlights

• Coverage in all 50 states & 477 cities
• 1,545 placements in local publications
• 454 (30%) of local placements in “Top 25” media markets

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The average domain authority of the 1,545 local news placements we secured in 2019 is 65, which carries significant weight and strength to our clients’ backlink profiles. Local news also produces an added PR value in the form of television and radio coverage. Our clients’ combined works were featured on 565 television stations’ websites across the country, including several on-air reports, as well as 348 radio station websites, and 356 digital and print news articles. 

Important to note is the potential audience base of this type of local news coverage. Roughly one-third of all local placements earned by our clients’ research occurred in the 25 largest media markets in the US. Local news markets are ranked by population. The largest television media markets have the greatest potential viewership; including New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc. The top-25 television media markets have a potential audience of more than 55 million homes.

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