Personal Brand & Positioning
What is the difference between paid media and earned media?
Answered independently in 4 episodes, by 2 different people. Every line below is verbatim from the transcript, timestamped to the moment it was said.
The short answer
What the archive says
01Prioritize earned media in your mix; a pitched story generally reads as more authentic than paid advertising, which matters most for small businesses and personal brands. source →
In their words
What 2 people actually said
This is how you get your name out there for earned media. The difference between earned and paid is people generally, and I would say just they do, but generally speaking, it's more authentic. You know, when someone else is running an article about you and you get it pitched as a story versus paid advertising where, you know, don't get me wrong, they both work.
So once you read that, you're not even going to continue to read the rest of the story. So, you know, consumers are smart and they understand the difference between something that's paid and something that's truly earned.
You got paid media. You got earned media. And most people probably that listen to this show probably know the difference, but I'm going to lighten them a bit.
The episodes
4 episodes answer this
Sep 1, 2026
How Earned Media Gets Your Business Recommended by AI with Brett Farmiloe
Sep 19, 2025
The Future of PR: Earned Media, AI in Journalism & Visibility Strategies with Brett Farmiloe
May 18, 2021
Mini-MasterClass with Gloria Chou: How to Hack Your PR!
May 14, 2021
Weekly Marketing and Advertising News, May 14, 2021: Looking At The Future Of Marketing
Also asked as