Year in Review: The evolution of earned in 2025

In a year marked by AI advancements, poly-permacrises, and global movements, earned media has emerged as a critical source of trust and authority. Its resilience is the result of ongoing evolution in definition, channels, and practice.

Right from the start, 2025 was set to be a year of change. Victoria Chang, former Head of Communications and Content, Asia Pacific at Christie’s, highlighted the evolving state of the public relations function. From where she stood in the luxury sector, she saw that the future of PR has shifted from managing public perception towards what she called "people relations," a perspective that’s held true throughout 2025.

Across Telum Media’s conversations with industry professionals, we followed this critical shift throughout markets and trends from teams balancing tech innovation and market shifts to a doubling down on the value of storytelling and authenticity. Within these tides and turns, one thing became clear: the emergence of earned media as a beacon amid fragmentation, artificial intelligence, and fractured trust.

In the age of AI, earned becomes everything
From traditional and social media to podcast feeds, the spaces through which earned travels have become increasingly diverse. With market shifts, the definition and scope of earned have continuously evolved.

For Addie Freyne, Weber Shandwick Australia’s Director of Earned Creative Strategy, everything is earned. "For a long time, 'earned' was shorthand for traditional press coverage. Then over the past few years, the industry has expanded the definition to include other channels like social, podcasts and even user-generated content."

In the reality of platform proliferation, she emphasised that earned should prioritise resonance over placement. "Earned isn’t about where your story lands - it’s about whether it cuts through, sparks conversation, and drives real engagement."

This focus is important for navigating today’s fragmented landscape, where the pressure for more adaptable earned programs has intensified and become further accelerated by AI’s rapid rise. Because beyond the traditional and social platforms, reputation and visibility are earned across a combination of social-first newsrooms, newsletters, podcasts, and now AI search.

As Nichole Provatas, Executive Vice President and APAC Head of Integrated Marketing and Innovation at We. Communications, put it: "Earned media is moving - and has moved - from a single, concentrated orbit of mastheads to a constellation of influence."

One of the biggest, emerging stars in this constellation is the machine.

As Nichole shared, LLMs love earned authority. With 95 per cent of LLM citations drawing from non-paid sources - journalism, corporate blogs, and expert commentary - "paid channels no longer drive discovery, creating a major opening for strong earned visibility."

This development has upended traditional marketing models. Going forward, it’ll be about how comms teams balance their earned strategies - navigating decentralised discovery, LLMs, social media, and AI-powered newsrooms - separately, together, all at once.

Earned in the newsrooms of today and tomorrow
In 2025, zero-click search, AI summaries, shifting consumption habits, and declining trust in traditional news have propelled media outlets towards new platforms and leaner teams.

In response, PR professionals have recalibrated their earned programs to meet journalists where they are, whether it’s at news desks or in journopreneurial spaces.

For Anhar Khanbhai’s team at Wise, this has meant shifting from transactional pitching to deeper media engagement. "These aren’t briefings," explained Anhar, Head of APAC PR, "they’re proper educational experiences that aim to provide reporters with deeper exposure to the company, the problem we’re solving, and the customers we serve."

Aanchal Agarwal, Associate Vice President at SPAG FINN Partners, shared this philosophy in healthcare comms. "A key strategy (which isn’t groundbreaking) is nurturing relationships with the right voices, providing them with timely access to experts and resources, without pushing a specific agenda," she said.

In the hospitality space, Wang Siew Leng echoed this nurture approach. "We approach media collaboration with a partnership mindset, taking our time to understand what each journalist or media outlet needs, then tailoring our messages accordingly," emphasised the Director of Public Relations & Marketing Communications at Momentus Hospitality.

As Eliza Marriott-Smalley of The MC Collective summed up, "it all comes down to relevance, respect, and building long-term credibility."

Because building stronger, more future-proof partnerships serves more than two industries. It reinforces what earned does best: building trust and credibility, especially in an age of misinformation and noise.

"It’s about delivering better information to a public that desperately needs clarity," said Ananda Shakespeare, Founder and CEO of Shakespeare Communications. "It’s about a media ecosystem driven by transparency, speed and accuracy. One that serves society as a whole."

In the face of tech advancements or market shifts, earned stays rooted in relationships, narratives, and trust - with journalists, audiences, and increasingly so, AI.

The ever-changing revolution of earned
In 2025, we’ve gotten a preview of earned’s authority in the future of information and trust.

Whether AI or human audiences, it remains the token to trust, confidence, and visibility. "Machines reward authoritative, transparent content,” said Nichole, “the same qualities that great earned programmes produce."

To amplify earned, industry professionals are paving pathways across platforms and spaces. One method is through integrated, cross-functional work. As Addie saw it, "if earned is the spark that ignites curiosity - paid, owned, and shared channels are what fuels a lasting fire." When different functions come together, it can sustain stronger movements, communities, and impact.

At the same time, earned has also never worked so hard. "Trust, reputation and authenticity have never been more important or harder to manage," she noted.

While this brings comms closer to business strategy, it also raises the stakes for how earned contributes to reputation and revenue. And in the face of channel fragmentation, "PR needs to work harder to create moments that resonate beyond the initial article," Anhar remarked.

2025 has shown that this new horizon is only beginning. In 2026, the revolution of earned will continue to gather momentum. Going forward, with AI acceleration, compounding crises, and market shifts, earned remains the human-focused backbone of the PR equation, grounded in people relations; earned narrative, reputation, and trust; and the resilience of earned.