The Seattle Times Brand Score: 91/100 - Iconic tier

Local news for the Pacific Northwest

The Seattle Times (seattletimes.com) scores 91 out of 100 on Brand Analyzer, placing it in the Iconic tier among Media & Entertainment brands, in the 98th percentile of 23622 Media & Entertainment brands.

AI Snapshot

The Seattle Times is an American newspaper publisher founded in 1896 and headquartered in Seattle. It provides local news, sports, business, politics, entertainment, travel, restaurant, and opinion coverage for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Positioned as the leading independent newspaper in the region, it aims to deliver trusted, comprehensive local journalism to residents, professionals, and community members seeking reliable regional coverage.

Key facts about The Seattle Times
Brand NameThe Seattle Times
Domainseattletimes.com
IndustryMedia & Entertainment
Founded1896
HeadquartersSeattle
Main CompetitorsThe Seattle Post-Intelligencer (83/100), KOMO News (88/100), KING 5 (82/100), The Stranger, Crosscut (91/100), The New York Times (85/100), The Washington Post (91/100)

Evidence

Moz Domain Authority 91/100 vs category average 52 / leader 100 - a strong backlink profile, so AI systems frequently encounter mentions of the brand.

The Seattle Times has a dedicated Wikipedia entity - a top-weighted signal AI models rely on to identify and describe the brand.

The homepage meta description reads "Local news, sports, business, politics, entertainment, travel, restaurants and opinion for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest." (Meta description: 16 words (ideal length). No OG description (falling back to meta)) - this is the summary AI engines are most likely to quote.

Structured data on the homepage: 2 JSON-LD block(s), Organization schema, Breadcrumb/Website schema, canonical. Adding FAQ schema would further help AI crawlers parse the brand's identity.

AI-crawler access: robots.txt mentions GPTBot, ChatGPT-User, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot - all allowed - robots.txt controls whether engines like GPTBot and ClaudeBot can read the site at all.

Detected tech stack: Nginx, WordPress, Ghost.

Social footprint: verified profiles on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Instagram, GitHub; no detected presence on Facebook, YouTube - consistent profiles reinforce the brand's identity across the web.

0 Reddit mentions - community discussion signals real-world reputation to AI models.

Does AI know The Seattle Times?

Live results from asking a general-purpose AI assistant about the brand, checked September 2026.

When asked "What is The Seattle Times?", Claude could identify the brand as of September 2026. The Seattle Times is the largest daily newspaper in Washington state, covering local, regional, and national news, business, sports, and culture, and it's owned by the Blethen family, making it one of the few large independently owned newspapers left in the US. Best known for Being Seattle and the Pacific Northwest's leading daily newspaper, known for strong local investigative journalism and multiple Pulitzer Prizes.

When asked "Best brands similar to The Seattle Times?", Claude would recommend The Seattle Times as of September 2026. It's a well-established, respected regional newspaper that would naturally come up when discussing major US metro newspapers or Pacific Northwest media outlets.

People Also Ask About The Seattle Times

Common questions people ask in Google, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI search engines.

Who are The Seattle Times's main competitors?

The Seattle Times's main competitors in Media & Entertainment: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer (83/100), KOMO News (88/100), KING 5 (82/100), Crosscut (91/100), The New York Times (85/100).

Sources: Brand Analyzer scan

What products or services does The Seattle Times offer?

The Seattle Times offers local news coverage, sports reporting, business news, political coverage, entertainment content, travel and restaurant features, and opinion pieces, primarily focused on Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.

Sources: The Seattle Times official site

What is The Seattle Times?

The Seattle Times is an American newspaper publisher founded in 1896 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is described as the leading independent newspaper in the Pacific Northwest, providing local news and journalism coverage.

Sources: The Seattle Times official site

When was The Seattle Times founded?

The Seattle Times was founded in 1896. The Seattle Times operates in the Media & Entertainment category. It is analyzed by Brand Analyzer across seven brand dimensions and AI-search visibility.

Sources: Wikidata

Where is The Seattle Times headquartered?

The Seattle Times is headquartered in Seattle. The Seattle Times operates in the Media & Entertainment category.

Sources: Wikidata

Does ChatGPT recommend The Seattle Times?

The Seattle Times scores 85/100 on Brand Analyzer's AI recommendation signal, indicating it is reasonably likely to be surfaced when AI assistants like ChatGPT suggest Media & Entertainment options. Recommendation depends on crawlability, structured data, and category authority; a Wikipedia presence helps.

Sources: The Seattle Times official site

What is The Seattle Times known for?

The Seattle Times is known for being the leading independent newspaper in the Pacific Northwest, providing in-depth local reporting on news, sports, business, politics, and culture for the Seattle region.

Sources: The Seattle Times official site

How can The Seattle Times improve its AI discoverability?

The Seattle Times can improve AI discoverability by strengthening structured data (Organization and FAQ schema), maintaining an accurate Wikipedia/Wikidata entity, earning authoritative citations, and keeping content crawlable for AI bots. Brand Analyzer measures these as visibility, trust, and recommendation signals.

Sources: The Seattle Times official site

Who uses The Seattle Times?

The Seattle Times is used by residents, professionals, and community members in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest who seek reliable local news, sports, business, and entertainment coverage.

Sources: The Seattle Times official site

Recommendations

AI visibility

The Seattle Times scores 72/100 for AI visibility - how well ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews can discover, identify and cite the brand.

The Seattle Times has a moderate AI-visibility profile at 72/100 - a proxy for how readily ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews can recognise and cite it. Its strongest area is recommendation likelihood (85/100) and its weakest is visibility (63/100). It benefits from a recognised Wikipedia company entity, a Wikidata knowledge-graph entry and a Moz Domain Authority of 91/100. The main gaps holding it back: no llms.txt to steer AI to its best pages. In a live check, Claude could already identify The Seattle Times from memory (September 2026) - a sign these signals are paying off.

Visibility - 63/100

Trust - 76/100

Recommendation likelihood - 85/100

Score breakdown - 7 dimensions

The score combines seven dimensions - name quality, digital presence, visual identity, messaging clarity, trust foundation, AI discoverability, and brand authority - into a single objective benchmark.

Peer brands

Ranked closest to The Seattle Times: Tripadvisor (91/100), SAMAA TV (91/100), Second Life (91/100), SFGATE (91/100), RTL.de (91/100), Shazam (91/100).

Category leader: Change.org (97/100).

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