- Visibility4
- Citations0
- Sentiment50
- Site quality73
- AI readiness21
The AI assistants rarely name Hearst Communications, mentioning it in 1 of 60 answers. For comparison, News Corp is also named in the same answer. Hearst Communications has an overall score of 26 out of 100, ranking 1,666th of 2,047 companies. Its website passes 1 out of 14 technical checks for AI tool readiness.
We asked 15 unbranded questions about the media market: none named Hearst Communications. AI assistants named it in 1 of 60 answers (1.7%). The typical media company is named in 15.0% of answers. By how often it is named, Hearst Communications ranks 75 of 99 in its sector.
Named fewer than three times in total. Read this as a sign that AI assistants rarely bring this company up, not as an exact comparison with its rivals.
Every dot is a company in the study. Hover one to see it; click to open its report.
This companySame sectorEvery other companyNever named
Five parts, each scored out of 100.
How often AI assistants name the company
How often AI uses the company's own website as a source
How positively AI describes the company
How well built the website's own pages are
How easily AI tools can read and use the website
Visibility is calculated from the answers on this page. How the score is built.
99 companies in this sector. The line on each bar is the typical company.
An answer that names the company
“Which US media conglomerates are recognized for innovative approaches in news, publishing, and information services?”
Several U.S. media conglomerates recognized for innovative approaches in news, publishing, and information services include News Corp, The New York Times Company, Hearst, BuzzFeed, Vice Media, and Empire Media Group. These companies are repeatedly identified in industry coverage as leaders in digital news innovation, media investment, or cross-platform content distribution.
News Corp: described as a global, diversified media and information services company spanning news and information services, book publishing, and digital real estate service …
The AI’s answer as we received it, shortened and not checked for accuracy.
How the mentions in these answers were split between this company and its rivals
Answers naming it, out of answers received
What this website publishes for an AI agent to read, use and buy from, on a scale of six levels.
- 0
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
Level 0: Not yet agent-ready. Agents struggle to find basic information about the site.
- 2 of robots.txt, Sitemap, Link headers
Some checks could not run. With them, up to level 2 would be possible.
Show every check, for your technical teamHide the checks
- study: 92.0%robots.txtCould not check
Publish a valid robots.txt with crawl rules and a Sitemap line.
- study: 86.8%SitemapCould not check
Serve an XML sitemap and reference it from robots.txt.
- study: 0.3%Link headersNot met
Send Link headers such as rel="api-catalog" or rel="describedby" on the homepage.
- study: 5.5%DNS for AI DiscoveryNot present
Advertise agent endpoints with SVCB records under _agents.
- study: 1.9%Markdown negotiationNot met
Return a markdown version when asked with Accept: text/markdown, for example at the CDN.
- study: 25.1%llms.txtCould not check
Publish an llms.txt with a short summary and the key links.
- study: 93.4%AI bot rulesCould not check
Add explicit robots.txt groups for the main AI crawlers.
- study: 1.4%Content SignalsCould not check
Add a Content-Signal line for search, ai-input and ai-train to robots.txt.
- study: 0.2%Web Bot AuthNot present
Only relevant if you run your own agents or crawlers: publish a signing key directory.
- study: 0.3%API CatalogNot met
List public APIs in a linkset at /.well-known/api-catalog.
- study: 11.8%OAuth discoveryNot met
Publish OpenID Connect or OAuth server metadata under /.well-known.
- study: 10.3%OAuth Protected ResourceNot met
Serve protected resource metadata at /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource.
- study: 0.0%auth.mdNot met
Publish an auth.md describing how agents sign in.
- study: 0.2%MCP Server CardNot met
Offer an MCP server and publish its server card under /.well-known.
- study: 0.1%A2A Agent CardNot met
Publish an agent card at /.well-known/agent-card.json.
- study: 0.2%Agent SkillsNot met
Publish a skills index with the main tasks agents can do.
- study: 33.7%WebMCPNot met
Register key actions such as search or cart as WebMCP tools.
- study: 0.1%ARD manifestNot met
Publish an ai-catalog.json listing every agent interface.
Score 0 of 100 · 51% of checks could run · checked on October 4, 2026 · www.hearst.com · 2,047 companies scanned
1 of 14 passed. This list is for your technical team. The percentage is how many companies in the study pass each check.
These 14 checks ran during the audit and are what the AI readiness part of the overall score counts. The scan above ran later and is stricter on Link headers and Markdown, so a check can pass here and not there.
Show the 14 checksHide them
- Not metrobots.txt publishedstudy: 85.0%
- Not metXML sitemapstudy: 73.2%
- Not metHTTP Link headers (RFC 8288)study: 29.0%
- Not metMarkdown content negotiationstudy: 8.3%
- Not metllms.txt publishedstudy: 21.7%
- PassedToken budget (page weight)study: 95.2%
- Not metExplicit AI bot rulesstudy: 13.0%
- Not metAPI Catalog (.well-known/api-catalog)study: 0.2%
- Not metOAuth Authorization Server discoverystudy: 10.1%
- Not metOAuth Protected Resource discoverystudy: 9.3%
- Not metMCP Server Cardstudy: 0.0%
- Not metA2A Agent Cardstudy: 0.0%
- Not metWebMCP toolsstudy: 4.2%
- Not metAgent Skills declaredstudy: 0.0%
How many times each website was listed as a source in these answers
In the study as Consumer brands.
- How can advertisers overcome low engagement when using diversified content networks?
- How do pricing models differ for content syndication and advertising through large media networks?
- Best information services firms offering data-driven solutions for businesses
- Is investing in multi-platform media services worth it for small businesses?
- Do information and media conglomerates provide better value than niche content providers?
- How do diversified media conglomerates compare to digital-first media networks in terms of reach and influence?
- What’s the difference between traditional media companies and global content platforms?
- Why might a business not see results from using a media and information services company?
- What factors affect the cost of partnering with a US-based diversified media group?
- Options for businesses seeking content solutions outside of major global media companies
- Ways businesses can use global media conglomerates for targeted advertising campaigns
- What are alternatives to using a diversified information and media conglomerate for corporate communications?
- Which US media conglomerates are recognized for innovative approaches in news, publishing, and information services?
- How can organizations leverage multi-industry content services for brand storytelling?
- What are the top diversified media conglomerates in the US for advertisers seeking broad content reach?
Columns, left to right: OpenAI, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini. The AI assistants often disagree. Across the study, on 40% of the questions where a company is named, only one of the four names it.