An Analysis of Artificial Intelligence & Blockchain Media Coverage

Researching coverage about specific topics is essential to understanding which media outlets drive the narrative. This is critical for marketing, communications, and public relations professionals who need to know where to place their clients for the best coverage. It’s also useful for consumers to understand what media sources are talking about.

In this analysis, I will provide a few high-level insights on the top artificial intelligence and blockchain media coverage. However, we must define both artificial intelligence and blockchain before we get into the analysis.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an innovative technology focused on building smart machines, such as visual perception, natural language processing, understanding and translation, decision-making, and problem-solving. Artificial intelligence is used in various application domains, including autonomous vehicles, fraud detection, predictive analytics, speech recognition, and cybersecurity.

Top Artificial Intelligence (AI) Outlets

The following media outlets had the most articles published on artificial intelligence in the past year:

  1. The New York Times
  2. Forbes
  3. Wired
  4. MIT Technology Review
  5. VentureBeat
  6. Business Insider
  7. TechCrunch
  8. Mashable
  9. Gizmodo
  10. Engadget

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain is a distributed and decentralized digital ledger that stores transactions and data related to NFTs, cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and more. Blockchain enables users to keep track of digital currency transactions without central record-keeping. Blockchains could revolutionize how we interact with the internet and make it more secure, efficient, and transparent. It’s essential for business because it could be used to streamline all business transactions and processes.

Top Blockchain Media Outlets

The following media outlets had the most articles published on blockchain in the past year:

  1. CoinDesk
  2. Bitcoin Magazine
  3. ETHNews
  4. The Merkle
  5. Cointelegraph
  6. Smartereum

Deeper Analysis of AI & Blockchain Media Coverage

The following is an AI & blockchain media coverage analysis. The data compares blockchain coverage from the top media outlets to the total interactions that each article receives. This data is directional but will give PR pros and media relations experts preliminary ideas on where to prioritize their media relations approach.

As a follow-up from an article I wrote on Marketing Land, where I examined 600+ influencers who write and talk about Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence, I wanted to shift the conversation and look at some different data. Instead of Cybersecurity, I thought Blockchain media and AI topics were a little more interesting. So, I pulled a formal PR coverage report from January 1, 2018, looking specifically at the US in English and within the tech/software/startup industry. The articles had to mention both Blockchain & AI in the headline. There were 277 total articles published.

The below data represents the top 14 publications (based on the number of articles published) and the corresponding average interactions. Not sure why I chose only 14 but whatever. An exchange is a share, like, retweet, comment, and an inbound link (3rd party website linking to the article). LinkedIn data is not included due to the recent API restrictions they put in place. The interactions indicate how much each article resonates with readers. The assumption is that if the content is good, it’ll get shared, commented on, liked, and linked.

Top Blockchain Media Outlets

There are a few takeaways from this blockchain media data, but we’ll get to that in a minute. First, the data isn’t 100% actionable. There are still some missing data points needed before intelligent decisions can be made on how you might prioritize your media relations strategy, like:

  • Web Analytics: An analysis of what type of coverage and from which publications generate web traffic and conversions on your website.
  • Unique Monthly Visitors (UMV): An understanding of how much or how little web traffic these media sites get directly.
  • SEO Impact: An analysis of the Google search rankings of the media publications for specific keywords related to your industry.

Once you can access this data, you can get a complete picture of the landscape and start planning kick-ass media relations programs for the Artificial Intelligence Media Coverage Analysis.

Critical Insights: Blockchain Media Coverage

Based on what we know by looking at the above data only, there are a few things to consider with this media landscape analysis:

  • Forbes publishes a lot of content about a lot of different topics. This could be due to the high number of contributors in their network and the various councils that many can pay to participate in. It might be easy to get coverage or submit a byline here, given the popularity of the topics and assuming you have something worthwhile and unique to say. Interactions aren’t bad, and Forbes content typically ranks well in Google.
  • While the volume of content published on this topic isn’t very high, VentureBeat’s articles seem to resonate more with the audience than the other publications, right? Not really, at least not related to this topic. Most of those interactions came from just one article—more below.
  • ReadWrite only published one article over the last six months, but their interactions are second to none. Perhaps this was an outlier. Maybe they promote their content with paid media. Or perhaps it’s just a kick-ass article. In any case, I’d like a few more data points before going all-in with ReadWrite.

Researching Journalists is Smart

Reach isn’t my favorite metric, but it’s good to look at, especially when deciding “who” to pitch at a particular media publication.

One of the VentureBeat articles, Blockchain will make AI smarter by feeding it better data, had several thousand interactions–3.56K to be exact. It was written by Eran Eyal, who doesn’t appear to be a journalist but the CEO/Founder of a startup. He most likely submitted his article as a contributed post. His article interactions skewed the average to be higher than what it is. Nevertheless, it’s a damn good article, and I agree with what he says. Maybe that’s why it performed so well.

The ReadWrite piece, AI and Blockchain Tech Are The Future of Successful Trading, was written by Rueben Jackson, a Blockchain Security consultant. He also has a relatively large following on social media. It’s a well-written piece, and he appears to know his sh#@! Hopefully, it won him some new clientele.

As stated, Forbes has a lot of contributors, many of whom are consultants and thought leaders with large social media communities. However, the top-performing Forbes article in our dataset was, Blockchain, AI, Machine Learning And IOE Will Make You Money in 2018, by Stephen Andriole. He’s a Professor of Business Technology at Villanova and doesn’t have a vast social media following. He’s not even that active. But clearly, his article resonated with Forbes readers.

This data and information help build a robust B2B sales funnel content approach. I am not suggesting you only pitch journalists or influencers with large social media followings. It’s simply one data point you should consider with everything else–market data (media coverage), conversational and social media data, influencer analytics, web analytics, and primary research. If it sounds like a lot to do and seems expensive, it’s because it is … Cha-Ching!

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Michael Brito

Michael Brito is a Digital OG. He’s been building brands online since Al Gore invented the Internet. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.