Source [De]Coded — Two-thirds of journalists are waiting for your pitch. No pressure.
Author
Greg Mondshein & Becky Honeyman
05.21.2026
Hey Team,
Planning season might be a marathon, but we are absolutely crushing it right now. We officially locked in Arccos, golf’s #1 game tracking platform as our newest agency of record, and today we are celebrating yet another massive addition to the family by announcing Breezy as our latest AOR win.
For those across the pond or looking for an excuse to fly over, Giles is hosting a panel session on June 3rd, titled Zero-Click News & AI Search: What It Means for Brands and Media. It features an elite lineup of reporters from City AM and The Telegraph, so make sure you lock in your spot.
Separately, all of this growth is happening against a backdrop where everyone is trying to figure out what value actually looks like anymore. The recent POSSIBLE 2026 conference made it incredibly obvious that AI is leveling the playing field on basic execution, a reality Christa just broke down in her latest blog post. It is a world where reach and production capacity are no longer a defensible advantage because anyone with a prompt can create output. The brands and agencies winning right now are the ones that realize AI hasn’t replaced agency value, it has just called the bluff on empty scale and forced us to finally explain what that human strategy is actually worth.
This shift toward genuine strategy and navigating the AI shift is exactly what separates the brands that stick from the ones just lighting money on fire to feel productive. Let’s dig into what is shaking up the industry this week, starting with why AI is forcing a total rewrite of how we define our worth.
Let’s get into it.
Becky and Greg
The narrative around AI search and SEO has reached peak hysteria — but the data tells a much more nuanced story
SourceCode’s latest data deep dive cuts through the market panic to look at what is actually happening to organic discovery in 2026.
TL;DR: While headlines scream that AI Overviews and chatbots are an extinction-level event for SEO, the reality is far more complex. Gartner’s prediction of a 25% drop in traditional search volume is clashing with actual market data: Graphite and Similarweb found organic traffic across the top 40,000 US websites dropped just 2.5% year-over-year. The truth is that the search pie is expanding rather than shrinking—total search usage across traditional and AI platforms has actually increased by 26% globally since ChatGPT launched.
Takeaway: The AI search conversation has been flooded by vendor hype designed to make marketers feel permanently behind. The real story isn’t that search is dying; it’s that it is fragmenting and shifting toward informational queries. Mid-sized sites are taking single-digit hits, while commerce and marketplaces are actually growing. When total query volume goes up but user behavior shifts toward zero-click summaries, the solution isn’t to dump your SEO budget into an unproven “AI optimization” tool. The fix is systemic: communications, content, and search can no longer operate as separate fiefdoms. Winning requires a unified strategy that optimizes for how real people navigate this new ecosystem, not how algorithms panic-react to it.
Consider:
- For marketers, have you actually looked at your data to map your real AI traffic exposure, or are you altering your marketing mix based on forward-looking analyst predictions?
- For communications leaders, how are you integrating your PR and search teams to ensure your brand’s authority carries weight in both traditional index results and AI-generated summaries?
AI is not replacing agency value — it’s forcing agencies to finally explain what that value actually is
The POSSIBLE 2026 conference surfaced a real strategic tension: AI is levelling the playing field on execution, so differentiation now lives somewhere harder to fake.
TL;DR:
Harmelin’s roundup of POSSIBLE 2026 highlights how AI is fundamentally shifting the agency value proposition — compressing timelines, enabling smaller players to compete on outcomes, and pushing the industry toward a results-first model. The conference consensus: reach is no longer a defensible advantage, and neither is production capacity.
Takeaway:
When AI makes execution table stakes, the question every agency and brand team has to answer is: what do we actually sell? For too long, scale and speed were proxies for competence — AI has just called the bluff. The marketers who will win aren’t those with the most tools; they’re the ones who can still articulate a clear point of view on what good looks like and why it matters. This is less a technology story than a strategy story wearing a technology costume.
Consider:
- For marketers, if AI is handling more of your execution, are you investing the time you’re saving into sharpening your strategic brief — or just producing more output?
- For communications leaders, how are you articulating the human judgment and institutional knowledge your team brings that an AI workflow genuinely cannot replicate?
Discounting is a habit brands keep choosing, and there are eight ways to break it
New research from Talon.One makes the case that creative promotions — not price cuts — are what actually build long-term loyalty and protect margin.
TL;DR:
Presented at VML’s Growth Summit in Amsterdam, Talon.One’s research identifies eight “creative currencies” — including exclusivity, experience, and personalisation — that brands can use instead of defaulting to discounts. The argument is straightforward: discounting trains customers to wait for sales, erodes perceived value, and is extraordinarily hard to walk back once it becomes expected.
Takeaway:
The discount death spiral is well-documented, and yet brands keep entering it — usually because discounting is fast, measurable, and easy to defend in a quarterly review. What this research offers is not a new idea so much as a structured vocabulary for the harder conversation: how do you make customers feel rewarded without teaching them that your product isn’t worth full price? The answer almost always involves creativity and specificity, which require more investment upfront and pay off on a timeline that doesn’t always fit the reporting cycle. That’s the real obstacle, not the lack of alternatives.
Consider:
- For marketers, which of your current promotional mechanics are building genuine affinity with customers — and which are quietly training them to devalue your brand?
- For communications leaders, when your brand runs a promotion, is the story you’re telling about value and experience, or are you just amplifying a price signal?
Journalists are leaning on PR more than ever — which is both an opportunity and a responsibility
Cision’s 2026 State of the Media Report finds two-thirds of journalists now rely on PR as a primary source, a number that should prompt serious reflection across the industry.
TL;DR:
Cision’s 2026 State of the Media Report reveals that 66% of journalists now cite PR as a primary source for story ideas — a figure that reflects the structural pressures on modern newsrooms, including reduced headcount, compressed deadlines, and the growing volume of AI-generated content competing for attention. PR has quietly become load-bearing infrastructure for journalism.
Takeaway:
This data is genuinely significant, but it cuts both ways. Yes, PR has more influence in the story pipeline than it has had in decades — that is not a small thing. But influence without credibility is short-lived, and the implication of this finding is that the communications industry now carries a real responsibility for the quality and integrity of what it puts in front of journalists. The brands and agencies that treat this as leverage to push product narratives harder will eventually find the door closed. The ones who treat it as a mandate to provide genuinely useful, accurate, and relevant information will build durable media relationships that hold up even when the news cycle isn’t in their favour.
Consider:
- For marketers, given that your PR efforts are more likely than ever to directly shape editorial coverage, are your pitches and materials genuinely newsworthy — or are they dressed-up brand messaging?
- For communications leaders, how are you ensuring your team understands that the credibility of the relationships they’re building depends on what they send, not just how often they send it?