Earned, owned and paid media describe three ways an organization's message reaches an audience: earned media is coverage published by a third party without payment, owned media is content the organization publishes on channels it controls, and paid media is advertising bought directly. A fourth category, shared or social media, is sometimes added to make the PESO model.
Earned media, also called free media, is content relating to a person or organization that is published by a third party without any payment to the publisher, such as a journalist's article, an editorial mention, or an independent podcast segment. Owned media is produced by the organization itself on channels it directly controls, such as its own website, newsroom or official social accounts. Paid media covers traditional promotion bought outright, including advertising, sponsored posts and advertorials.
A widely used framework, sometimes called PESO, adds a fourth category, shared or social media, covering content that customers and the public share on social platforms alongside content the organization itself posts there. These four categories are not fully separate in practice; a press release is owned content until a journalist covers it, at which point the resulting article becomes earned media, and a shared post amplifying that coverage moves into the shared category.
The key distinction that keeps these categories useful is control and cost. An organization fully controls owned content and can buy paid placement outright, but it can only earn coverage by pitching a story that is genuinely newsworthy; it cannot simply purchase earned media, since a marketer can influence it through relationships and news value but does not generate it directly the way it produces owned content.
How to: 1) Track each type of media separately rather than lumping them together in reporting. 2) Treat owned content, such as your newsroom, as the foundation that earned coverage often links back to. 3) Pitch earned coverage based on genuine news value, not by treating it as purchasable. 4) Disclose paid placements clearly, since blurring paid content into what looks like earned coverage raises the same concerns as undisclosed native advertising.
QUESTIONS
What is earned media?
It is content about an organization published by a third party, such as a journalist or independent outlet, without any payment to the publisher. It includes news articles, editorial mentions and independent commentary.
What is the difference between owned and paid media?
Owned media is content an organization publishes on channels it directly controls, such as its own newsroom or social accounts. Paid media is advertising or promotion the organization buys outright, such as a sponsored post or an advertisement.
What does PESO stand for?
It refers to four categories of media an organization can use: Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned, describing bought advertising, third-party coverage, social sharing, and self-published content, respectively.
Can an organization buy earned media directly?
No, not in the way it buys advertising. It can pitch a genuinely newsworthy story and build relationships that make coverage more likely, but the decision to cover it independently belongs to the journalist or outlet, not to the organization.
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