Who Owns Owned? FleishmanHillard Examines PR’s Role in AI-Powered Search

AI-powered search is changing how people encounter brand information. In this environment, owned content alone may not be enough. It needs the credibility of earned media to support it.

Chief Client Officer Emily Frager, also a member of the USC Center for Public Relations Board of Advisors, contributes to their annual Relevance Report. This year’s theme is “Changing Channels,” which examines how shifts in media and technology are reshaping public relations. Frager makes the case below for treating owned and earned content as connected parts of a communications strategy. PR can help organizations shape that connection, from developing credible content to assessing how it appears in media coverage and AI-generated answers.

Click the Cover Below to get the full report and scroll below for Frager’s take on the importance of earned and owned media working in partnership for discovery.

How people find information has changed. Eighty-two percent of purchase decisions today start with LLM-powered search, making it the new market-share battleground. These systems feed on the same fuel as their search predecessors: trusted, credible third-party content.

Two truths have always defined public relations. First, accurate, verifiable information drives action against business objectives. Second, the most effective way to deliver that information is through trusted sources, such as journalists, analysts and communities, alongside content organizations own and directly control. PR built its craft on the seam where third-party and owned content meet.

Answer engines, search engines and news sites all want the credible answers PR has delivered for decades. Journalists leaned on PR to confirm what they reported. Search engines cut PR out of that step, surfacing answers directly. The newest systems make the same move faster, with less visibility into how the answer got built.

Owned content can now carry as much weight as earned in an AI-powered answer, but only when earned backs it up. These tools pull owned content directly into what customers see, then look for validation, such as a journalist citing it or an outlet covering it. Owned without earned often doesn’t rise above a whisper. Owned amplified by earned is a signal machines can’t ignore.

Most organizations still treat owned as an afterthought while PR chases earned separately. That’s the mistake. Brand perception is shaped before you’ve said a word, by whatever mix of owned and earned the model finds first.

PR goes beyond channel

PR operates at the intersection of what could go right and what could go wrong, deciding how owned and earned work together before an answer engine ever surfaces a result.

Why PR owns owned

Best-in-class owned content reads like real reporting: sourced, structured and backed by outside coverage. PR builds that credibility with a skeptical outside audience.

PR also owns what occurs at the intersection of optimization and risk. When something’s working, PR pitches owned content harder. When something’s going wrong, PR shapes the response so it holds up under scrutiny instead of falling flat. Speed decides whether the output lands as impact or noise, and PR is positioned to make that call without diluting the message.

That’s why reputation becomes something PR builds deliberately rather than something that happens to a brand. The data shows what’s happening. What to do about it is still a judgment call.

Not everyone’s convinced yet.

The myths slowing you down

Myth one: LLMs are a media problem. Reality: They’re an owned-and-earned problem, and that creates opportunity for anyone working across the media ecosystem. Treat the two as separate and you’re leaving brand authority on the table.

Myth two: You can’t influence what LLMs train on. Reality: You engineer it through the owned-earned pipeline. How to influence it is still an emerging science. We tackle it by combining data analytics with LLM, editorial, paid and commerce expertise.

Myth three: Marketing should own this alone. Reality: It’s a partnership. But when it comes to developing the right content, PR plays an outsized role. No other function moves as fluidly between owned content and earned validation, a combination that separates business impact from noise.

How teams execute this

Start by measuring how owned earns coverage and performs in LLM outputs, not owned performance alone. Pair that with governance built for pace: decision rights set upfront and checkpoints that don’t kill momentum.

And know where automation ends. AI flags what’s trending, but people still decide what it means.

What comes next

Get this right and the whole operating model sharpens, not just the content. Reputation becomes something you build deliberately, across every channel where stories are read, cited and surfaced.

The window is closing. Audiences will increasingly encounter brand information shaped by whatever mix of owned and earned gets found and trusted. The organizations that win will build that mix on purpose, with PR at the center.

LLMs will shape your narrative whether you plan for it or not. The only real choice is whether you shape it first.

Emily Frager is FleishmanHillard’s Chief Client Officer.