Coverage reports: what to measure, and what to question.
Understand placements, estimated audience, and the limits of distribution metrics.
A useful coverage report lets you verify what was published. Begin with article URLs, publication names, and publication dates. Open the links and check that they correspond to your announcement.
Separate potential audience from actual readers A publication’s estimated monthly audience is not the number of people who read your article. Any estimate should name its source, period, and methodology. Do not add overlapping audiences together and call the result unique reach.
Distinguish types of coverage Paid distribution, syndication, and independently earned editorial coverage serve different purposes. A professional report makes those distinctions clear.
Connect reporting to your goals If your goal is product awareness, consider referral visits and qualified inquiries alongside publication counts. Use consent-aware analytics and avoid presenting correlation as proof of causation.