A Panel Looks into Earned, Owned & Paid Media

By Sarah Granger, panelist

Monday's first panel on "Earned, Owned and Bought Media" included four speakers presenting a wide range of views. As moderator Lou Hoffman explained previously:

"You have journalists acting as communicators, promoting their stories through Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms. You have communicators acting as journalists, churning out newspaper-like copy. You have companies supplementing – some might argue bypassing – third-party media in creating their own media properties that reflect many of the same tenants of their objective brethren."

Lou Hoffman , CEO of the Hoffman Agency, a communications consultancy that specializes in markets of complexity. He blogs on storytelling through a business prism at Ishmael’s Corner and introduced the speakers, yet it's also worth noting that his company works with owned, paid and earned media for their clients.

Fredrik Winterlind, VP of global marketing at Black & Veatch brought the corporate perspective to the table, expanding eloquently on how a combination of owned, earned and paid media has been a successful blend for Black & Veatch.

I spoke about being a first generation digital native and not realizing I was a journalist for ten years after I began writing professionally, since I came from being an engineer and gradually moved toward new media. I just never thought of myself that way until others began describing me as such. I also tried to provide a perspective on how I've witnessed various companies using owned media publications as part of their business model, marketing and general communications outreach.

Tom Foremski, the former Financial Times reporter and founder of Silicon Valley Watcher commented on values of traditional journalism translated to new media as well as answering questions about relevance of owned vs. earned media and the trust element.

Much of the session, as planned, was moderator and audience Q&A. It was a short session, but it touched on why owned and earned media are becoming more pervasive and necessary.

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Sarah Granger is an award-winning writer and new media strategist, and founder of the Center for Technology, Media & Society.