Anyone can buy attention. What you cannot buy — at least not credibly — is a third party choosing to vouch for you. That is what earned media is: borrowed trust, and in a saturated feed it is the scarcer, more valuable currency.

Relevance is the price of entry. A pitch earns coverage when it hands a journalist a story their readers already care about, timed to a moment that makes it worth running now rather than someday.

Relationships compound. The reporters who know you answer faster, cut you slack on a rough draft, and come back when they need a source. That trust is built one honest interaction at a time, not bought in a burst.

In a world where everyone is shouting, the brand that is quoted rather than the one that is advertised wins the read.