🧠 From Substack to LinkedIn to Perplexity - The New Frontiers of Executive Visibility

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In 2016, being a “thought leader” meant getting a byline in Inc. and tweeting the link.

Today? It’s a whole different game.

With the rise of AI-powered discovery tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT, the platforms that shape how decision-makers find, trust, and recommend brands are shifting fast. Visibility now lives in a fragmented ecosystem—and if your leadership team is only showing up on one channel (or worse, none at all), they’re missing the moment.

Let’s break down what we’re seeing across the three platforms that matter more than most:

📰 Substack: The Home Base for Deep POV

Substack is the platform of choice for execs with something to say, not just something to promote.

It’s ideal for:

• Founder POVs that need space to develop

• Narratives that challenge conventional thinking

• Owning an idea or category over time

Substack isn’t built for reach. It’s built for resonance. But a well-written essay here can become source material for media quotes, LLM training data, and executive search results.

When to use it:
You’re building an original thesis or want a branded newsletter hub with long-form control.

Watch out for:
Low discoverability unless amplified elsewhere. Substack works best when paired with distribution on...

💬 LinkedIn: The Signal Amplifier

LinkedIn is where that Substack essay becomes a 5-slide carousel, a spicy one-liner, or a smart comment under someone else’s viral post.

It’s the best platform for:

• Building audience and reach

• Highlighting credibility through engagement

• Driving short-form visibility and conversation

For execs, LinkedIn is now non-negotiable. Not because it’s trendy, but because it’s where investors, journalists, analysts, and your next hire are already paying attention.

When to use it:
To pulse your POV into a larger conversation and connect directly with people who shape perception (and opportunities).

Watch out for:
It’s noisy. The algorithm rewards consistency and personality over polish. Don’t overthink—just start sharing.

🤖 Perplexity (and LLMs): The Recommendation Engine You Can’t See

Here’s where it gets interesting.

Platforms like Perplexity and ChatGPT are increasingly becoming the first place people go when they’re making a decision. “What’s the best HR software for startups?” or “Who’s leading marketing measurement innovation?”—those aren’t just search queries anymore. They’re AI prompts.

And the answers? They’re pulled from:

• Media coverage in credible outlets

• Executive quotes in trade pubs and business press

• Expert sources cited again and again

If your founder is quoted in Fortune, mentioned in a trend story, or featured in a trade feature, that content can live on inside LLM outputs for months or years. It’s like SEO, but for trust.

When to use it:
You don’t. You optimize for it by showing up in credible sources, being quoted, and sharing ideas that get cited.

Watch out for:
You can’t see what you’re ranking for… but you can audit your brand’s discoverability and visibility with a smart PR strategy.

🎯 So, what’s the strategy?

If you’re only showing up in one of these places, you’re missing compounding opportunities.

Here’s how they work together:

• Substack builds the thinking.

• LinkedIn distributes and tests it.

• PR placements earn trust (and train the bots.)

That’s how executive visibility works now. And it’s why we approach every client strategy through a multifaceted lens. It takes a combination of deep narrative development, strategic earned media, and AI-optimized visibility.

📱 New in non-traditional media

Tracking the newsletters, podcasts, and creators reshaping media influence.

📰 In the news

• 🛡️ BBC Threatens Legal Action Against Perplexity Over Scraping
  The BBC has formally demanded that Perplexity stop using BBC content without permission, delete its scraped archives, and open compensation talks. This intensifies emerging legal battles between traditional newsrooms and AI platforms over copyright, attribution, and brand trust.
  
  

• ⚖️ Feds May Ban State-Level AI Policy via “Big Beautiful Bill”
  The Senate is nearing a vote on a decade-long moratorium that would block states from passing independent AI regulations—tying compliance to federal funding. While it promises consistency, critics warn it could strip away critical protections for consumer trust and press freedom.
  
  

• 📉 AI News Summaries Crushing Publisher Traffic
  New AI-powered features like Google’s AI Overviews are drastically cutting into publishers’ referral traffic—HuffPost reportedly saw a 55% drop between April 2022 and April 2025. Newsrooms are urgently rethinking strategies to drive direct engagement and diversify revenue.

🎤 Spotlight on Healthtech Creators

The latest and greatest of the Healthtech newsletters you should be reading. 

📧 Digital Health Insider

• Curated by: Light‑it team

• Focus: Weekly roundup of top digital health news—funding, launches, market insights, and analysis.

• Why Subscribe: Quick, hand‑picked headlines to stay on top of innovations shaping healthcare delivery, investment, and ecosystem evolution.

📧 AI Health Uncut

• Curated by: Sergei AI

• Focus: A brutally honest newsletter on AI, innovation, and the shifting digital health market.

• Why Subscribe: With in-depth takes on market pressure points—like "The Mass Extinction of Digital Health Startups"—this is a smart read for anyone tracking startup viability, AI trends, and strategic communications in healthcare.

 📧 Health Tech Nerds

• Curated by: Blake Madden

• Focus: Strategic, analyst-grade insights into digital health—covering startups, policy shifts, payer/provider dynamics, and market moves.

• Why Subscribe:  Consistently updated and well-respected among insiders, HTN delivers sharp breakdowns of IPO filings, VC rounds, policy changes, and tech innovation. Its thoughtful, data-driven analysis helps communications teams spot emerging narratives and position clients authentically.

⭐️ Favorite story of the week:

• “Anna Wintour Is Stepping Down” – The Wall Street Journal

  For decades, Anna Wintour didn’t just run Vogue, she defined it. Her tenure shaped fashion, media, celebrity, and culture in ways few editors ever have. But now, as the WSJ reports, Wintour is preparing to step away from her role as editor of American Vogue, signaling the end of an era.

  This isn’t just a headline about a leadership change—it’s a cultural inflection point. Vogue under Wintour was singular: exclusive, aspirational, meticulously curated. But the fashion world she helped build is now shifting toward something looser, faster, more democratized. The announcement forces a bigger question: what does relevance look like in a media landscape that no longer waits for September issues or asks for permission?

  Wintour’s exit isn’t just the close of a chapter. It’s the start of a new one where influence is more distributed, and authority is earned in real time.

⚡️ [Under Embargo] -  The Colab Expands

We've been working on something behind the scenes, and it's almost ready. 

The Colab Academy is our way of sharing what's actually working in PR right now. We're tired of seeing the same outdated advice everywhere, so we're creating a space for weekly insights, real strategy breakdowns, and honest conversations about building visibility when everything feels scattered - AI, influencers, algorithms, you name it.

Want in early? We've got a waitlist open now.

This is for the comms leads, brand builders, and strategy people who'd rather be ahead of the curve than scrambling to keep up.

Don’t want to wait? Start creating your AI awareness strategy today.  Say hello. 

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