Discover how leading brands blend in-house content and earned media to work with AI algorithms and boost their SEO and reach.
You’ve poured time and energy into creating standout content—stories that matter and insights that resonate. But here’s the problem: if no one sees it, all that effort goes to waste.
So, what’s your next move? Do you keep relying on your in-house team, investing in creating even more content and hoping that search engines eventually take notice? Or do you bring in distribution experts to help your content reach the audiences it deserves?
It’s a tough decision. Simply “publishing more” is not a real strategy anymore. Organic search is more competitive than ever, algorithms are always changing, and AI-powered search is rewriting the rules altogether. Trying to do it all yourself can feel like an endless race with no finish line in sight.
In 2025, the question isn’t whether your content is good enough. It’s whether you can get it in front of the right people at the right time.
Paid media has always offered a fast track to visibility and quick ROI. But trust in paid content has faded, and standing out is harder than ever.
On the other hand, owned media has been the slow and steady way to earn credibility and build trust with consumers. Yet in the past five years, competition has skyrocketed. Relying solely on owned media to grow organically has become almost impossible. Ahrefs reports that 96% of online content gets no traffic from Google at all. And according to SEO expert Neil Patel, organic reach on social media has dropped by 61% in the last three years.
So what’s the next move? Earned media. It’s a proven way to build credibility, boost SEO, and extend your reach—without paying for clicks. In the age of AI search, earned media has become even more essential. When reputable sites support your content, it shapes how and when AI search engines display your brand. But scaling earned media still takes time, patience, and expertise.
Building an in-house earned media distribution program sounds appealing. But what does it really involve?
First, you’ll need to hire PR help or outreach freelancers. According to Muck Rack’s State of Work-Life Balance in PR, the average salary of an in-house PR professional is $110,000. Beyond financial cost, there’s the time and resources needed to manually pitch journalists and build publisher relationships.
Retention is another headache. In-house PR turnover has nearly doubled in the past decade, hitting 25%. And a 2021 Work Institute report shows that the U.S. voluntary turnover rate is twice what it was in 2012. This revolving door makes it tough to build the deep, trusted relationships with journalists and publishers that get real traction.
PR teams depend on media databases like Cision or Meltwater, which cost thousands per year. That’s not counting the resources needed to actually pitch and track content. Cision’s own survey found that marketers spend about 34% of their digital marketing budgets on earned media alone.
Manually pitching journalists takes serious time, and showing ROI is notoriously hard. Open rates and click-through rates are low, and even when your pitch is read, it’s rarely picked up. According to a 2025 report from Cision, 86% of journalists reject pitches because they’re simply not relevant. Building strong publisher relationships also takes years, making it especially hard for smaller or newer teams to break through quickly.
Marketers say their biggest challenges include creating differentiated, high-quality content that resonates with audiences — and doing so consistently. Managing data sourcing, story creation, and QA in-house adds yet another layer of complexity and cost.
Add it all up, and in-house distribution is a massive investment of time, money, and effort with no guarantee of consistent visibility, SEO traction, or ROI. In this landscape, marketers are turning to outsourced earned media distribution to optimize their content’s reach.
Outsourcing earned media distribution is often more cost-effective than building an in-house team from scratch, and it typically delivers results faster than relying on SEO alone. It takes the complex, time-consuming, and expensive work of building publisher relationships off the plates of already-busy marketing teams — letting them focus on strategy and story ideation.
Many marketers immediately think of PR agencies when they think of outsourcing earned media. These agencies have established connections and can secure placements with some of the biggest publishers in the country. However, hiring a PR agency will set you back at least $15,000 a month. And for that investment, your placements might be limited to just 5–10 per story — a slim ROI for the spend.
In contrast, working with a platform like Stacker goes beyond traditional PR pitching. You gain access to a vast network of over 4,000 publishers, along with a team of experts to help optimize your content, and a live dashboard to track your coverage. Stacker’s approach consistently delivers hundreds of placements in reputable national and local outlets, offering trusted, relevant exposure.
The smartest marketers know it doesn’t have to be an either/or decision. Pairing a PR agency with Stacker can give you the best of both worlds: a few high-profile placements from major national publications alongside hundreds of placements in reputable news outlets that build credibility and trust with diverse audiences. But naturally, budgets don’t stretch forever, and if you’re weighing options, prioritizing a platform like Stacker might be a more effective way to make your marketing dollars work harder.
And it’s not just about reach—it’s about quality. Stories are only shared on the Stacker Newswire when they’re newsworthy, not just to fill a quota. Stacker’s editorial team vets every story for accuracy and impact, ensuring each one is primed for maximum engagement and reach.
This approach bundles distribution and story strategy together, delivering consistent coverage and measurable SEO improvements. For example, Rula tripled its domain authority in just six months through a focused earned media effort amplified by Stacker.
Of course, outsourcing isn’t the right fit for every business. Large enterprises with robust editorial teams or brands producing a high volume of owned content may find in-house distribution more cost-effective and aligned with their needs. For example, Red Bull has its own in-house media hub, which can justify the time and expense of managing and distributing a constant stream of owned content.
Other companies may have deep relationships with niche publications built on years of trust. Take Patagonia, for instance—it works closely with environmental publications to share its values and stories in more targeted spaces.
Even these powerhouse brands often complement their in-house efforts by partnering with a platform like Stacker to expand their reach. A hybrid approach that blends in-house expertise with the scale of a distribution partner can offer the best of both worlds.
For brands with a strong editorial foundation, combining in-house efforts with an earned media partner can unlock powerful results. Stacker has worked with hundreds of brands to amplify their stories, distributing them across a vast network of reputable publishers and driving real visibility and measurable SEO improvements.
The real advantage of this model is that it leverages each team’s strengths. Your in-house team creates the compelling content that sets you apart and secures key placements, while a distribution partner like Stacker takes care of the time-consuming work of expanding your reach and managing publisher relationships at scale.
The most successful marketers understand they don’t have to choose between building or buying earned distribution. By blending both, they can scale their efforts and achieve a higher ROI—without the wasted energy and missed opportunities of managing it all alone.
Doriane is Stacker’s Director of Marketing. She previously headed marketing departments in various companies, owned a marketing agency for 7 years, and built a startup combining automated marketing workflows with a marketing services marketplace.
Photo Illustration by Stacker // Canva
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