That’s why the strongest PR results don’t come from just “getting published”. They come from becoming someone the media can rely on. 

This is the idea behind Press Office – the service we built at Outset PR to help brands operate like a real newsroom: staying inside the news cycle, reacting with precision, and turning expertise into earned coverage that compounds.

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Earned vs paid PR: Why editorial coverage builds trust that money can’t buy

The difference between earned and paid PR is simple: while paid placements can buy visibility, earned coverage brings legitimacy. 

Editorial analysis and non-promotional content form the core of a publication’s readership and traffic. That is where audiences go for interpretation, expertise, and market context.

Earned coverage delivers four structural advantages that paid placements rarely create:

• Editorial access. While paid formats live in branded sections, earned coverage puts your voice inside the publication’s editorial flow.‍
• Trust as currency. Explicitly labeling articles as paid does not necessarily erode audience trust. However, earned quotes still carry greater weight as proof of authority.‍
• Compounding distribution. One strong tier-1 mention often triggers syndications, reposts, and additional commentary requests. ‍
• Relationship capital. When a brand repeatedly provides relevant, well-framed insight, journalists begin to return to it proactively, without paid deals. That shift – from pitching and media buying to being consulted – is the advantage most brands are ultimately competing for.

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From thought leadership to delegated press office

The press office model we provide emerged from hands-on work. We have always gravitated toward organic PR – it’s where our core strength lies. That focus naturally led us to earned media, the highest tier of visibility, where true editorial integration becomes the ultimate benchmark of trust and expertise.

In 2025, what is now called “Press Office” started as a thought leadership-specific service. We monitored breaking news and distributed expert commentary from clients on relevant market developments. 

Over time, we saw that the mechanism could be expanded. As relationships with journalists deepened, inbound requests for commentary on new topics began to increase. 

So instead of only pitching comments reactively, we started managing a two-way flow: matching editorial demand with the right expertise from our clients.

That shift ultimately transformed the service into a delegated communication layer. Journalists reach out with questions, while we identify the most relevant speaker, frame the response in line with editorial logic, and ensure alignment with the client’s positioning.

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Inside the model: how it works in practice

Press Office is designed to turn a brand’s expertise into consistent earned visibility. The mechanics are:

• Monitoring and triggers. We track the news agenda daily – regulatory developments, funding moves, macro shifts, narrative turns – and identify topics that are most likely to generate editorial demand.‍
• Expertise packaging. Most teams have real technical depth, but it rarely translates into a media-ready format. Our job is to turn raw expertise into sharp, quotable insight.‍
• Network execution. We work with 700+ journalists across outlets such as Forbes, Business Insider, The Independent, Bloomberg, CNBC, TechCrunch, CoinDesk, and others. This allows us to deliver the right speaker to the right newsroom at the right moment.

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What clients notice first

For most Web3 teams, tier-1 editorial coverage has always felt out of reach – not because the project isn’t strong, but because top outlets rarely publish promotional content. Without hype or “unicorn status”, breaking into top-flight organic formats is close to impossible.

Press Office changes that. It becomes a systematic way to enter high-trust editorial narratives and get quoted where brands struggle to get a seat at the table. Clients notice it quickly: their experts start appearing in outlets and story formats they previously considered unrealistic.

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What this looks like in real campaigns

With StealthEX, our press office model became an extension of their broader awareness strategy centered on thought leadership. Over a focused cycle, we secured 40 tier-1 mentions across outlets such as Forbes, The Independent, Business Insider, TheStreet, and Investing.com, supported by 8 targeted pitches and 6 reactive commentaries. These placements triggered 92 syndications and delivered an estimated 3.62B total reach.

With Nav Markets, the emphasis was on strengthening long-term credibility as a trusted infrastructure partner for crypto and fintech brands. Through 4 pitches and 4 reactive commentaries, the campaign generated 48 tier-1 mentions – including Cointelegraph, Decrypt, TradingView, and Yahoo Finance – alongside 37 syndications and an estimated 1.32B total reach.

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Press Office as your premium PR layer

It is important to note: earned PR and the press office model are not a replacement for every other communications tool. They do not eliminate paid placements, content marketing, or broader media campaigns. Instead, they operate as a premium PR layer – the front edge of what is possible when a brand aims to build authority rather than visibility alone.

Press Office becomes especially relevant for medium and large brands that want to increase the level of media they appear in and shift from transactional coverage to editorial integration. For many projects, organic tier-1 presence remains structurally inaccessible because those outlets do not operate on pay-to-publish logic. Earned integration is often the only viable route in.

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Strong expertise helps, but a pre-built media persona is not required. We support clients end-to-end: selecting the right topics, shaping commentary in accordance with editorial standards and your brand positioning, and managing journalist relationships. The goal is durable trust – recognition as a legitimate expert and recurring speakership opportunities inside the industry’s most influential conversations. If your team is ready to become part of the ongoing dialogue, drop us a line.