Earned media
Earned media is coverage you did not pay for: articles a journalist chose to write, reviews, mentions and social shares, as opposed to paid or owned media.
Updated · Citable
What Earned media means
Marketers group channels into paid (ads, sponsored content, paid distribution), owned (your site, blog, newsletter) and earned (coverage and word of mouth). A distributed press release is paid distribution; a journalist's story about your launch is earned.