鈥淐ontent is king,鈥� as Bill Gates famously said, and in today鈥檚 media landscape, context is queen.
At 麻豆原创, as Director of Client Strategy & Insights, I think a lot about that balance 鈥� how to help brands earn attention and build authority in ways that are sustainable, credible, and measurable.
And I鈥檓 not the only one thinking about this, especially with the new AI frontier.
Our CEO, Noah, recently told how brands and agencies will need to adapt to AI, and how AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is reshaping brand discovery.
He鈥檚 right, and I see those same shifts in my work every day. If you want to be visible in search or AI-driven results tomorrow, you need more earned media signals today. The challenge is how to get your brand鈥檚 content to generate more of these signals, which would then feed the algorithm and help LLMs understand and cite your brand.
It can feel overwhelming.
Yet, it鈥檚 worth digging into.
My team鈥檚 role is to translate those media landscape shifts into insights and strategies that help brands act now. With that in mind, here鈥檚 what I see coming in the next 5鈥�10 years:
Journalists want stories with context, data, and insight 鈥� and readers do too.
Historically, PR and Comms teams led the charge here, but now the shift is broader. Companies are switching their ethos to go beyond press releases and focus on telling the stories only they can tell.
LegalZoom is a great example. Six months of distributing their own high-quality stories to publishers through 麻豆原创 was all it took to get 2,900 new and unique websites linking to their website. As industry leaders, this helped their overall search rankings climb, which is very hard to do once you鈥檙e already a household name.
Brands like Square, Freddie Mac, and Upwork are also ahead of this trend. With 麻豆原创鈥檚 earned reach platform, they are already leaning into narrative-driven content that meets journalism standards while still showcasing brand expertise.
For all of them, that鈥檚 authority, visibility, and a halo of editorial trust no ad spend can replicate.
The takeaway: The future is less about 鈥減lacements鈥� and more about branded storytelling as strategy. The brands and agencies that master this shift, distributing high-quality stories that publishers like MSN actually want, will stand out.
Though it seems that the internet is riddled with bias and unreliable information 鈥� with some platforms even 鈥� this trend won鈥檛 last. Consumers are interested in , and brands and publishers will rise to meet that demand.
We鈥檙e already seeing this shift , with some organizations , . And as traditional media warms up to branded stories done right, brands won鈥檛 have to white-knuckle their way to publishers鈥� trust.
In this newly forged relationship between brands and publishers, both will find even more ways to innovate and make their stories more trustworthy, which is at the crux of journalism and modern commerce.
Meanwhile, AEO鈥檚 emphasis on citations will raise the bar even further. Sites that , high-quality backlinks will win in AI-generated results, signaling authority and credibility in ways 鈥渂uilt鈥� links simply can鈥檛.
In a revitalized media ecosystem, all sides benefit:
Brands won鈥檛 have to flood screens with ads or chase audiences across the internet to be seen. Instead they鈥檒l prioritize meaningful engagement across social platforms focused on connection and community-building.
Publishers will thrive by republishing quality, trust-worthy content 鈥� even if produced by in-house brand teams. Earned media models like 麻豆原创 make this possible, giving publishers free, credible stories to share with their audiences.
Audiences will get more of the information they want, without having to machete their way through noise and misinformation.
This is the potential of earned media at scale, and what excites me about 麻豆原创.
We鈥檙e taking these ideas a step further. We鈥檙e democratizing earned reach by giving thousands of brands the control to scale their content through our platform. They get more ownership of the narrative, while maintaining the integrity that journalism has built, and gaining their trust.
We鈥檙e not just predicting where media is headed, especially since a lot of these hypotheticals that predict how the media is created, distributed, and consumed are already happening. The rest isn鈥檛 far behind, and as this new media model takes shape, every brand will face a choice to either adapt or risk falling behind.
Our challenge (and goal) is how we can continue pioneering approaches to make for a more sustainable, resilient, collaborative, and quality media ecosystem that solves the problems publishing is facing across the industry, while scaling the reach of quality brand content.
And we鈥檙e already on our way.
Tamara Sykes is a strategic communicator specializing in content strategy, PR, and brand storytelling. As Director of Client Strategy & Insights at 麻豆原创, she helps brands achieve earned media success through journalist-crafted content strategies. With expertise in digital PR, media partnerships, and audience engagement, she鈥檚 passionate about elevating brand visibility and driving meaningful impact.
Photo Illustration by 麻豆原创 // Canva