Traditional Earned Media vs. Contributed Articles

By Kristi Eaton

It can be confusing to understand how public relations works for people not involved in the industry. But for the latest Media Matters blog post, I am going to share one part of the process. 

Earned media is growing in importance with the advent of AI and people using it for search. In PR, publicists typically pitch journalists, editors and writers ideas about their clients in hopes of landing an interview and a story that will be published in said publication. Hence, earned media. It’s earned, not given to you. 

However, one thing I’ve noticed working almost exclusively in the earned media space is that some outlets are asking for more contributed content from publicists and clients. This can be in the form of op-eds or straight news stories or press releases. Either way, they will be published word for word. However, this is not the norm and not what top-tier outlets typically do for earned media.  

Writing your own content is not the norm, but it is growing in popularity. The piece must still be accurate and informative, no matter what form it takes. 

If you’d like to learn more tips about the public relations industry, please visit www.kecomms.com/news.