The PR BlogMedia & PsychologyCommunication TheoriesThe PESO Model: Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned Media

The PESO Model: Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned Media

A straightforward media classification model.

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

The PESO mod­el is use­ful, albeit not perfect.

A pop­u­lar mod­el to describe the media land­scape was clas­si­fy­ing chan­nels as paid, owned and earned.

But what about social media, then? Social chan­nels defy clas­si­fic­a­tion in an almost eleg­ant way. 

Think of brand activ­it­ies on Facebook to illus­trate this “defi­ance:”

Facebook (when paid): When you advert­ise your brands, products, and ser­vices on Facebook.

Facebook (when owned): When you “own” a Facebook Page and pub­lish edit­or­i­al con­tent.

Facebook (when earned): When people talk pos­it­ively about your brand on Facebook.

However, the PR industry soon agreed upon adding “shared” to the mod­el, thus enabling the eleg­ant acronym PESO. 1The PESO mod­el does­n’t solve the social media clas­si­fic­a­tion issue alto­geth­er, but the typ­ic­al approach con­siders vari­ous activ­it­ies on sites like Facebook as dif­fer­ent chan­nels.

The PESO Model (Modern Version)

The PESO Model

The PESO mod­el divides the media land­scape into four dif­fer­ent media chan­nel types: 2Please note that there’s no industry-wide con­sensus on wheth­er a social media account (like a brand’s Facebook page or Twitter account) should be con­sidered a shared or owned chan­nel. Personally, I … Continue read­ing

  • Paid chan­nels include advert­ising, spon­sor­ships, ambas­sad­or col­lab­or­a­tions etc.
  • Earned chan­nels include news art­icles, influ­en­cer endorse­ments, word-of-mouth etc.
  • Shared chan­nels include social media brand posts, social media brand accounts, SERP vis­ib­il­ity etc.
  • Owned chan­nels include news­let­ters, web­sites, pub­lic­a­tions for intern­al or extern­al use etc.

Don Bartholomew, vice pres­id­ent of digit­al research at Fleishman Hillard, presen­ted a ver­sion of the PESO mod­el in 2010. According to PR blog­ger and PR meas­ure­ment expert Heather Yaxley, this is likely to be the earli­est men­tion of the model:

PESO Model | Communication Theories | Doctor Spin
The PESO mod­el. Source: PRConversations.

In 2013, PR blog­ger Gini Dietrich pop­ular­ised the PESO mod­el on her blog, Spin Sucks: 3Please note that the Spin Sucks mod­el is focused on vari­ous dis­cip­lines, pub­lics, prac­tices, engage­ment etc., rather than types of media chan­nels.

In June 2013, Gini Dietrich presen­ted the first iter­a­tion of the PESO mod­el you may recog­nise in a blog post: The Four Different Types of Media. It was fol­lowed in August by the post Mobile Marketing: Use the Four Media Types in Promotion, where she talked about integ­rat­ing paid, earned, owned, and shared.”
— Heather Yaxley, PR Expert & Blogger 4Yaxley, H. (2020, June 28). Tracing the meas­ure­ment ori­gins of PESO. PR Conversations. https://www.prconversations.com/tracing-the-measurement-origins-of-peso/%22,%22text%22:%22tracing-the-measurement-origins-of-peso/%5CnSkip” rel=“noopener”>https://www.prconversations.com/tracing-the-measurement-origins-of-peso/

Learn more: The PESO Model: Paid, Earned, Shared, and Owned Media

In short: The PESO mod­el is far from per­fect, but it’s still use­ful when ana­lys­ing the mod­ern media landscape.

ANNOTATIONS
ANNOTATIONS
1 The PESO mod­el does­n’t solve the social media clas­si­fic­a­tion issue alto­geth­er, but the typ­ic­al approach con­siders vari­ous activ­it­ies on sites like Facebook as dif­fer­ent channels.
2 Please note that there’s no industry-wide con­sensus on wheth­er a social media account (like a brand’s Facebook page or Twitter account) should be con­sidered a shared or owned chan­nel. Personally, I clas­si­fy social media accounts as shared chan­nels since they’re not fully under the brand’s control.
3 Please note that the Spin Sucks mod­el is focused on vari­ous dis­cip­lines, pub­lics, prac­tices, engage­ment etc., rather than types of media channels.
4 Yaxley, H. (2020, June 28). Tracing the meas­ure­ment ori­gins of PESO. PR Conversations. https://www.prconversations.com/tracing-the-measurement-origins-of-peso/%22,%22text%22:%22tracing-the-measurement-origins-of-peso/%5CnSkip” rel=“noopener”>https://www.prconversations.com/tracing-the-measurement-origins-of-peso/
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at KIX Index and Spin Factory. Before that, he worked at Kaufmann, Whispr Group, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

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