I would not be surprised if the record changes hands quickly after Robbie beats it. It could be beaten at least twice, maybe even 3 times, this year.
Hank has had the record for a long time, but now you have this crush of a half dozen people who are pooling directly beneath him. Lots of players converging on 1.14-1.15 capability at around the same time. No reason to think that if the record isn't beaten by much (like a few hundred or thousand) that one of the others won't grab it quickly thereafter.
As for media coverage, I'd lean toward conservative in my estimate of how much it would get. Hank got a lot of heat because KoK was still relatively recent and the idea of a doctor having the DK world record was interesting. Now though? It will hit Kotaku but could easily not go any further than that. I would say the two recent Kong Offs got more press than a new WR will.
Luckily, Robbie doesn't seem to care about that kind of thing. I don't think any of us are playing in order to get attention from anybody other that the rest of the community.