Measuring earned media quality, not just quantity
Launch library · evergreen read
A high volume of earned media coverage can still represent a genuinely weak result overall if much of that coverage is thin, poorly placed or entirely disconnected from the key messages a campaign actually needed to communicate clearly to its target audience. Quality matters at least as much as sheer quantity does, and arguably rather more.
Assessing quality properly means looking well beyond the simple count of articles secured to factors such as prominence, tone, message pull through and the underlying credibility of the outlet carrying the story in the first place. A small number of well placed, genuinely message rich stories in respected publications often outweighs a much larger volume of passing mentions scattered elsewhere.
Building genuine quality into a measurement framework right from the start prevents a team from being quietly tempted to chase raw volume simply because it happens to be easier to report upward. A campaign judged on genuine quality tends to encourage considerably better pitching and stronger stories than one judged purely on raw counts alone.