Sentinel InsightsExamples of earned media:ten types and how brands earn them.
Examples of earned media, from news coverage and expert quotes to reviews and AI answers, plus what doesn't count and how brands earn each type of coverage.
The clearest examples of earned media are a journalist quoting your founder, a trade title including your product in a roundup, a podcast host inviting you on, and a customer recommending you without being asked. In each case someone else chose to talk about your brand, and you didn’t pay them to do it.
That choice is what makes earned media valuable, and it’s also what makes it hard to fake. Below are ten common types, each with a hypothetical example of what it looks like in practice, plus a few things that often get mislabelled as earned when they aren’t. If you want the full definition first, start with our guide to what earned media is.
Ten examples of earned media
The examples below are hypothetical. They show the shape of each type, not real campaigns. Some types build trust faster than others, and the strongest programmes usually earn several at once, because a journalist who quotes you is more likely to invite you back, and a podcast appearance often leads to a feature.
1. News coverage
A reporter writes about your company because something you did is news: a funding round, a new product, a hire, a lawsuit, a market move. Hypothetical example: a regional business journal covers a logistics startup opening its second warehouse and the jobs it brings to the area.
2. Expert commentary
A journalist quotes someone from your team in a story about your industry. Your brand isn’t the subject, but your expert is part of the conversation. Hypothetical example: a personal finance site quotes a payroll company’s head of compliance in a story about new overtime rules.
3. Profiles and interviews
A publication runs a feature about your founder or company: how it started, what it believes, where it’s going. Hypothetical example: a trade magazine for restaurant owners interviews the founder of a kitchen scheduling app about staffing shortages.
4. Roundups and comparisons
Writers include your product in a list of options because it earned a place on its merits. These articles get read by people close to buying. Hypothetical example: a software review blog includes a small invoicing tool in its list of options for freelancers.
5. Independent reviews
A reviewer tests your product and publishes an honest verdict, good or bad. Hypothetical example: a tech YouTuber buys a smart thermostat with their own money and posts a twelve-minute review.
6. Podcast guest spots
A host invites someone from your team on as a guest because they have something worth hearing. Hypothetical example: a B2B marketing podcast books a SaaS founder to talk about pricing experiments. If you paid to be on the show, it’s sponsored, not earned.
7. Contributed articles
An editor accepts an opinion piece or byline from your executive without payment because it serves their readers. Hypothetical example: a healthcare trade publication runs an article by a clinic group’s operations director on cutting patient wait times.
8. Customer reviews and word of mouth
Real customers rate and recommend you on Google, G2, Yelp, Trustpilot or in conversation. Hypothetical example: a homeowner tells a neighbourhood Facebook group which roofer did a good job after a storm.
9. Organic social and creator mentions
People with no commercial tie to you post about your brand because they like it, or because they have something to say. Hypothetical example: a fitness creator mentions the running shoe they actually wear in a post about training for a marathon.
10. Mentions in AI answers
An AI assistant names your brand when someone asks a question about your category. It’s the newest form of earned media, and it mostly reflects the other nine. Hypothetical example: ChatGPT lists a project management tool among the options for a small architecture firm, citing two trade articles that reviewed it.
What isn’t earned media
A lot of activity looks like earned media from a distance. These don’t count, even when they’re useful:
- Sponsored articles and advertorials. You paid the publisher, so it’s paid or placed media. It should carry a sponsored label.
- Press releases on a paid wire. The release is your own content on a paid channel. A story a journalist writes after reading it is earned.
- Paid creator posts. If a creator is paid or gets free product in exchange for a post, it’s a paid partnership and needs disclosure.
- Your own website, blog and social posts. That’s owned media. It carries earned coverage further, but it isn’t earned itself.
- Reviews you wrote, edited or paid for. They aren’t earned, they break platform rules and they damage trust when found.
Examples of earned media compared with paid and placed
The same publication can carry all three types. What matters is who chose to publish and who paid.
| Example | Media type | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A reporter quotes your CEO in a news story | Earned | The journalist chose to include you |
| A labelled sponsored feature on the same site | Placed | You paid the publisher for a marked feature |
| A banner ad next to the article | Paid | You bought the space |
| Your newsletter sharing the story | Owned | Your channel, your choice |
| A customer posting a photo of your product | Earned | Unpaid and unprompted |
| A creator’s post with a paid partnership tag | Paid | Compensation was involved |
How to judge a strong example from a weak one
Not every piece of earned coverage is worth the same. A mention in a site nobody in your market reads is still earned, but it does little. We judge every opportunity on the same five tests:
- Audience: does it reach the people you sell to?
- Relevance: does the story connect to what you actually do?
- Credibility: do your buyers trust the outlet or the person?
- Positioning: does it describe you the way you want to be known?
- Business goal: does it support a launch, a sales motion or a hiring push?
One feature in the trade title your buyers read every week can do more than twenty mentions in places they’ve never heard of.
How brands earn these examples
Most of the ten types come from the same handful of habits:
- Have something to say. News, original data or a clear opinion on an industry argument. A product feature on its own rarely gets covered.
- Make experts available. Journalists on deadline need someone quotable who replies within hours. Our founder and executive PR work is built around this.
- Pitch people, not lists. Read what each journalist, host or creator covers and explain why your story suits their audience. That’s the core of strategic outreach.
- Ask customers for honest reviews. A simple, consistent request after a good experience, with nothing offered in return.
- Keep a log. Record each item, who it reached and whether it was earned, placed or paid, so you can see what works.
Why earned media counts for more in AI search
Earned coverage now does a second job. Muck Rack’s Generative Pulse report from May 2026 analysed more than 25 million links cited by AI assistants and found that earned media made up 84% of those citations, with paid and advertorial content at 0.3%. When a buyer asks ChatGPT or Gemini for a recommendation, the answer is built mostly from the kinds of examples listed above.
If you’d like more of these examples working for your brand, our Digital PR service is built to earn them, one researched pitch at a time.
Questions readers ask
What is the most common example of earned media?
News and feature coverage that names your company or quotes your team. Customer reviews and word of mouth are just as common, though harder to track.
Is a press release an example of earned media?
Not on its own. A release sent through a paid wire is your content on a paid channel. A story a journalist writes after reading it is earned.
Is influencer content earned media?
Only when the creator wasn't paid or given product in exchange for the post. Paid partnerships are paid media and need disclosure.
Do backlinks count as earned media?
A link from an article a journalist chose to write is part of earned coverage. A link you paid for is not.
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