Something significant is happening in the Australian media right now, and if you work in professional services, it affects how your firm manages its public profile more than you might think.
This week, as reported in CrikeyMediaweek, Seven Network rolled out an AI tool internally referred to as “Clippy” (soon to be rebranded 7START), designed to convert TV news scripts into web-ready articles within minutes. This follows Southern Cross Media’s announcement of up to 300 redundancies ahead of 30 June, with the cuts spanning broadcast and print operations. The stated driver is deteriorating advertising conditions. The unstated one is visible to anyone watching closely: the economics of employing journalists are being tested against the economics of automating their output.
For communications professionals and the clients we advise, this matters.
Fewer journalists. More reliance on what you give them.
Medianet‘s 2026 Australian Media Landscape Report, released in April, landed a finding that should change how professional services firms think about media engagement. For the first time, press releases have overtaken every other source as the primary story input for journalists, used by 86% of them. Stretched newsrooms are leaning harder on trusted external sources to fill the gap.
That is both an opportunity and a risk.
The opportunity – firms that invest in high-quality, well-targeted media engagement, genuine expertise communicated clearly, relevant timing, proper relationships, are better placed than ever to earn meaningful coverage.
The risk – 78% of journalists said receiving AI-generated pitches decreases their trust in PR as a source, and nearly half said they can almost always tell when a pitch has been written by AI. In a landscape where the volume of automated content is rising, authenticity and specificity are what cut through.
The fragmentation challenge
The Australian media industry is moving away from the traditional centralised newsroom towards a more fragmented landscape of newsletters, podcasts, and independent creators, as Medianet’s Managing Director Amrita Sidhu noted in the report. Audiences trust their personal news sources at 54%, compared with just 21% for news on social media and 19% from AI chatbots.
That fragmentation is not a problem to solve. It is a landscape to navigate deliberately. The firms that will maintain strong reputations over the next few years are those that build presence across multiple channels, not just waiting for a journalist to call.
What this means if you lead a legal, financial or professional services firm
Your clients, referrers, and prospective clients are still reading. Heavy news consumption has risen to 56% of Australians, with strong growth among 18 to 24-year-olds. But they are reading across more sources and with higher scepticism. A single piece of trade media coverage matters less than a consistent, credible presence across publications, LinkedIn, and well-placed commentary over time.
The firms that treat communications as a reactive function, something you activate when things go wrong, are increasingly exposed in this environment. The ones that build their reputation deliberately, week by week, are the ones journalists call when they need an expert source.
That is the work worth doing.
Amanda Lacey is the founder and director of Popcom, a Sydney-based PR and strategic communications agency specialising in professional services. Follow Amanda on LinkedIn and Instagram.
To speak with Amanda about your firm’s communications strategy, contact amanda@popcom.com.au