After Millions in Media Sales, Alisa Zhur Launches Placed.network to Rethink How Brands Buy Visibility

Placed.network is launching a PR and media platform built to route brand visibility across advertising, wire, and earned media in one hybrid platform. Designed for founders, marketers, and agencies, Placed brings campaign planning and media buying into one workflow, ensuring every announcement is directed to the most effective channel.

The launch addresses a critical “routing” problem in the communications industry. Cision’s 2026 State of the Media research found that 72% of journalists say fewer than a quarter of the pitches they receive are relevant, yet 66% still rely on PR-provided material — such as pitches and press releases — for story ideas. This data suggests that journalists still need credible information, but brands often struggle to determine which media route is appropriate before distribution.

Placed is built around three connected functions to solve this disconnect:

• Plan: Assess business goals, stories, and budgets to determine an appropriate visibility mix.
• Buy: Browse and compare paid media opportunities with transparent information on outlets, formats, and pricing.
• Execute: Combine media buying with PR services and editorial outreach instead of coordinating multiple disconnected suppliers.

Crucially, the platform maintains the distinction between channels. Paid and sponsored media are commercial placements, while earned media remains editorially independent. Placed structures the outreach and reporting, but editorial publication decisions remain entirely with editors.

“I’ve spent years watching founders get sold the tool before anyone asks what they are actually trying to achieve. A wire, a journalist pitch, and a paid article solve different problems — and quite often the right answer is more than one of them. Placed is about making that decision first, then giving people somewhere to actually execute it.” Alisa Zhur, founder

Azhur brings over a decade of experience across media, marketing, and commercial strategy to the platform. Having led media sales at Cointelegraph and founded ICL.Agency, her track record centers on building media packages that bridge the gap between editorial prestige, advertising scale, and creative brand integrations.

Roadmap and future expansion

Placed is currently live with core planning, procurement, and execution functions. To further empower brands to navigate modern media fragmentation, the platform is expanding its core discovery engine with several key capabilities:

• AI Agents: Streamlining campaign management and distribution.
• Journalist & freelancer requests: A new intake feature enabling direct collaboration between PR pros, journalists, and brand spokespeople.
• Expanded visibility assets: Adding support for influencer discovery, event sponsorship discovery, banner placements, and Brand Collab Matchmaking for companies to find event co-hosts or share advertising features.
• Performance analytics: New tools to track campaign efficacy and optimize advertising focus.

As we scale these capabilities, we are opening discussions with strategic partners and investors interested in the future of the media procurement landscape.

About Placed.network

Placed.network is a hybrid PR platform designed to become the central operating system for modern brands seeking transparent, measurable media routing. By consolidating media procurement and strategy, Placed eliminates the friction typically found in fragmented communications tools, providing the architecture brands need to access global media inventory and execute multi-channel workflows.

The platform is a solo founder-led project, currently bootstrapped and operating without venture capital backing, though it remains open to strategic investment opportunities that align with its long-term vision.

Learn more at Placed.network. Follow for product updates and PR pro tips: LinkedIn · X (Twitter) · Instagram.