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

The PESO mod­el is help­ful in pub­lic relations.

The PESO mod­el is used to clas­si­fy dif­fer­ent types of media: paid, earned, and shared media. The mod­el has emerged as an invalu­able tool for nav­ig­at­ing the com­plex­it­ies of mod­ern pub­lic relations. 

This con­tem­por­ary approach to PR affords organ­isa­tions a more com­pre­hens­ive and stra­tegic per­spect­ive on their com­mu­nic­a­tions efforts, respond­ing adeptly to the expo­nen­tial rise in digit­al chan­nels and audi­ence segmentation.

Here we go:

The PESO Model (Modern Version)

The PESO Model

The PESO mod­el divides the media land­scape into four dif­fer­ent media chan­nel types: 

• 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, 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:

In 2013, PR blog­ger Gini Dietrich pop­ular­ised the PESO mod­el on her blog, Spin Sucks:

“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.”
Source: PRConversations​.com ¹Yaxley, H. (2020, June 28). Tracing the meas­ure­ment ori­gins of PESO. PRConversations​.com. https://​www​.prcon​ver​sa​tions​.com/​t​r​a​c​i​n​g​-​t​h​e​-​m​e​a​s​u​r​e​m​e​n​t​-​o​r​i​g​i​n​s​-​o​f​-​p​e​so/

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

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Different Types of Media in PR

Paid Media

Paid media is some­what for­eign to pub­lic rela­tions, encom­passing advert­ise­ments, sponsored con­tent, and oth­er forms of pur­chased expos­ure. However, the PESO mod­el under­scores its util­ity not as a stan­dalone strategy but as one com­pon­ent in a much lar­ger orches­tra of tactics. 

By dove­tail­ing paid efforts with oth­er media types, organ­isa­tions can extend the reach of their mes­saging, com­ple­ment­ing tra­di­tion­al advert­ising with the authen­ti­city and engage­ment offered by earned, shared, and owned media.

Earned Media

Earned media refers to pub­li­city gained through meth­ods oth­er than paid advert­ising. It includes news fea­tures, reviews, and any oth­er form of cov­er­age that an organ­isa­tion doesn’t dir­ectly control. 

Earned media is often seen as a wild card due to its unpre­dict­ab­il­ity. However, coher­ent and integ­rated com­mu­nic­a­tion activ­it­ies can help shape the nar­rat­ive and cre­ate the con­di­tions for pos­it­ive cov­er­age, allow­ing organ­isa­tions to take advant­age of the cred­ib­il­ity earned media provides.

Shared Media

Shared media rep­res­ents a new­er but no less sig­ni­fic­ant sphere of PR. Encompassing social media plat­forms and oth­er user-gen­er­ated con­tent, shared media is about fos­ter­ing dia­logue and engage­ment. The PESO mod­el acknow­ledges its grow­ing influ­ence, and its inter­sec­tion with oth­er media types is crucial. 

Organisations can boost engage­ment, feed­back, and vir­al­ity by shar­ing owned con­tent or pro­mot­ing paid media on social plat­forms, turn­ing audi­ences from pass­ive recip­i­ents into act­ive participants.

Owned Media

Owned media refers to the chan­nels con­trolled by the organ­isa­tion itself — web­sites, blogs, news­let­ters, and more. 

While owned media provides unpar­alleled con­trol over the mes­sage, the PESO mod­el recog­nises that it’s most effect­ive when stra­tegic­ally integ­rated with the oth­er three types. For instance, owned con­tent can extend the life of earned media cov­er­age or serve as a launch­pad for paid and shared media campaigns.

A Great Model — But Not Perfect

The PESO mod­el under­scores the inter­con­nec­ted nature of mod­ern pub­lic rela­tions. Rather than view­ing each media type in isol­a­tion, it encour­ages a hol­ist­ic approach that aligns and integ­rates vari­ous media strategies. 

I prefer to use the mod­el to under­score the crit­ic­al dif­fer­ences between mar­ket­ing (paid media) and pub­lic rela­tions (earned, shared, and owned media). Others prefer to use the mod­el to show­case how pub­lic rela­tions could ven­ture into paid media channels.

In a time where the lines between pub­lic rela­tions, mar­ket­ing, and advert­ising con­tin­ue to blur, the PESO mod­el offers a ver­sat­ile and adapt­able frame­work that mir­rors the com­plex­ity of the mod­ern media landscape.

In short: The PESO mod­el is imper­fect but still use­ful when ana­lys­ing the mod­ern media landscape.