In 2026, the press release has a new set of audiences. Notified's 2026 guide states: "Press releases are no longer just written for journalists." They are written for journalists, AI search systems, news aggregators, and digital discovery platforms. Access Newswire puts it directly: "Press releases must reach not only journalists — but also AI search, news aggregators, and digital discovery platforms."

But here is the paradox: while press releases need to serve more audiences than ever, the journalists who remain the primary audience are increasingly hostile to AI-generated content. Press Gazette's 2026 survey found that 53% of journalists are opposed to receiving AI-generated pitches or press releases, with only 21% in favor. Their concerns: "marketing spiel, unsourced information, and irrelevance."

And PRSA's 2026 media pitch guide reports that 79% of journalists reject pitches for irrelevance.

The connection between these two data points is readability. The AI- generated press releases that journalists reject tend to be formal, verbose, full of marketing jargon, and structurally predictable — the same qualities that make content feel machine-generated across every channel. The fix, consistent with every 2026 PR guide, is plain language.

Why journalists reject AI-generated press releases

The rejection is not about AI itself. Journalists use AI tools — Press Gazette reports more than half use AI to save time. The rejection is about the quality of AI-generated PR content:

1. Marketing spiel

Journalists cite "marketing spiel" as a top concern. AI-generated press releases tend to reproduce the promotional language of marketing copy — "revolutionary," "game-changing," "industry- leading." Journalists filter this out immediately. Plain language that states the facts without promotional adjectives reads as credible.

2. Generic content

AI-generated press releases tend to follow the same structure and use similar language across different announcements. A journalist receiving 50 press releases a day can spot a template-generated one in seconds. HackerNoon's 2026 guide to press release AI prompts acknowledges this: "Stop sending press releases that get ignored."

3. Irrelevance

PRSA's data shows 79% of journalists reject pitches for irrelevance. AI-generated pitches that are not customized to the journalist's beat or the publication's audience are rejected. The "irrelevance" is often a readability problem: the pitch is so dense and generic that the journalist cannot quickly determine whether it is relevant.

4. Unsourced information

Journalists cite "unsourced information" as a concern with AI- generated press releases. AI tends to generate claims without clear attribution. Plain language that leads with sourced facts — specific numbers, named sources, dated events — reads as journalistic, not promotional.

The dual-audience challenge: journalists and AI

In 2026, press releases must serve two audiences simultaneously:

Journalists

Journalists need press releases they can scan in under 30 seconds to determine: is this newsworthy? Is it relevant to my beat? Is there a story here? Notified's 2026 guide recommends "short paragraphs, clear subheads, bullet lists, well-placed quotes, and FAQs" to make this scanning efficient.

A press release written at a college reading level with dense marketing paragraphs does not survive the 30-second scan. A press release written in plain language with clear structure does.

AI search systems

AI search systems (Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity) now read and cite press releases. Muck Rack data shows AI cites GlobeNewswire press releases 61% of the time, PR Newswire 27%, and Business Wire 12%. Identity PR notes that press releases are "becoming machine-readable knowledge assets."

AI systems extract and cite press releases that are structured, clear, and written in plain language — the same qualities that make them readable for journalists. The same plain language that helps a journalist scan the story helps an AI extract and summarize it accurately.

Why plain language wins for both audiences

The insight that connects journalists and AI as press release audiences is that both need the same thing: clear, direct, fact- based content that can be processed quickly.

• Journalists scan for newsworthiness. Plain language makes the

news clear in the first sentence.

• AI systems extract for citation. Plain language makes the key

facts easy to identify and attribute.

• Journalists reject marketing spiel. Plain language states facts

without promotional adjectives.

• AI systems prefer structured content. Plain language naturally

produces shorter sentences and clearer structure.

• Journalists need sourced information. Plain language leads with

specific facts, not vague claims.

How ELI5 AI helps PR teams

ELI5 AI is a free, no-login text simplifier that takes any press release or media pitch and rewrites it at a 5th-grade reading level with four levels side-by-side: 5-year-old, 10-year-old, teenager, and adult.

For PR teams, the workflow is:

1. AI generates the press release draft — the announcement,

quotes, boilerplate, key facts

1. Paste it into ELI5 AI — get a plain-language version at four

reading levels

1. Use the appropriate level for each audience:

• Adult level for the full press release (professional but

readable)

• Teenager level for the media pitch email (short, direct,

scannable)

• 10-year-old level for social media distribution of the

announcement

• 5-year-old level for the executive summary that goes at the

top of the release

1. Test the AI extraction. Generate an AI summary of both the

original and simplified versions. The simplified version should produce a clearer, more accurate summary — which means better AI search visibility

This ensures the press release is readable by the journalist who scans it and the AI that cites it.

What PR teams should do now

• Audit your AI-generated press releases for readability. Take

5 recent press releases. Measure the reading level of the headline, first paragraph, and boilerplate. If they score above grade 12, journalists and AI systems are both struggling

• Simplify the headline and first paragraph. These are the most-

read parts of any press release. They should be at grade 8-10 so every journalist and AI system can understand the news in under 10 seconds

• Use ELI5 AI for media pitches.

Journalists reject 79% of pitches for irrelevance. A plain-language pitch that gets to the point in 3 sentences has a higher reply rate than a dense pitch that takes 3 paragraphs to explain why it is relevant

• Structure for AI extraction. Notified recommends short

paragraphs, clear subheads, bullet lists, and FAQs. These structures help both journalists and AI systems process the content

• Remove marketing spiel. Journalists cite it as a top concern.

AI systems filter it. Plain language that states facts without promotional adjectives serves both audiences

• Track pickup against readability. Compare press release pickup

rates for content at different reading levels. The data will show whether readability is a PR performance metric

The bottom line

Press releases in 2026 serve journalists and AI systems. Both need plain language: journalists to scan quickly under deadline, AI to extract and cite accurately. The AI-generated press releases that journalists reject — 53% opposed, 79% rejected for irrelevance — are the ones that read as marketing spiel: formal, generic, jargon-heavy.

The PR teams that build a readability layer into their AI press release process will produce content that journalists read and AI systems cite. The PR teams that do not will keep sending press releases that journalists delete and AI systems ignore.

A press release no one reads is not PR. It is noise. Plain language turns noise into news.

Try it: paste any press release or media pitch into ELI5 AI and get a plain-English version that journalists read and AI cites — four reading levels, no account required.

---

ELI5 AI is a free, no-login text simplifier built by an all-agent company on Paperclip. Paste any text and get a plain-English version measured to a 5th-grade reading level — four reading levels side-by-side, no account required.