Prezly Research · 2025

Most PR teams are optimising for the wrong things. The data proves it.

Based on millions of newsroom visits and emails sent through Prezly in 2025.

5×
Small lists dominate Pitches to small lists get 5× more clicks than mass sends.
54%
Mobile is the majority More than half your newsroom audience is on a phone.
#6
AI is already a channel ChatGPT now sends more traffic to newsrooms than Reddit or Twitter/X.
2×
Longer pitches win 200-word pitches nearly double CTR. Brevity isn't always better.

Here's what the data showed.

Scroll

Prezly perspective

"[ Placeholder: Jesse on why the data surprised him — e.g. 'We assumed PR teams knew where their results were coming from. The data showed most of them were measuring the wrong things entirely.' ]"
Jesse Wynants
Jesse WynantsCo-Founder, Prezly

Introduction

PR works in two directions. Most teams only measure one.

Outbound PR (pitches, campaigns, outreach) is what most teams plan around and report on. But inbound PR, the traffic your newsroom earns through search and AI, is quietly doing just as much work. This report looks at both.

How journalists find your newsroom

Mostly through search. Not through your pitches.

Why list size works against you

The bigger the list, the lower the CTR. Every time, across every size bracket.

Longer pitches outperform shorter ones

The 201–300 word range nearly doubles CTR. Everything you were taught about brevity needs revisiting.

01

Inbound: Newsroom Discovery

Google sends more people to your newsroom than your pitches do.

Prezly newsroom traffic grew 62% last year. Search and AI are sending people to your newsroom whether you planned for it or not.

Traffic breakdown by source type

Traffic split total visits
Search: 65%
Direct: 29%
Social: 5%
AI: 1%

Referral sources ranked by traffic share

Search
Social
AI
Direct / None

Note: Direct / None includes traffic from pitch email links. Most email clients don't pass referrer data, so pitch clicks often appear as direct traffic.

For every person who clicks through from ChatGPT, roughly 50 more saw your content in a response. The visits you track are the tip of the iceberg.

50× For every person who clicks from ChatGPT, 50 more saw your content without clicking Search Engine Journal

Industry context

When AI answers a question about your brand, it's almost certainly pulling from your newsroom. 450× more likely than a press release, to be exact.

A BuzzStream analysis of millions of AI citations (via Search Engine Journal) looked at PR-related citations specifically. Here's where that content came from:

0.2%
Syndicated PR
(Yahoo, MSN)
1.2%
Wire services
(PRNewswire etc.)
98.6%
Owned newsroom
content

Source: Search Engine Journal · BuzzStream / Citation Labs · ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Gemini

"AI's growing role as a discovery engine is remarkable. But for PR and communications professionals, it's essential to remember that AI still depends on existing content."
Shonali Burke
Shonali BurkePR & Communications Strategist

Most of your newsroom audience is on a phone.

PR was built for desktop. The audience moved on.

54.7% Mobile
44.8% Desktop
1.5% Tablet

Prezly perspective

[ Placeholder: Anwer / [Name] on mobile. E.g. "We've been telling customers to think mobile-first for a while, but the data makes it impossible to ignore now. A newsroom that isn't readable on a phone in 2025 is leaving more than half your audience behind." ]
Anwer Ismail
Anwer IsmailHead of Customer Acquisition, Prezly
02

Outbound: Campaign Performance

Better outreach starts with knowing what already works.

Less volume, better targeting. The data says it every time.

Clickthrough rate by list size

The smaller the list, the better it performs. 1–10 contacts average 5× the CTR of 200+ sends.
5× better CTR for lists of <10 people than 200+ Prezly · 2025
"Smaller outreach lists outperforming larger blasts is a good reminder that relevance beats scale. PR teams don't need more volume; they need tighter targeting, better structure, and a clearer understanding of who should receive what."
Gini Dietrich
Gini DietrichFounder & CEO, Spin Sucks · Creator of the PESO Model®

Clickthrough rate by list size: personalised vs non-personalised

Not personalised
Personalised
Personalisation amplifies good targeting. The lift is strongest at 2–25 recipients. It doesn't substitute for a bad list.

Open rate by subject line length

Open rate barely moves with subject line length. What you say matters more than how many words you use.

Clickthrough rate by subject line length

CTR peaks at 20–40 characters and drops sharply below 20. Going short only works if you say something worth opening.

Clickthrough rate by pitch length (word count)

Journalists don't want shorter pitches. They want better ones. The 201–300 word range nearly doubles CTR vs shorter pitches.

Prezly perspective

[ Placeholder: Gijs or Jesse on reporting — e.g. "If you're not reporting on search traffic, AI citations, and direct newsroom visits, you're leaving out a significant part of the value you're creating. Most of the work happens after the pitch goes out." ]
Gijs Nelissen
Gijs NelissenCo-Founder, Prezly
03

Key Takeaways

The best PR teams don't choose between inbound and outbound. They use both.

A newsroom that earns search and AI traffic. Outreach that reaches the right people. This data makes the case for both.

Newsroom discovery
01

You're measuring the wrong thing.

Open rates and clicks miss most of what your content does. Search visits and AI citations don't show up in campaign reports.

+62%newsroom traffic YoY
02

Search is your biggest distribution channel.

Search drove more newsroom visits than direct, social, and AI combined. Your press release has a second audience you're probably not writing for.

#1traffic source across all Prezly newsrooms
03

Wire distribution won't get you into AI answers.

Where you publish determines whether AI finds you. Owned newsroom content gets 450× more AI citations than syndicated PR.

450×more AI citations: owned newsrooms vs. syndicated PR
04

More than half your newsroom audience is on a phone.

Most PR content is still built for desktop. More than half your audience is reading on a phone.

54%of newsroom visits are on mobile
Outreach performance
05

Smaller lists outperform larger ones. Every time.

Pitches to 1–10 contacts average 5× the CTR of sends to 200+. Bigger lists don't mean better results.

5×higher CTR, small lists vs. large
06

Personalisation amplifies a good list. It doesn't fix a bad one.

The CTR lift is strongest at 2–25 recipients. Personalisation rewards good targeting, it doesn't replace it.

+15%CTR lift with personalisation
07

Journalists don't want shorter pitches. They want better ones.

The 201–300 word range nearly doubles CTR. Write the right length, not the shortest length.

2×CTR at 201–300 words vs. shorter pitches
"Consistently posting up-to-date information about your business means it's more likely to be discovered via search, whether traditional SEO or AI-driven search. These findings underscore the importance of maintaining online content beyond pitching PR campaigns."
Michelle Garrett
Michelle GarrettPR Consultant, Garrett Public Relations · Author of B2B PR That Gets Results

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Methodology

About this report

Aggregated, anonymised data from Prezly accounts across 2025. Tens of thousands of campaigns, tens of millions of emails, millions of newsroom pageviews. Traffic analytics powered by Plausible. No individual account data is disclosed.

Findings reflect Prezly-powered activity only and are not representative of the PR industry as a whole. AI referral sources include ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini.