My first foray into communications was as a PR specialist.

As a writer and former journalist, I understand the power of media to shift narratives, build visibility, and influence key audiences. When I started Change nearly two decades ago, media relations was our primary service. We built media lists, wrote press releases and advisories, pitched reporters, organized press conferences and briefings, developed op-eds, and helped clients respond when the news moved quickly.

Since then, we have secured tens of thousands of pieces of media coverage for our clients.

Media relations remains one of our core service areas. But the days of defining earned media simply as developing a newsworthy announcement, identifying the right reporter, making a thoughtful pitch, and hoping the story gets covered are over.

Those fundamentals still matter. Reporters remain essential interpreters of public life, and independent journalism remains one of the most credible ways to reach new audiences.

But the context has changed.

People do not receive information in a straight line anymore. They move between news organizations, search engines, social platforms, video, podcasts, newsletters, group chats, creators, community leaders, and increasingly, AI tools. Globally, social media and video networks have now surpassed news organizations’ own websites and apps as the most widely used sources of news; 54% of respondents across 48 markets reported using those platforms for news. In the United States, 53% of adults say they get news from social media at least sometimes, while search engines and social media are also common first stops when breaking news occurs.

Earned media remains a critical source of third party credibility. But it is now one part of a much larger communications system, and that system is more fragmented, more networked, more algorithmically mediated, and more complex than ever.

The media landscape is fragmented – and connected

The old distinction between “traditional media” and “digital media” is no longer especially useful. The outlets and messengers shaping public understanding today often work across formats.

• Journalists publish breaking news, explanatory reporting, newsletters, podcasts, videos, and social posts.
• Local, niche, ethnic, and community media often have the trust and relevance that national outlets cannot replicate.
• Subject-matter experts, nonprofit leaders, and public institutions can publish directly to audiences through blogs, email, LinkedIn, webinars, Substack, and podcasts.
• Creators, advocates, and community leaders can elevate or challenge a narrative in real time.
• Search engines and AI tools increasingly influence which sources, organizations, and perspectives people discover first.

This environment creates more opportunity, but it also creates more responsibility. Organizations cannot rely on a single press hit to carry a message. They need a coherent approach across earned, owned, shared, and paid communications, one that reinforces the same underlying narrative while adapting to different audiences and channels.

So, what does effective media relations look like now?

1. Earned media still matters

More and more, I hear some version of this: “Earned media does not matter anymore.”

My answer is simple: earned media is not dead. But the way it works has changed.

The challenge is not that people no longer value independent reporting. It is that distribution is fragmented and algorithm-driven. A great story may not reach everyone an organization needs to influence just because it appears in an important outlet. Audiences may encounter that story through a Google search, an Instagram post, a newsletter, a podcast clip, a group chat, a creator’s commentary, or a colleague forwarding it by email—not necessarily by visiting the outlet’s homepage.

At a time when people are navigating an overwhelming amount of low-quality, misleading, and AI-generated content, credible third-party validation matters deeply. Press coverage, respected creators, community voices, and trusted messengers can all help people decide what—and whom—to trust.

That does not mean every placement has equal value. A story that sits quietly on a website may have limited impact. A smaller but strategically relevant story that is clipped, framed, shared by trusted voices, included in stakeholder outreach, and used to advance a larger campaign can have far more value.

For social-change organizations, earned media still:

• Puts facts, evidence, and voices on the public record for policymakers, advocates, funders, and journalists to cite.
• Helps introduce frames and language that organizers, creators, community outlets, and other partners can repeat, adapt, and localize.
• Signals legitimacy to donors, partners, prospective staff, and collaborators in ways owned and paid communications often cannot.
• Helps prepare the ground for launches, policy fights, public debates, and moments of crisis.
• Elevates voices and experiences that are too often excluded from mainstream public conversations.

The most effective organizations treat earned coverage as fuel for everything that follows –  social content, newsletters, executive communications, staff engagement, creator partnerships, supporter toolkits, paid amplification, and direct stakeholder outreach.

This matters especially because the people and institutions working to undermine public trust understand the value of earned attention. Misinformation campaigns often begin in small online communities, partisan outlets, or influencer networks. But the objective is often to escalate a fringe narrative until it appears credible enough to be covered, debated, or repeated in more mainstream spaces.

If social-impact organizations stop investing in earned media, we lose one of the few levers available to influence how issues are framed, which terms become normalized, and whose voices are treated as credible and authoritative.

The work is not to abandon earned media. The work is to get better at using it.

That means:

• Understanding how people now discover, consume, share, and discuss information.
• Building relationships not only with journalists, but also with trusted creators, podcast hosts, newsletter writers, community media, and other credible messengers.
• Planning every placement with a downstream distribution strategy, including social cuts, staff posts, creator engagement, stakeholder outreach, and paid support where appropriate.
• Measuring whether coverage moved the conversation—not simply whether it generated a clip.

Used this way, earned media becomes a credibility engine that powers the rest of an organization’s communications work.

2. Relationships are more important than ever

Technology has made it easier to find journalists, automate outreach, distribute releases, and measure mentions. It has not made it easier to earn trust.

Reporters, editors, producers, and independent journalists are working under extraordinary pressure. Newsrooms are smaller. Deadlines are faster. Many journalists are responsible for multiple beats, formats, and platforms at once. At the same time, they are competing in an environment where audience attention is increasingly scarce and public trust in mass media is historically low: just 28% of U.S. adults said they had a great deal or fair amount of confidence in newspapers, television, and radio to report the news fully, accurately, and fairly in Gallup’s 2025 survey.

The organizations that stand out are not simply the ones sending the highest volume of pitches. They are the ones that treat media professionals as people with specific audiences, editorial mandates, and real constraints.

That means doing the work to understand:

• What a journalist actually covers and how they tend to frame the issue.
• Who their audience is, and what that audience needs to understand.
• Whether your story offers timely insight, credible data, a compelling local angle, an affected voice, or a solution worth examining.
• Whether your spokesperson can speak clearly, directly, and humanely.
• How quickly your organization can respond when news breaks or a reporter calls.

Good media relations has always required relationships. Today, it requires even more care, relevance, responsiveness, and respect.

3. Newsworthiness alone is not enough

An announcement can be important to an organization without being a compelling story for the public.

A foundation may launch a new initiative. A city may release a strategic plan. A nonprofit may publish research. Those developments may be meaningful, necessary, and worth communicating.

But journalists and community audiences will still ask:

• What changes because of this?
• Who is affected?
• Why does it matter now?
• What does this reveal about a larger issue?
• Who can speak credibly about the stakes?
• Is there evidence, lived experience, tension, or a possible solution that makes this story meaningful?

For social-impact organizations, this is where media relations and narrative strategy meet.

The goal is not simply to secure attention. It is to help people understand the problem, see the people closest to it, recognize what is at stake, and imagine what meaningful progress could look like.

For example, an organization may want to announce a new round of grants for youth mental-health services. The grant announcement may be the immediate hook. But the stronger public story may be about the gap young people and families are experiencing, the community-designed solutions emerging to address it, and the young people, providers, and local leaders who can explain why the issue demands attention now.

The grant is the news hook. The public story is the reason it matters.

4. Measurement should go beyond clips

For too long, media relations has been measured primarily by the number of stories secured, potential outlet reach, or estimated publicity value.

Those measures can be useful. But they do not answer the question that matters most:

Did our communications advance understanding, trust, engagement, or action?

A stronger approach measures both quantity and quality.

Traditional measure	More strategic question
Number of placements	Did we reach the audiences who matter most?
Outlet reach	Did coverage reach the communities, decision-makers, partners, or funders we need to influence?
Message mentions	Did the story reflect the deeper narrative we are trying to advance?
Positive tone	Did it add clarity, credibility, and useful context?
Social engagement	Did people share, discuss, subscribe, attend, donate, advocate, or take another meaningful action?
Executive visibility	Did trusted and relevant voices—including community voices—have room to lead the story?
Press clips	Did the placement create assets and opportunities that could travel across channels and stakeholder groups?

For a nonprofit, civic institution, or philanthropic organization, one well-placed story that shifts how a key audience understands an issue may be more valuable than dozens of superficial mentions.

This is particularly true in a media environment where visibility is not the same as influence.

The future is relational, integrated, and human

The tools will continue to change. Artificial intelligence, audience data, media-monitoring platforms, creator economies, and new distribution channels will reshape how stories are produced, found, and shared. AI use for information seeking is also growing, including among people seeking news and current information.

But the core of media relations remains remarkably consistent:

Understand the public conversation. Offer something genuinely useful. Respect the people doing the reporting. Communicate with integrity.

The organizations best positioned for the future will be the ones that build durable relationships, elevate credible and diverse voices, develop stories that help people make sense of the world, and connect earned media to a broader strategy for trust, engagement, and change.

At Change Consulting, we recognize the distinct hurdles organizations encounter in today’s current landscape. Whether you require assistance in managing a complex situation, or looking to expand your reach or find a new audience, we’re here to help. Contact us at hello@change-llc.com.