How to Earn Media Coverage Without Paying for It

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There are a plethora of ways in which you can obtain media coverage for your product and services by paying for it. This is possible across print, electronic and digital media. You can pay for straightforward ads or go for native advertising. But that begs the question: if everybody can do that, what differentiates your product or service from the others?

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The answer lies in obtaining genuine news coverage that requires no payment to be made in lieu of that. What's more, it is more credible and believable, as that coverage is based on real merit, not bought. This is where Public Relations firms and consultants can come to your help by pitching stories about your products, services and offerings in a manner that piques the media’s interest.

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How to do that?

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The most significant challenge faced by the marketing and PR teams of a company is to come up with newsworthy stories pertaining to their products or services which they can pitch successfully to the media. This is where out-of-the-box thinking and creativity can help.

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A company taking up an important social initiatives totally unrelated to its core activity, like restoring a much loved local heritage building, for example, would possibly garner news coverage, even if they have no fresh news to share on the product front.

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Creativity is of the essence here. From using high-quality research reports and infographics to sending creative press kits containing inexpensive objects that promote the brand and product in question(a pen drive with information for an app launch, for example), you can make the media take an interest in your message.

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You also need to target the right kind of media. If your intent is to raise the corporate profile of your business, you need to pitch to the serious business and financial news media, and obviously not the entertainment or sports news media. The more you drill down and reach out to the people who really matter, like the finance beat journalists of pink papers like the Economic Times of Financial Express, the better are your chances of finding success with regard to obtaining news coverage.

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You can align with influencers in the digital age. Influencers carry a lot of clout in the age of social media. If a popular industry analyst or research analyst can quote the name of your business, product or service, this fact can act as a testimonial, attracting the attention of your target news media.

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Working on your media lists and relationships is critically important. Ask any dyed-in-the-wool PR person, and they will tell you that your media lists and media relationships are worth their weight in gold. Every time you need to pitch a new news angle about your company, product and service, you should instinctively know as to which journalist would be most receptive to it. It is always a bonus if you have an existing professional relationship with that person.

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Making your content digital media compatible is crucial as well. Digital media rules the roost these days, and if you want your content to rank high in Google searches, you have to learn to incorporate keywords to make it SEO friendly. That will greatly enhance the likelihood of your content finding its way to the right target audience. Take care to follow this content strategy across social media, press releases and web copy too. If you can also manage backlinks to your website from highly credible media sites, your company will get the right kind of attention that will stand it in very good stead in the times ahead.

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You have to work towards user-generated content and social media shares in the digital age. This can only happen through regular posting across social media channels. Care must be taken to ensure it provides genuine value to the people you're engaging with, while remaining creative and original enough to catch your audience's attention.  This kind of coverage is real time and always on, allowing you to keep your prospects fully in the loop about everything to do with your products and services.

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Earned media is quite the right way of obtaining high-quality coverage in the digital age, where two-way communication between a brand and its audience is the norm thanks to social media. In any case in an age of information overload exacerbated by AI, it is the genuineness and relatability of news that resonates with the target audience. That is something that earned media delivers much better than pesky ads and paid-for content that are rejected by ad blockers. Developing a well-thought-out and fine-tuned earned media strategy is a must for all companies across size, scale, product and service.

Why Journalists Ignore Most Press Releases

 Why do journalists ignore most press releases? The simple answer is that there have always been way too many, and AI slop has only compounded the problem recently. According to a 2025 survey, 90 per cent of the press releases disseminated to journalists are not found to be newsworthy, so is it any surprise that journalists reject them?

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That being stated, press releases remain a tried and tested method of informing journalists of developments in any realm of the world, ranging from business and brands to entertainment, healthcare, politics and society. It is the thoughtless and reckless mass dissemination based on the spray and pray principle that puts journalists off this sometime important instrument of media engagement.

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Thoughtless distribution of press releases is akin to a candidate guessing their way through a multiple-choice, high-stakes entrance examination with negative marking. It never ends well.

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In fact, there are a whole set of factors that are responsible for journalists ignoring a press release. Let us look at what these might be-

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1. Not targeting the right beat

Targeting the right beat should be basic knowledge for any PR professional, but you would be surprised how many of them send out press releases across beats, without realising how counterproductive that is. Imagine a healthcare journalist receiving a press release about the launch of a new sports car! Wouldn't that put them off press releases altogether?

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1. Focusing on your product and not the journalist’s audience

Getting your client’s product or service coverage may be your priority as a PR person, but the journalist’s priority is to provide their reader, listener or viewer with information that is useful to the latter. If you want your press release to be part of the less than 50 per cent of the traditional press releases that are used by media houses, you better get this right.

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So you have to be subtle in the way that you convey that information to the journalists. If your press release is about a restaurant launch, instead of going ga ga over its name and impending date of opening, it might interest the journalist to learn about the target market of the outlet, its cuisine, the number of people it can seat, the size of its staff and other such information which the journalist might use to develop a story.

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1. Not customising your press release

When you buy a car, you carry out research about which car caters to your specific requirements. Likewise, if you buy a house, you take your time in evaluating your options before zeroing in on the right one.

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Similarly, when you start creating a press release to pitch to journalists across media outlets, you have to be aware of not only their beat, but also the kind of subjects that interest them. It makes eminent sense for you to prepare a bespoke pitch that speaks to their requirement.

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If you, for instance, know a journalist who specialises in analysing the financial results of a company, you should send them something appropriate and not something to do with an unrelated topic like the CSR milestones achieved by the former.

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1. The losing relevance of the press release

The traditional press release is increasingly losing relevance in the digital era, which is more and more about real-time news. Unlike in the past, before social media upended everything, press releases were a vital source of information and news. Not so any longer. Today there are a myriad of news and information sources ranging from social media feeds to websites. Probably very few media people view press releases as a primary conduit of news and information in these times. So, there is less and less incentive to consult a press release for news these days.

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Press releases are always going to be around as a formal document for notifying the media about something pertaining to the company in question. For instance, you may want to inform them about a company’s financial results or announcement or a product launch. But their days as a dynamic medium of information and news are largely over. A tweet can express the meat of a press release to a journalist in an instant. The latter’s usefulness is limited to providing the details pertaining to product specifications, facts, figures and other such details.

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Why would they wade through an almost archaic document that provides them with dated insights to stay on top of information and news that their audience wants in real time? Clearly, the best days of press releases are behind them.

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Media Relations Isn't Dead—It's Evolving

 

Media relations, till not very long ago, was what defined the PR process. Clients thought, with much justification, that the success of a PR agency or consultant was in direct proportion to how well acquainted they were with members of the press across the various beats of journalism. After all, that is what determined the success of their ability to obtain the all important coverage they wanted for their products and services. That is why media relations lay at the centre of a PR organisation’s universe.

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I remember during my time with a leading Indian PR agency, we were given a weekly budget to take out leading journalists for lunch. The idea was to get to know them in a manner that made it possible to pitch stories to them in an optimal manner.

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The rapid growth of the Internet, online and social media has upended the world of PR. The tried and tested media relations approach of the past no longer works. While media relations stays central to the PR process, it needs to keep pace with the dynamic, ever evolving, multi-channel, and forever churning nature of news media in the age of AI.

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Besides, journalists these days don't just work for reputed media houses; they often have their own social media and online presence of considerable significance. When a PR person pitches to them, he or she has to think not just about the news organisation the journalist represents, but also their own audiences that they may be reaching through their blogs, social media posts, podcasts and newsletters.

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Press Release Centric Approach No Longer Works

The ubiquitous press release is no longer the principal driver of media relations like it was in the past. Journalists in the digital age receive an exceedingly large number of press releases every day and simply do not possess the bandwidth to go through them all. Instead, they would rather respond to communication that is personalised and addresses them directly. In an era of real-time news, a press release is often too slow and cumbersome to gain meaningful traction.

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Look Way Beyond Traditional Media

While traditional print and electronic media still retain considerable credibility and heft, you have to cast your net much wider to encompass new-age distribution channels like blogs, vlogs, newsletters, podcasts and other content creators. Every story that you pitch has to be tailored to synchronise with the channel in question. What this in effect means is that your media relations efforts need to go beyond cultivating legacy media journalists and look at building bridges with the people responsible for generating content for a host of new-age media channels.

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AI is All Important; But Media Relations Are Still Very Relevant

Leading media intelligence platform Cision who carried out a PR survey in the UK and the US recently regarding the challenges, tools, skills, and opportunities that PR professionals would have to contend in 2026. It found that 48% of the respondents named AI and automation as the source of the greatest opportunity for a PR team, followed by strengthening relationships with journalists and creators at 39%. 

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This points to the fact that media relations is far from dead and has only evolved with the times by broadening its scope of outreach, instead of jettisoning it completely.

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Media Relations Now Includes a Creator Outreach Strategy

Given the increasing importance of creators in the new age PR approach, PR professionals need to have a creator outreach strategy along the lines of a traditional media relations plan. Like you create media lists of journalists across the beats relevant to your brand, you need to cull out a similar list of creators whose messaging and audience have synergy with the brand that you are trying to promote.

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You can proceed to build trust-based and value-based relationships with them by earnestly engaging with their content and looking at them as people you could collaborate with in the future. You can help them with their stories by sharing useful data pertaining to the product and service in question. This goes beyond the old way of sending journalists a generic press release, hoping that they would make something of it.

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Media relations is not only not dead; it is also probably in no danger of doing so ever. It has evolved over time to factor in the new realities of the ever-evolving and dynamic universe of digital and AI-age PR. Media relations, in fact, is much more expansive than it was in the past and remains a significant part of the PR process.

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5 PR Mistakes Startups Make—and Why They Keep Getting Ignored by the Media

 PR often is the very lifeblood of startups as it gets their marketing effort going without them having to break the bank. Unlike advertising, it is economical and a great vehicle for building credibility.

​That being said, carrying out effective PR is not something that many startups get right. They might obsess over product features instead of defining a clear strategic road map for their business. A lot of thinking and planning should ideally go into understanding the target audience and building up one’s brand.

​Let us look at where a startup might go wrong in its PR effort-

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1. Not Getting the Communication Dissemination Process Right

PR in 2026 is not the PR of ten to fifteen years back. Storied publications like the New York Times, The Times of India, The Washington Post and the Hindustan Times are not what people automatically turn to these days for their news. The disseminators of news and information are a diffused lot these days, with social media platforms, blogs, vlogs, YouTube videos and podcasts catering to their own specific audiences, largely replacing traditional media outlets.

​Startups can no longer rely on old style press releases and media interactions, with an Op-Ed thrown in for good measure targeting traditional media outlets to promote the offerings of their business. They need an evolved and dynamic PR strategy that speaks to the new-age media platforms of news dissemination.

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2. Not Getting the Message Right

This is the trickiest part and could make or break a startup’s PR initiative. Founders can talk passionately about their grand vision, but when it comes to explaining in simple terms what they exactly do and help accomplish, they flounder and are unable to come up with an unmistakable crystal clear message for their target audience. A startup founder should know exactly what it is that they offer to their prospects in terms of solving their problems in a manner that they sit up and take notice. You get that right, and that is an important step in the direction of making them care about engaging with you. The key here is to differentiate your product or service from the others.

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3. Conflating Founder News with Real News

Startups more often than not are the passion projects of extremely committed founders. It is, therefore, easy to conflate founder news with the real news. Just because a startup company is all pumped up about an important announcement relating to the founder, it does not naturally follow that journalists and their readers or viewers will share the same sense of excitement. He or she may have launched a new product, managed to raise capital or hired someone with a sterling reputation; it won’t cut much ice with journalists and media outlets unless they find something newsworthy in the proposed story.

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This could be something that ties in with a trend that the latter (journalist) might already be following, or it is something that sparks a debate or even a controversy. It could also be something that has a human interest angle to it. It is always about newsworthy debate and discussion and rarely about founder news.

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4. Looking at PR with a Marketing Lens

Founders are, at the end of the day, business people with a product to sell. Unfortunately, that is not the way one can look at PR. Coverage obtained via PR is earned coverage and not bought coverage. Journalists are not obligated to provide coverage to a company, but to inform, educate and sometimes caution people about things and matters that concern them. It may, for instance, apprise them of any future trends that might impact their lives or educate them about the importance of a new concept or phenomenon making an appearance, often by weaving evocative stories. It is in learning to seamlessly integrate one’s narrative into what the journalist’s story or report is trying to accomplish that one finds success.

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5. The Need to Understand PR

Founders need to understand the PR process and not get disheartened if their initial efforts don’t quickly get them the expected results. PR takes time to deliver as it is a relatively slow and organic process, as compared to advertising, but it is ultimately believed to deliver better results and more bang for the buck, given that the media coverage is earned and not bought.  Founders, as it is under a lot of pressure from multiple sources and seeing one’s intense PR efforts not seeming to deliver any results for quite some time, can be disconcerting. Getting disheartened and losing faith in PR is something that startup founders need to guard against.

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They need to understand the PR process and devise a strategy that helps them obtain an understanding of how to get a journalist, publication or media platform interested in their pitches. That is where a dedicated PR specialist or an agency can help them find their groove faster.

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PR is something that every startup needs. It is, therefore, imperative for founders to accord it the importance it deserves and see PR help them engage with the target audience in the most impactful way possible. In fact, if done right, PR has the potential to transform the fortunes of any business, especially a startup.

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Why CEOs Should Post on LinkedIn Every Week

 

There’s that famous old saying by the famous French philosopher Descartes: I think, therefore I am. This kind of points to the role of a CEO in a business, as he or she is essentially a leader who needs to, above everything else, think and communicate his or her vision for the future of the company to their employees, stakeholders and customers. LinkedIn is undoubtedly the place to do it, and posting weekly on that platform helps them achieve just that with its extensive reach amongst a company’s primary stakeholders.

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For CEOs, using social media as their go-to medium for marketing their company as well as advocating on its behalf to the right target audiences is a foregone conclusion these days. Social media platforms like LinkedIn have the ability to outperform traditional forms of media like print and television, and this is not lost on industry leaders like CEOs.

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For them, posting regularly on LinkedIn, which is the most appropriate social media platform for them, makes eminent sense. By doing so, they can open direct channels of communication with employees, customers, peers and other stakeholders.

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If they do it regularly, like on a weekly basis, it helps build their social media clout and establish their credentials as thought leaders in their respective fields. Their voice effectively becomes an extension of their company's voice, speaking directly to the people who matter most from that company's growth prospects point of view.

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This is especially true of small businesses and startups. Content posted on a personal LinkedIn profile is known to generate 2.75 times more impressions and 5 times more engagements when compared with sharing the same content via a brand page. This is because a CEO’s engagement with its target audience on a consistent basis leads to more personal engagement that resonates in a way that paid media or corporate outreach can never replicate.

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LinkedIn algorithm is skewed in favour of personal profiles

Organic reach on LinkedIn these days has moved to personal profiles as well as employees. This means that the Linkedin algorithm favours content posted by actual people over what is posted via brand channels. It is primed to display content that is useful to users. What that translates to is the fact that it gives prominence to posts from people users are already interacting with. This supports the contention that CEOs should post on LinkedIn regularly, and doing so on a weekly basis will work out very well for them and the brand that they represent. The LinkedIn algorithm has now started rewarding content that provides genuine value to the users by way of high-quality interactions. The amount of time users spend consuming the content and the intensity of the engagement are key factors in shaping the algorithm’s propensity to promote it.

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What should they post?

There is a lot that CEOs can share with their target audience in their weekly LinkedIn posts. From valuable industry insights and perspectives to sharing anecdotes about their work life that offer pertinent lessons, and from sharing path-breaking ideas to the intricacies of decision-making, there is much that a CEO has to share with their followers and connections.

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A CEO has unique shareable insights that can shine a light on issues ranging from talking about industry trends, business decisions and hiring challenges to strategic decision-making and coping with technological change; there is so much of value that a CEO can share with his various target audiences. Above all, a CEO who posts regularly gives an organisation a human face, enabling it to engage in a personal dialogue with people that matter to it.

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Introverts Can Build Powerful Personal Brands Too

 

Being an introvert by nature needn't get in the way of your building a powerful brand. Firstly, there is nothing inherently wrong or negative about being one. Just as some people are extroverts, there are those who are introverts. Somebody may be a voracious meat eater, and someone may be a die-hard vegan. You are what you are.

​However, in a world where your personal brand influences how successful your professional life will be, the inability to loudly proclaim your achievements may be seen as a major impediment to growing your clout. As the old adage goes- the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

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The internet sets you free

​The internet enables even the shiest and the most diffident of individuals to connect with innumerable people across the globe from the safety and comfort of a room, a public park or a cafe. All that one needs is access to an internet connected gadget like a laptop, tablet or smartphone. You can express yourself confidently over time without suffering any performance anxiety that an in-person presentation might have caused. It is not as if it is the extroverts who are somehow the exceptional lot, deserving all the success. If you are a silent genius at something, the internet will show you how to present your skills to those who value it.

​A traditional craftsperson in the interior regions of India today can create a website and demonstrate their wares to an appreciative global audience without having to rely on unscrupulous middlemen who would underpay them for their work. If you are an introvert, then you are in the illustrious company of the likes of Einstein and Warren Buffett, with the only difference being that your being introverted will not stop you from engaging with the world or make it exceedingly slow and difficult. The internet will see to it.

​Today, there are a whole slew of talented individuals who run businesses powered by the internet. From an aspiring baker showcasing their homemade offerings on Instagram and YouTube and creating a roaring business in the process to a retired corporate employee offering management consultancy services online, there is a very large number of introverted individuals who are quietly building and expanding their brands in a very substantial manner, thanks to the internet.

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Create a digital presence par excellence

​As the internet solves the problem of coping with performance pressure and anxiety borne out of fear of interacting with large numbers of people, it makes eminent sense for introverts to capitalise on the opportunities presented by digital platforms to engage with the right kind of target audience and grow their clout.

​Blogging is something that introverts might take to quite well. They can take their time in creating such content where they can delve deep into their area of expertise and provide valuable insight to the people who need it.  Video content may have been a no go area for introverts in the past, but with generative AI making text to video conversion possible, introverts now have the ability to leverage the power of video without once having to show their face. The rise of podcasting as a highly effective medium of outreach is also easier for introverts to take to, as they can always read from a prepared text. Besides, AI can help them both enhance their voice or even generate a synthetic voiceover. Lastly, with everybody and their uncle sharing their lives freely on social media, introverts too can use its various platforms at their own convenience and over time create a voice that matters and resonates with their intended target audience.

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The age of the introvert

​In an era where AI can and often does outsmart and outperform the most extroverted motor mouths and exuberant communicators, it is the real and thoughtful approach of an introvert who has something of value to share that commands a premium. People like connecting and engaging with those who are thoughtful. Over-the-top communication does not cut much ice with people in an age of information overload-the sharing of ideas does. If you are an introvert seeking to build a powerful brand of your own, this is the best time to do so.

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Building Influence Without Going Viral

 

In an era where going viral is seen as the ticket to fame, clout, wealth and success, those who wish for the latter but don't care about the former often feel a sense of dismay owing to the fact that they may be missing out on growth opportunities big- time. But you can build influence without shouting from the rooftops in an attempt to go viral.

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As a matter of fact, sudden and intermittent virality is no guarantor of your ability to influence people as a content creator. Rather, slow and steady outreach is a better strategy, and you would do well to abide by the tortoise and the hare fable.

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Let your expertise shine through

As AI becomes increasingly all-pervasive, it is not gimmickry and your ability to make noise and attract attention that will stand you in good stead, but your proven expertise. This is what will help you build a rock solid reputation over time affording you the opportunity to monetise your skill. Somebody like Christopher Nolan lets the sheer quality of his motion picture creations cement his reputation as one of the greatest cinematic creators of all time. It is not VFX generated special effects or super budgets that define his abilities, but raw film making ability honed over years that marks him out as the genius that he is. This has not surprisingly resulted in spectacular box office earnings for his latest masterpiece, The Odyssey, which have already crossed $1.5 billion globally.

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You don’t have to be an influencer to bear influence

We seem to be living in the age of influencers of all shapes and sizes. The internet has democratised the playing field for would-be celebrities and influencers, and that is a good thing too. However, not everyone is willing to, or indeed inclined to, be a bona fide influencer, yet want to bear influence on a target audience that is relevant to them.

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The good news for them is the fact that there is much more to bearing influence than hordes of followers and the ability to create viral posts. Your conduct can help you influence others. Gandhi and Mandela influenced millions simply by the way they lived their life. Their lives truly became their message. If you are someone with unimpeachable character and are able to provide or add value to peoples’ lives in a substantial manner, you will definitely make an impact and, therefore, bear considerable influence over them.  You don’t need social media to validate your ability to bear influence- you need to possess the ability to add positive value to people’s lives.

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Understand what influence is

Influence is not defined by your ability to go viral. It is also not about being present everywhere and collecting as many followers as you can. If you have clarity of thought and a clearly defined vision which you articulate on a consistent basis, you will leave a mark. You will not merely be popular; you will be looked up to. You will be able to build a bridgehead of trust to your people. The popularity of newsletters and their growing viability as a means of creating a regular income stream is a testament to powerful, slow and steady, willful and mindful outreach and engagement.

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You don’t have to work on cultivating star charisma to become a thought leader and influencer in a certain genre of expertise. What you need to do is to display your expertise and the value you bring to the table to win you over the admiration and support of people who are ready to swear by you. Elon Musk didn’t become the innovator and entrepreneur par excellence on account of his movie star looks. He achieved celebrity status and even bought social media giant Twitter by showing the world what he was actually capable of. The electric car revolution that we are witnessing around the world or the increasing participation of the private sector in sending satellites and people to space, is all on account of his pioneering vision. Today he may be a rock star influencer, but that is not how his journey began or what he is about.

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You can build influence by virtue of what you bring to the table in terms of what people value. Going viral is not a necessary step in that process.

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