Press as a Trophy, Not a Megaphone
The value of coverage is often the 'as seen in' validation you deploy yourself — not the readership.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 3
- Confidence
- 90%
Founders assume a story's value is the audience that reads it, but most stories reach only 5,000-10,000 people even on huge sites. Feifer reframes coverage as a portable validation asset: the real payoff is the social cache — the logo on your site, the link in every sales email, the tweet you pay to promote to the exact people you want to impress.
Origin
Jason Feifer, using his own Money News Network coverage in Variety and the typical TechCrunch funding announcement.
Core principles
- 01Big sites publish so much that your individual story likely reaches only 5,000-10,000 people
- 02The point of coverage is often not the readers at all
- 03Validation ('as seen in') is frequently worth more than anyone actually reading it
- 04You control the second act — turn the article into an ad, a homepage badge, or a credibility line
How to run it
- 1
Set realistic reach expectations
Assume the story itself may reach a small audience. Decouple 'got covered' from 'lots of people saw it.'
Pro tip Even outlets with millions of monthly uniques spread that across enormous volume — plan as if your piece reaches 5,000-10,000.
Watch out Feeling like coverage 'did nothing' immediately is normal; the benefit often shows up weeks, months, or years later.
- 2
Extract the validation asset
Capture the coverage as a reusable credibility signal — an 'as seen in' logo, a link, or a quote credit you can cite everywhere.
Pro tip You may not even need to link the story — the 'as seen in CNN/Variety' claim alone confers the validation.
- 3
Redeploy it to the people you actually want to reach
Actively use the coverage: paste the link into every investor/partner/advertiser email, or promote the article as a targeted paid ad to the exact audience you want to notice you.
Pro tip Turning a real article into a promoted tweet lets you target the validation to precisely the people whose attention you want.
Watch out Don't wait passively for the outlet's audience to deliver value — the founder's own redeployment is where most of the payoff comes from.
In the wild
Feifer's podcast company (co-founded with Nicole Lapin) pounded on doors until someone at Variety ran a story about them. The article drove essentially nothing directly. But every email to a potential advertiser or partner now includes the Variety link, which makes recipients pay more attention.
→ The coverage produced no direct traffic yet became a repeatedly-deployed validation asset that lifts response on outreach.
Common mistakes
Judging coverage only by immediate direct results
Concluding the press 'failed' because nothing happened that week ignores the trophy value — the validation compounds over months and years in your own outreach.
Confusing wide publication with being seen
A press release posted on Yahoo Finance or MarketWatch technically 'ran' but zero people see it; posting on a big site is not success.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders raising, partnering, or selling who need third-party credibility signals
Not ideal for
Direct-response campaigns where you actually need the story's own readership to convert immediately
From the transcript
“as seen in is probably more valuable than anyone actually reading that story to begin with”
“what they got out of entrepreneur was the social cache it was the validation in the marketplace”
“the the largest possibility here is that your story will reach like 5 to 10,000 people”
“every email we send out to every potential Advertiser to every partner includes the link”
From the episode
How to get press for your product
Jason Feifer (editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine)