Sooner or later, every client asks it. You are paying good money, so why can nobody promise you the coverage?
The short answer is that anyone who does promise it is either guessing or selling you something else. Usually paid placement, dressed up as editorial.
Here is the longer answer.
Nobody controls the news. A story that would lead the business pages on a quiet Tuesday disappears on the day a minister resigns or a market falls over. Every adviser who has been at this long enough has watched a strong story vanish under events. I certainly have.
Editors want what is new. If a paper ran something similar yesterday, it doesn't matter how good yours is today. And newsrooms disagree with themselves all the time. One desk loves a story that the next desk across would never touch.
Titles compete. Some will not run a story that appeared first in a rival, or even in a sister paper. That is not personal. It is how the business works.
And every outlet answers to its own readers, listeners and viewers. If your story is not for them, no amount of persuasion changes that.
So what are you actually paying for? The judgement to know which story will travel and which won't. The relationships that mean an editor reads the email rather than deleting it. The craft to shape something a journalist can use. And the follow through when they ring back with questions at seven in the morning.
If you need guaranteed exposure, quickly, buy an advert. There is nothing wrong with that. But don't expect it to be believed in the same way, because readers know the difference. Advertising never passes the "well, they would say that" test.
Earned coverage has cleared a journalist's bar. No reporter worth their salt simply pastes in a release. That is exactly why people trust what they read, and why it is worth so much more than the space it takes up.
Trust is earned, not bought. It is the whole point of the work.