It sounds like a marketing problem. Although, I suspect the PDFs aren't the only dissemination method (as stated in the article). After someone spends so much time writing a report, it probably sits in their consciousness and spreads via the person's other interactions (eg shaping their perspective, thinking, and pursuits). With so many people producing so much content on a daily basis, it's hard to imagine people actually reading it all. So hopefully the good ideas get kept in the person's thoughts and come out repeatedly until it's heard. Otherwise, I am not sure there really is a good filtering mechanism on a system scale.

Or maybe they are spreading bad ideas, we won't know unless somebody reviews them.

Luckily there is TabulaPDF https://github.com/jazzido/tabula (Open source, made with a grant by the Knight Foundation)

A lot of praise from journalist in their twitter feed: https://twitter.com/TabulaPDF