Let's be honest about something the PR industry has been slow to say out loud: earned media is harder to secure than ever, and for most startups, pinning your communications strategy on it is a losing game.
This isn't new. The shift has been happening for years. But it has accelerated to a point where we can't keep having the same old conversation about pitching journalists and waiting for coverage to move the needle.
Here's what the landscape actually looks like right now:
U.S. newsrooms have lost roughly 30,000 jobs since 2008 alone. And it's not slowing down — Georgetown University projects that by 2031, journalism will have lost nearly 35% of its jobs since 2002, a total of more than 20,000 positions. The journalists who remain are stretched thin. More beats, more pressure to hit digital metrics, fewer hours to sort through pitches.
If you're a startup, you're already fighting uphill. You're competing with Big Tech, which often has dedicated beat reporters at all major publications. Funding announcements under nine figures rarely get standalone stories, and some deal roundup newsletters won't touch anything below high eight figures.
That's most of the field. Excluded.
So what do you do with that?
You stop treating earned media as your primary communications strategy and start treating it as one channel in a much larger ecosystem.
The companies building real visibility right now are investing in owned media:
* Consistent thought leadership on LinkedIn
* A blog that actually reflects their expertise
* Founders with a clear, authentic point of view that is shared regularly
The goal isn't to post more. It's to post with enough consistency and relevance that your target audience (customers, investors, partners, prospective talent, etc.) comes to expect to hear from you on the topics that matter in your space.
That's a more achievable goal than waiting for a reporter to discover you. And honestly? It's a more durable one.
The media landscape has changed. The playbook needs to change with it.
