Coverage gives a claim a second source. A viewer who sees a show promoted on air expects that; the same viewer reading about it in an outlet they trust treats it differently. That shift in weight is the product, and it is why a well-placed piece is worth more than a hundred identical ones.
What it does badly
Coverage is poor at reach. Even a strong placement is seen by a fraction of the people an on-air slot reaches. Judging PR on impressions is judging it on the one number it cannot win.
The conversion myth
A piece of coverage rarely produces a measurable jump in viewership on its own. What it does is reduce the friction for everything else — the appearance, the ad, the recommendation from a friend all land more easily once the title has been written about seriously.
Where agencies go wrong
By promising volume. A hundred placements in outlets nobody reads is a reporting exercise, not a campaign. Twenty placements that the audience actually trusts is a different piece of work and takes longer.
How to brief it
Say what the story is, who it is for, and which outlets that audience already trusts. Then let the list be built for relevance. If the list cannot be argued for outlet by outlet, it is not a list — it is a database export.