Press clippings

Press clippings are individual instances of media coverage that mention your brand, product, executive, or organisation. The term originates from the practice of physically cutting out newspaper articles, but in modern usage it encompasses all forms of earned media: online articles, print features, television segments, radio mentions, and podcast appearances.

Press clippings matter because earned media carries credibility that paid media cannot replicate. When a respected publication writes about your brand, their editorial endorsement transfers trust to your brand in a way that an advertisement in the same publication does not. This third-party validation influences brand perception, drives referral traffic, supports SEO through backlinks, and contributes to the brand awareness that generates branded search traffic.

However, not all press clippings are equal. A feature article in a tier-one national publication is worth far more than a brief mention in a niche trade blog. A positive review drives business results while a negative investigative piece can cause damage. For this reason, modern PR measurement goes beyond simple clipping counts to assess quality dimensions including publication authority, article prominence, sentiment, message penetration, and audience reach.

The metric is typically tracked using media monitoring services such as Meltwater, Cision, or Mention, which scan thousands of publications and alert you to new coverage. These platforms also provide analytics on reach, sentiment, and share of voice relative to competitors.

Press clipping measurement ranges from simple counts to sophisticated scoring models. The simplest approach counts total mentions per month or quarter. This is easy to track but fails to distinguish between a passing reference and an in-depth feature.

A more useful approach scores each clipping on quality dimensions and aggregates the weighted scores. Common quality factors include publication tier (national, regional, trade, blog), placement type (feature, mention, quote, brief), sentiment (positive, neutral, negative), message penetration (whether key messages appeared in the coverage), and estimated audience reach.

Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE), which estimates what equivalent paid media space would cost, was once the standard PR measurement approach but has been widely discredited. Industry bodies including AMEC (the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication) recommend against using AVE because it conflates editorial coverage with advertising and produces inflated, meaningless numbers.

Modern best practice connects press clippings to downstream business metrics: referral traffic from publications, branded search volume changes following major coverage, and sentiment shifts captured through brand tracking surveys.

Press clippings sit in the brand awareness layer of the marketing metric tree. They are an output of PR activities and an input to brand awareness metrics like branded search traffic, referral traffic, and ultimately brand recall.

The tree shows that press clippings are one of three pillars of brand awareness alongside paid and owned media. Within the earned media branch, clipping volume is driven by the quantity and quality of PR activities, while clipping impact depends on coverage quality factors.

The connection between press clippings and downstream metrics is often indirect but measurable. A major media feature typically produces a spike in branded search traffic within 24 to 48 hours, a surge in referral traffic from the publication, and a gradual increase in direct traffic as word of mouth spreads the coverage further.

1. 1

   Build genuine journalist relationships

   Invest in long-term relationships with journalists who cover your industry. Provide helpful commentary, data, and expert insights even when it does not directly promote your brand. Journalists return to reliable sources.

2. 2

   Create newsworthy moments

   Original research, proprietary data reports, provocative thought leadership, and milestone announcements give journalists a reason to write about you. The most covered brands consistently create news rather than waiting for it to happen.

3. 3

   Develop a rapid response capability

   Be available to comment on breaking industry news within hours. Journalists working on deadline need expert sources immediately. Being responsive and quotable builds a reputation as a go-to source.

4. 4

   Tailor pitches to each publication

   Generic press releases generate few results. Research what each journalist covers, what angle would interest their audience, and craft a personalised pitch. One well-targeted pitch outperforms a hundred generic blasts.

5. 5

   Track and amplify existing coverage

   Share media mentions on social channels, in email newsletters, and on your website. This extends the reach of each clipping and signals to other journalists that your brand is newsworthy and well-covered.