What makes good press coverage?

Good coverage serves the startup's goals. It is not necessarily the piece with the biggest audience: it is the one that reaches the right people, with the right message, and keeps working over time.

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The criteria for good coverage

• The outlet: your customers, candidates or investors actually read it.
• The startup's place: the subject of the piece, quoted in depth, or a passing mention.
• The message: your two or three key messages come through.
• The tone: positive or neutral.
• The spokesperson: the founder is named and quoted with their title.
• The shelf life: the article is online, accessible and ideally links to your site.

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Why the number of articles is not enough

Ten pieces in outlets your customers never read are worth less than three articles in your industry press. The Barcelona Principles 3.0, published by AMEC in 2020, recommend setting goals before measuring and combining qualitative and quantitative analysis.

Volume is still a useful benchmark. Across the five three-month PR case studies Linker has published, a campaign generated between 7 and 15 pieces of coverage, with a median of 10. That figure tells you whether a campaign is on track, not whether it helped the business.

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Coverage keeps working after it is published

An online article keeps paying off. It can send a link to your site, be shared on LinkedIn by the founder, and be read by AI engines such as ChatGPT or Perplexity when they answer questions about your market.

Coverage in a specialist outlet that is indexed and free to read therefore keeps its value long after the publication date.

For a full definition and the main types of coverage, see our glossary entry on press coverage. To score your coverage and build a tracking dashboard, follow our method for analysing and measuring press coverage.