AI tools are now answering the questions that used to begin with a search. The answers are not random. They come from a specific set of sources. The sources are not the ones the PR industry has spent two decades cultivating. This volume maps them.
A founder asks ChatGPT which publications would best cover her product launch. The answer she gets shapes a $50,000 PR investment. A homeowner asks Claude which roofers are reputable in his area. The answer shapes who gets called. A general counsel asks Perplexity about a regulatory matter. The answer shapes what outside counsel gets retained. A hospital procurement officer asks Gemini about a medical device supplier. The answer shapes a seven-figure contract. A board chair asks Google AI Overviews who the leading voice in a sector is. The answer shapes who gets the speaking slot, the advisory seat, the term sheet.
This volume is about that specific set of sources.
For two decades, public relations operated inside a system where coverage in a known set of publications produced predictable results. Get into The Wall Street Journal, and your customers, investors, and policymakers would see it. The system had a map. The 5W Retrieval Index is the first reference work for that map in the AI era. Volume I covers 38 sectors — from AI itself to pharma, fintech, beauty, cybersecurity, luxury, capital markets, biotech, entertainment, sports, and beyond. Each sector is a chapter. Each chapter names the sources the engines actually cite, grades them on a fixed composite, identifies the structural finding that defines retrieval behavior in that sector, and tells operators what moves the needle.
The central finding across all 38 sectors is the same: the publications people read are not always the publications the AI engines cite. The most-read journalism is not the most-cited journalism. The training-data economy and the paywall economy are running in opposite directions. The gap between them is the new retrieval map. This volume is that map.