What is reach?
Reach is the number of people who potentially saw a publication, broadcast, or post. For print you look at circulation and readers per copy, online at visitors or views. Reach tells you how many people you could have touched; it says nothing yet about whether the message landed.
Written by Timon Hendriks · Last updated on 12 July 2026
How it works in practice
Every media type has its own reach metric. Print works with circulation and average readers per copy, news sites with monthly visitors or page views, broadcasters with ratings, and social platforms with views. In a PR report you add up the reach of all publications into a total potential reach.
Treat reach as a starting point, not a final score. One mention in a trade publication with a small but perfectly matched audience can deliver more than a large news site your audience rarely visits. Always weigh reach together with the outlet's relevance, the tone of the piece, and what it demonstrably produced, such as site traffic or inquiries.
Example
A Providence developer of scheduling software for daycare centers lands two publications: a major news site and a small trade magazine for childcare operators. On paper the news site's reach is many times larger. Yet nearly all demo requests that month come from the trade magazine: that is where the audience is. The company now reports reach and source of inquiries side by side.
Common mistake
Adding up reach numbers as if everyone actually read the piece. Reach is potential: the paper landed on that many doormats, but not everyone read your page. Report it as "potential reach".
Frequently asked questions
How do you measure the reach of a publication?
Per media type: circulation and readers per copy for print, visitor numbers for news sites, ratings for broadcasters. Media monitoring tools add those numbers up per publication for you.
What is the difference between reach and circulation?
Circulation is the number of printed copies; reach counts the readers. Because one paper is read by several people, reach usually exceeds circulation.