Why you should scrap your media list
New journalists and media outlets spring up every day and your media list could be outdated before your finish typing it up. Here’s how you should find media contacts.
The media list has been the holy grail in the PR business.
It’s a shrine-worthy artifact that PR pros hold dear—and near—but as the industry modernizes, so must the media list.
While a home base for media contacts is smart, it should no longer be the only tool you use. Instead, add a search engine to your contact mining efforts.
Journalist beats are changing quickly as the number of journalists decline. One journalist may juggle five beats at once. Therefore, media lists built in databases are increasingly outdated. Google, however, isn’t.
There are four pieces to the pitch planning pie:
1. Research and relationships (60 percent)
This is the most important pie slice. A drag-and-drop database media list will never earn you the caliber of coverage that research and relationships will. By researching who has covered your topic in the past, a search engine will allow you to spend time getting to know a journalist’s style and help you better tailor your pitch.
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