How I Got Here with Muck Rack’s Linda Zebian: Embracing AI and storytelling

Linda Zebian joined Muck Rack as its first-ever director of communications in 2022. As the comms technology platform’s senior communications director, Zebian sets the communications strategy for the company’s enterprise, both internally and externally, including messaging, issues management, media relations and employee communications. 

Before her current role, the comms leader was with The New York Times Company, where she spent 10 years in various communications positions, developing and executing communications strategies for the business side of the company including growth, product and technology to reinforce The Times’ innovation and financial success, drive subscription growth and improve retention, strengthen brand affinity and attract top talent. 

Like many other comms pros, Zebian is excited about AI’s potential to revolutionize workflows and elevate productivity, she told Ragan. On the other hand, she recognizes it may chip away at the very skills—like writing and storytelling—that make our work uniquely human. The tool that excites her the most also raises the biggest question: how do we embrace innovation without losing the craft?

 The moment I’m proudest of in my entire career is when I: 

When I was at The New York Times, our brand marketing team created a television ad, “The Truth is Hard,” to highlight how difficult it is to create original, independent journalism and why it’s worth paying for. Outside of the Super Bowl, advertisements typically don’t generate much press coverage, but I was able to secure hundreds of top-tier media hits on the creative through my pitching. It went viral, even attracting the attention of the sitting president at the time. It was so rewarding to help spread the message about how important independent journalism is to our democracy.

 The thing I’m most excited about for the future of my profession is: 

The potential of AI to transform and streamline our workflow. AI will only get better the more it understands how we work, so I’m excited to see what’s to come in recommendation tools. The idea of, “you did this so I think you might want to do that, next,” could help drive efficiencies across research, pitching, monitoring and reporting in a way we’ve never seen before. I can picture AI tools guiding us through who to pitch a story to, how to respond to a media mention, which reports and metrics we should use to showcase our success, and so much more, all based on our previous actions and outcomes. 

One thing that worries me about the future of my profession is: 

The potential of AI to eliminate the need for young professionals to build the skills required for original storytelling. In particular, I’m concerned people may not build essential writing and editing skills, which I’m already seeing is the case. If we all produce content that sounds like ChatGPT, what will happen to original stories and voices? 

A tool or a piece of software I cannot live without is: 

Muck Rack Dashboards (shameless plug) because they are so customizable to what we need for each report and so easy to reference when I want to get a quick view of how our team is performing. I can see how our coverage is changing over time, what authors are covering us the most, our sentiment and what words and phrases our brand is most associated with in real time, any time. Plus we’ve integrated Google Analytics with our main Dashboard so I can see how my team’s work is impacting traffic to our site. This helps me understand and communicate our impact to internal stakeholders and also shows which outlets are driving the most referrals, which helps us direct our efforts to the outlets that are performing well for us. 

The most rewarding part of my job is: 

One of the reasons I joined Muck Rack was to help PR pros like me drive efficiency and outcomes in their work and get the resources, recognition and opportunities we deserve for our professional growth. Leading comms for a comms technology platform is super meta, and I’ve loved the opportunities I’ve had to be more ingrained in the PR and communications community and make so many connections. One thing I didn’t anticipate was the opportunity to influence the Muck Rack product itself. I’ve had the privilege to work with our engineering and product teams to help create new tools and features to help PR pros like me be more successful. Seeing my ideas come to life on the Muck Rack platform has been pretty awesome. 

My professional motto/mantra is: 

Use fewer words.

Isis Simpson-Mersha is a conference producer/ reporter for Ragan. Follow her on LinkedIn.