As you well know, the PR playbook of old is not exactly aging like a fine Bordeaux.
You can no longer garner a media placement, post it on LinkedIn, and drive people to your website so you can track what they do when they arrive. And forget about tossing it into a coverage report and expecting someone in the C-suite to gasp in admiration at your brilliance. (Though I will still gasp at your brilliance, because I know exactly how hard you worked to place it!)
Today, we have to do so much more than pitch media and place stories. We have to build credibility, support business goals, protect the organization’s reputation, and prove that our work is as effective as the things the organization has paid for.
It’s not totally fair because it’s incredibly challenging to measure reputation, trust, and credibility to cold, hard cash, but that’s the world we live in.
That’s why the PESO Model® exists.
When paid, earned, shared, and owned media work together, they stop acting like four separate silos running either in tandem but not together or in opposite directions. They start functioning like an actual communications system. That is when you get more traction, more consistency, and better results from the work you’re already doing.
The good news is you do not need a giant budget, a 27-person team, or a color-coded command center worthy of NASA.
You do need to be more intentional about how the pieces fit together.
Here are five ways to make the PESO Model work harder for you.
1. Start with owned media as your home base
In a PESO Model program, owned media is your foundation. There are exceptions to every rule, of course, but if I had to order the PESO acronym in order of importance, I would make it OESP (but that’s super hard to remember, let alone pronounce).
Owned media is your home base. It is where your organization explains what it knows, what it believes, and why anyone should care. That might be a blog post, an executive point of view, a case study, a research summary, a landing page, or a newsroom. or even an FAQ. The format matters less than the function.
Before you pitch a reporter, post a hot take, or throw money behind a campaign, ask yourself: if someone hears about us today, where do we want them to go next?
If the answer is “the homepage,” I will encourage you to dream bigger.
A strong owned asset gives people somewhere to land after they discover you through other channels. It gives context to your message. It gives credibility to your claims. And it keeps the attention you worked so hard to earn from evaporating five minutes later.
If you want the PESO Model to work harder, start by building one strong piece of owned content that anchors the rest of the effort.
2. Use earned media to validate, not just amplify
In a world full of AI slop, made-up expertise, and confidence masquerading as competence, credible third-party validation matters more than ever.
But too many teams still treat earned media like a scavenger hunt for impressions.
Coverage is not the goal. Credibility is the goal.
The best earned media placements reinforce a message you already want your audience to believe. They validate your expertise. They transfer trust. They support reputation, not just awareness.
A smart byline, an insightful quote, or a well-placed interview tied to a strategic message will do far more for you than a pile of disconnected mentions that look nice in a monthly report and accomplish approximately nothing.
So before you pitch, get clear on the message behind the media opportunity. What do you want this placement to prove? What belief should it reinforce? What business priority does it support?
And once the coverage lands, for the love of all things measurable, do not let it die in a PDF recap.
Put it on your website. Share it in your newsletter. Use it in sales conversations. Reference it in executive communications.
Let earned media feed the rest of your system instead of becoming a one-day dopamine hit.
3. Treat shared media as a listening tool, not just a distribution channel
Somewhere along the way (probably when the marketers ruined it), “shared” became shorthand for “post more on social,” which is a lovely way to burn out a team while learning very little.
Shared media is not just for pushing content out. It is for paying attention.
This is where you see what your audience cares about, what they misunderstand, what makes them nod along, and what makes them roll their eyes and keep scrolling.
Comments, DMs, community discussions, and even the questions people ask over and over again are pure gold if you’re smart enough to use them.
That feedback should shape what you do next.
If your audience keeps asking the same question, turn it into content. If one framing gets traction and another falls flat, use that information. If people engage more deeply with one topic than another, that is not random. That is strategy handing you a clue.
Shared media is where you test ideas before you overinvest in them. It is where you learn what language resonates. It is where you get closer to what your audience actually needs, rather than what your internal team thought sounded impressive in a planning meeting.
Use shared media to distribute and build community, yes. But use it even more to listen. Really listen. And then turn those findings into owned and earned media.
4. Use paid media to extend what is already working
Paid media tends to create one of two reactions in PR teams: panic or avoidance.
Either it feels too salesy, or it gets handed off to another team and disappears into a strange parallel universe where everyone talks about CPMs and no one can explain what any of it is doing for reputation.
But paid media plays a very important role in the PESO Model: amplification.
Paid should not be the first move. It should be the accelerant.
Once you know a piece of content, a message, or a thought leadership angle is already resonating, paid can help you get it in front of more of the right people. Maybe an executive post is getting strong engagement. Maybe a resource page is keeping people on-site. Maybe a blog post is driving the kinds of actions you actually care about.
Use paid media to boost what is already working. Retarget visitors to a key page. Extend the life of strong thought leadership. Promote an owned asset that helps move someone from casual interest to actual action.
That way, paid is not some disconnected tactic floating off in the corner. It is supporting the program you are already building.
5. Measure the system, not the silos
If you measure paid, earned, shared, and owned media separately, you will almost always undervalue your work. Not because the work is weak, but because the measurement is.
The PESO Model works because the channels support one another.
An earned placement might drive people to your site. Your owned content might keep them there and teach them something useful. Shared media might extend the conversation and help you identify any remaining questions. Paid might re-engage the people who showed interest but were not ready to act the first time around.
That is a system. So measure it like one.
Start with the outcome you actually want. Better leads? Stronger executive visibility? More trust in a specific area? Faster movement from awareness to consideration? Pick the thing that matters, then map how each media type contributes to it.
This is how to stop defending activity and start proving value.
And frankly, it is also how we stop pretending that 42 impressions and a nice-looking pie chart are enough to justify a budget.
The point is making your efforts work harder
The PESO Model is not about doing everything. It is about making your communications program work better by connecting the pieces.
Start with owned media that gives people somewhere to go. Use earned to build credibility. Use shared to listen and learn. Use paid to amplify what has already earned the right to be seen by more people. Then measure how it all works together.
That is when PR stops looking like a collection of tactics and starts functioning like a real business driver.
And if you are a PRSA member who wants to go deeper, we offer a discount on PESO Model Certification to help you turn the framework into something you can actually run — not just admire from afar and swear you’ll “get to someday.” Log in to your PRSA account to learn more.
Gini Dietrich is the founder, CEO, and author of Spin Sucks, host of the Spin Sucks podcast, and author of Spin Sucks (the book). She is the creator of the PESO Model® and has crafted a certification for it in collaboration with the S.I. Newhouse School for Public Communication at Syracuse University. She is co-author of Marketing in the Round and co-host of The Agency Leadership podcast. She also holds “legend” status on Peloton.
Illustration: Ahmed
