A media plan starts with the audience and the result you need, not with a list of outlets. PR teams work across earned, owned, shared, and paid channels, often called the PESO model. Those categories describe how a message reaches people and how much control an organization has over it; they do not rank one channel as automatically better than another.
The four channel types
01
Earned media
Independent journalists, editors, reviewers, or other third parties choose to cover a story. You can provide evidence and access, but you do not control whether or how it appears. A syndicated copy of your own release is not the same as independently reported coverage.
02
Owned media
Your website, newsroom, email list, and publications you control can carry the complete source material. You own the wording and correction process, but still need to earn readers' attention and trust.
03
Shared media
Social platforms and communities allow conversation and redistribution. The organization can publish a post, but platform rules, recommendation systems, and audience responses are outside its control.
04
Paid media
Advertising, sponsorship, and paid placement buy defined distribution or exposure. Label paid arrangements clearly and measure them against the agreed deliverable rather than treating them as independent editorial endorsement.
Formats and audiences
Within those channels, choose formats that fit the story. A local event may suit a regional newsroom, radio station, neighborhood newsletter, and an on-site advisory. A complex technical finding may need a primary report, an expert interview, a visual explanation, and a trade publication. Audio and video are useful when a demonstration or voice adds context; text remains important for facts that readers need to scan or cite.
Make a short map of the audience, the questions each group has, the evidence available, the channel they actually use, and who can answer follow-up questions. The same core facts can then be adapted without changing their meaning.
Measure the right outcome
Record publication URLs, whether a story was independent or republished, the audience served, referral visits, enquiries, and corrections where relevant. Do not add ad impressions, social views, and article readership into one supposedly precise 'reach' number; the same person may appear several times and the metrics measure different things.
A good mix often uses an owned source of truth, relevant outreach for potential earned coverage, shared discussion, and paid amplification only where it supports a defined goal.