Earned media experts

What our earned media experts do

Earned media at Profile means coverage a journalist chose to run. The work begins with the arguments a client can credibly make, written up as articles, research and commentary, then offered to the business, finance and trade press their buyers read. Where an opportunity is secured, Profile writes the first draft of the response rather than returning a brief and a deadline. Nothing is bought: paid space is not presented as coverage, and a piece that only makes sense because the client sells something is advertising rather than editorial.

How they work

Earned media is the one stream that cannot be bought, which leaves a journalist's judgement as the only gate that matters. Profile has placed more than 1,500 pieces of coverage for clients, and the pattern in what gets taken is consistent: a real argument, a named person qualified to make it, offered to a title that covers that beat, at a moment the story is live. Profile aims for at least three pieces of high-quality coverage from a single push, and strong stories go considerably further. The rest of the discipline is refusal. Declining to pitch a story that is not one protects the relationship, because a reporter whose time has been wasted once is slower to answer the next.

When to bring them in

The usual trigger is being compared on price against firms a buyer already recognises, or a senior figure whose standing inside the business is invisible outside it. Others come when journalists are quoting competitors on subjects the client knows better, or when a leadership team needs two to five spokespeople profiled in parallel. Profile does not run press work on its own: reporters check a spokesperson's LinkedIn and video before accepting a pitch, so the streams reinforce each other.