Julie Wright from our partner agency (W)right On Communications explains the special conditions for public relations in the tech industry in the United States.
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How is the tech market and the tech media business developing in general in the United States?
The U.S. tech market is enormous, crowded and globally influential. In the U.S., tierone tech media, like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, focus on the “Magnificent Seven:” Apple, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Amazon.com, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Tesla. Tech writers at such outlets are typically assigned to cover and follow every move made by each of these companies.
This concentration of reporting on these marketing-oving companies combined with shrinking newsrooms means fewer top-tier tech journalists to cover the thousands of other innovative emerging and mid-tier tech businesses.From AI and cyber security to cleantech and fintech or medtech, getting noticed may require pitches that show how an emerging technology or business model might impact one of the Magnificent Seven or other high-profile brands or major tech news.
To land consistent, meaningful media coverage, trade publications, blogs and influencers plus thought leadership content are often the best route as well as working the trade show circuit with media briefings, speaking opportunities and networking. And when well coordinated, these activities in concert can help lesser-known companies “earn” their way onto top-tier media’s radars.
What has changed in tech PR over the last 5 years?
Newsrooms in the U.S. continue to shrink. Trade publications are looking for more “pay to play” business from brands pitching them editorial content. Others are eager for thoughtful, relevant and timely bylined content from industry thought leaders.
While two years ago, the Metaverse was peaking in the technology hype cycle, it has been eclipsed by AI since the release of ChatGPT. And ChatGPT has already been disrupted by China’s DeepSeek.
The political environment is entering the tech conversation as well. With the new U.S. presidential administration featuring a tech titan as “First Buddy” (a reference to the traditional role of the “First Lady”), tech and political culture are merging. Addi tionally, the new President has pledged to be the Crypto President.
What is your preferred PR approach for addressing tech media?
Our focus at (W)right On Communications is B2B technology PR. We approach me dia with a service mindset—we want to make it easy for our friends in the media to tell a great story. Journalist these days are tasked with doing more, but with fewer re sources. We balance that understanding with serving our client partners so that they get their messages out into the marketplace. Often, we are educating the marketplace about an innovation – fleet electrification, innovations in battery chemistry, identity verification and new approaches to prevent account takeover. Data points, diagrams, quality photos and other visual assets are another strategy we emphasize to give edi tors great rich media options for an attractive story that can be published on various platforms in different formats.
What changes do you anticipate and how will tech companies have to react to them?
AI will continue to be a disruptor across the tech landscape. All businesses globally are operating in a very volatile and complex world where citizens and consumers have falling trust in traditional authority. AI may accelerate a decline in trust of tech nology. Deep fakes and AI- and bot-driven hacking all contribute. Also, an unsettling sense of uncertainty is growing across industries and tech companies, and those that work with them, find themselves needing to effectively operate in an environment of significant change and ambiguity. For communicators in the tech space this means staying informed and keeping our tech clients equally up to date, since these changes may directly influence messaging, news timing, event participation and more.
How do you see the role of AI in tech PR?
Artificial intelligence is everywhere, and it’s revolutionizing public relations just as it’s doing for other industries from tech and banking to education. In fact, a recent survey showed three in four communicators use AI regularly. It’s a powerful tool for optimizing PR, but the real value in PR comes from human expertise, storytelling, re lationships and strategic thinking. Good PR teams know how to use AI to enhance their efforts, not replace them. At (W)right On Communications, we’re helping client partners navigate the evolving PR landscape, combining AI’s efficiencies with our relationships and our deep industry expertise. Our B2B and Tech Practice lead just wrote on this evolving topic earlier this month.