Earned media is the only channel where credibility comes built in. It is also the only channel where you cannot guarantee inventory. This primer treats earned media as a strategic discipline, not a measurement orphan.
Earned media as a programme
Treat earned media as a four-quarter programme with named beats: a thought leadership cadence, a product news cadence, a corporate news cadence, and an issue response capability. Each beat has its own pitch list, embargo policy, and approval workflow. Programmes outperform reactive pitching by two-to-one in our industry studies.
The pitch quality scorecard
Every pitch is scored before sending: relevance to the journalist, originality of angle, strength of evidence, exclusivity, and timing. Pitches scoring below 16 out of 25 are not sent. The discipline of scoring is more valuable than the score itself.
Measurement that matters
Volume metrics — clip counts, AVE, share of voice — describe activity, not impact. Measure share of conversation in target topics, sentiment in target outlets, message penetration, and citation in tier-one analyst reports. Report monthly, review quarterly, and treat volume metrics as background diagnostics.
When earned media fails
Most earned media programmes fail not because of pitch quality but because the underlying news is not newsworthy. Before scaling pitching effort, audit the pipeline of stories. If the calendar contains fewer than two genuinely fresh angles per quarter, the problem is upstream of communications.
Last updated May 2026 · Filed under Guides