Key Takeaways
- • Highwire's new report, "What Comes After the Cockroaches?", analyzed more than 8,000 private credit news stories from August 2025 through July 2026 and finds media attention has settled at a new, elevated baseline.
- • Private credit coverage remains more than 3X its pre-crisis level, averaging 879 articles per month from April through July 2026 versus roughly 260 before the September 2025 failures.
- • Negative sentiment has persisted at 31% of coverage, compared with approximately 19% before the crisis, after peaking at 51% in March 2026.
- • Private equity's share of negative private-credit-adjacent coverage rose from 10.8% at the start of the crisis to 15% in the latest analysis.
- • Executive positioning materially shapes media profiles: Ares Management CEO Michael Arougheti's negative coverage share fell from 48% in the acute phase to 1% in the post-panic period.
Summary
Highwire, an integrated communications and marketing agency, released a research report examining how heightened scrutiny of private credit has changed media coverage of private markets firms and financial services leaders. The analysis, drawn from more than 8,000 distinct private credit news stories published between August 2025 and July 2026, attributes the new coverage baseline to the collapse of First Brands and Tricolor, subsequent concerns over software valuations, and a wave of private credit fund redemption requests.
Coverage peaked in March 2026, when it reached 2,217 articles in a single month, seven times the prior monthly baseline, with 51% classified as negative. Attention has since eased but remains more than three times pre-crisis levels, and negative coverage has held at 31%. Highwire states that private credit coverage has expanded beyond specialist financial publications into mainstream business and consumer-facing media, bringing questions of risk, liquidity, transparency and investor access to a wider audience.
The report identifies private equity as increasingly absorbing scrutiny, with its share of negative private-credit-adjacent coverage rising to 15% in the latest analysis, reflecting attention to portfolio valuations, leverage and exposure to distressed borrowers. It also finds that executive positioning influences narrative outcomes. Ares Management CEO Michael Arougheti's negative coverage share declined from 48% to 1%, while JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon's widely cited warnings shaped the broader conversation despite negatively framed coverage. Oaktree's Howard Marks and Goldman Sachs' David Solomon are cited as examples of consistent market education and strategic interpretation.
Greg Hassel, Executive Vice President, Financial Services at Highwire, said financial institutions can no longer rely on communications strategies that worked when growth and returns dominated the narrative. The report outlines tailored communications opportunities for asset managers, private equity firms, investment banks, advisors, exchanges, data providers and wealth managers. The full report is available at teamhighwire.com.
Coverage peaked in March 2026, when it reached 2,217 articles in a single month, seven times the prior monthly baseline, with 51% classified as negative. Attention has since eased but remains more than three times pre-crisis levels, and negative coverage has held at 31%. Highwire states that private credit coverage has expanded beyond specialist financial publications into mainstream business and consumer-facing media, bringing questions of risk, liquidity, transparency and investor access to a wider audience.
The report identifies private equity as increasingly absorbing scrutiny, with its share of negative private-credit-adjacent coverage rising to 15% in the latest analysis, reflecting attention to portfolio valuations, leverage and exposure to distressed borrowers. It also finds that executive positioning influences narrative outcomes. Ares Management CEO Michael Arougheti's negative coverage share declined from 48% to 1%, while JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon's widely cited warnings shaped the broader conversation despite negatively framed coverage. Oaktree's Howard Marks and Goldman Sachs' David Solomon are cited as examples of consistent market education and strategic interpretation.
Greg Hassel, Executive Vice President, Financial Services at Highwire, said financial institutions can no longer rely on communications strategies that worked when growth and returns dominated the narrative. The report outlines tailored communications opportunities for asset managers, private equity firms, investment banks, advisors, exchanges, data providers and wealth managers. The full report is available at teamhighwire.com.
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