Muck Rack has released the fourth edition of its What Is AI Reading? research report, analyzing more than 40 million responses and 207 million citations across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini. The findings reveal that journalism’s share of AI citations fell from 27% in May to 22% in September, marking the largest decline observed in the report’s research to date. Despite the shift, more than 84% of cited sources continue to come from earned media.

The report also found that paid content accounts for just 0.3% of AI citations, while owned media increased its share from 13.7% to 15.2%. Government, encyclopedic, and academic sources also gained ground.ChatGPT contributed significantly to the decline in journalism citations, with journalism’s share falling from 28.1% in January to 22% in September. Additionally, just 212 domains were cited by all four AI providers, highlighting differences in the sources each platform draws upon.

The findings offer insight into how AI platforms are sourcing information and the evolving role of earned media in AI-generated responses.

If you are interested in reading the full report, please click HERE for the direct report PDF.

Image courtesy of Muck Rack