For decades, a PR pro’s greatest tool for earning coverage for their organization, or their client, has been variations of the media database.
Media databases are the most used tool among PR pros, according to an industry-wide survey, with 69% naming databases as the tool they spend the most time using on an average day.
But what are the fundamental features of a media database? And how can PR professionals use databases to find the right journalists, publications and platforms?
This guide will walk you through all of these important questions.
A media database for PR is a digital directory compiling the contact information of working journalists, editors, producers and influencers into a central location. This allows PR and communications professionals to search strategically for media contacts who are most likely to cover a story or topic.
A media database is the tool that PR pros use to help populate a media contact list, which is a compilation of reporters (or influencers), their publication(s), and their contact information organized for the purpose of pitching them story ideas, pitches, and media alerts for your company or client.
On the surface, a media database is exactly what it sounds like—a digital directory of media contacts.
50 years ago, a Rolodex on your desk made up of old business cards was basically a paperweight. These days, directories are digital, and allow you to not only find contact information for journalists, but a modern, effective database provides valuable insights into a journalist’s expertise and interests, enabling you to easily personalize outreach and land highly coveted coverage. Even as databases expand and advance, a digital directory is only as powerful as it is accurate, and not all media databases are created equal.
Many legacy PR databases fail to regularly update their listings for freshness and accuracy, while others lack the crucial customization and personalization features communicators need to navigate this ever-expanding media landscape. These issues cause PR and comms professionals to dig outside of their database, searching across Google and LinkedIn, or guessing emails and running them through email validators.
To start out on the right footing, the media database you use should have some basic features:
Allow you to search for journalists based on region, beat/topic they write about, publication, media type (broadcast, radio, print, etc), and specific keyword.
Contain up-to-date contact information that is specific to the journalist rather than generic info or press emails/phone numbers.
Be maintained and managed by a team who is able to add new contacts, review accuracy, and provides updates on a regular basis; a database’s data must be dynamic.
Building a media list using a reputable database is a smart place to start your media outreach. How do you begin to think about who to add to your media list?
It all starts with your target audience.
What readers, watchers or listeners are you hoping to reach with this story?
If you don’t yet have a media database, you can still start researching the publications and people you want to reach out with a smart Google search.
Try searching in the “news” tab, and modifying the date range. Search for topics that are relevant to your pitch (the more niche the better), and find the publications with stories about those topics.
For example, if you were looking for publications/journalists who have covered stories on, and conversations related to, vegetarian food ahead of launching a new meal kit service, a few boolean search types you could use for smarter Google searches would be:
Put @ in front of a word to to see what conversations are going on already.
ExamplePut # in front of a word.
ExamplePut “-” in front of a word you want to leave out.
ExamplePut a word or phrase inside quotes.
ExamplePut "OR" between each search query.
ExamplePut "site:" in front of a site or domain.
ExamplePut "related:" in front of a web address you already know.
ExampleOnce you’ve found publications that you’re interested in pitching, you’ve almost ready to start building your media list.
While on your top publications, hone in on the stories that are written with a style, voice, and level of authority that aligns with the coverage goals of your organization or client. Up at the top (but sometimes at the bottom) of each post, you should see the author’s name.
You can also find journalists via searching social media for trending topics related to your message or brand, which will give you an idea of the contact’s audience and following.
Sometimes, a publication will attribute posts to the editorial staff as a whole. Other times, there may be no author at all. In those cases, the publication may not be worth reaching out to. If they don’t list an author and are closely tied to your pitching goals anyway, search around the site for another email address, even an informational contact, and reach out for a specific contact.
For a shortcut, you can check out our Trends tool to see top journalists and publications covering the topics you care most about.
A media database serves as the ultimate source for media lists, contact lists that are either used as a master list of journalists relevant to your company or client, or serving a more specific campaign or project.
You might already have one master list of journalists at top publications that have either covered your business or you’d like to work with, and contain notes and contact information for each contact, while also creating a custom list for a specific product launch or company event. Typically media lists are Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets spreadsheets that are shared across departments or teams and look a little something like this.
A healthy media list should include, but is not limited to:
That last bit of information can get tricky, though. There are countless browser plugins for searching for email addresses, but rarely do they have up to date information—especially for contacts in the high turnover media industry.
Finding all of this information, then reaching out and waiting to find out if the information is still accurate, is a huge time suck.
While combing through Google search results will eventually yield a media list, it will take you a LOT longer to comb through searches, find contact information, and manually maintain separate lists as roles and authors. By contrast, using a media database to search for contacts trims the fat by only returning the results that matter.
The level of search customization will vary depending on what media database you use, but most contain at least three core ways to search for contacts.
While there have long been beats like “Finance” and “Politics,” other beats pop up whenever the zeitgeist of conversation shifts. For example, there are now journalists who report primarily on timely topics like Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain, #MeToo, and Immigration Policy.
Knowing what specific topics your pitch best fits into beforehand can go a long way in narrowing your media database search and building smart, targeted media lists.
While different databases offer unique, proprietary tools that promise PR pros an end-to-end media relations solution, very few are actually all-in-one. That said, the non-negotiable features that most media databases should have include:
Being able to filter your searches by location, industry, job function and more allow you to sift through the muck with more ease than ever (see what we did there?).
Would you believe that some databases still don’t have a media list function added? The ability to create automated media lists from within a database is crucial because it cuts out one more painfully arduous step from a PR pro’s job. The more dynamic databases will allow for organization and customization around media lists that tracks your relationship with each contact on the list.
An integrated solution will allow you to set alerts specifically for the journalists on your media lists.
On top of monitoring the journalists on your media lists, advanced PR tools can automatically collect press hits anytime an article is published about your topics or from the contacts you’re monitoring.
What’s more, finding all of this information, then reaching out and waiting to find out if the information is still accurate, is a huge time suck. If only there were a better way…
Thankfully, the most advanced media databases offer ways to search journalists, automatically add relevant contacts to dynamic media lists, and send a pitch from one place, eliminating the need to manually search Google, maintain tons of different spreadsheets, and pitch via mail merge (contributing to one of journalists’ most hated practices—the mass pitch) or send personalized pitches one by one.
When trying to choose a media database that’s right for you, it’s important to ask each database provider the right questions to ensure you’re getting the most out of the platform.
Many media databases, particularly the larger solutions, emphasize quantity over quality when it comes to contacts. Sure, having a vast number of contacts is important, but those contacts are only useful if they still exist. In the fast-moving media industry, journalists change jobs every day, and publications disappear. Since those contacts are only valuable if they still exist, evaluating whether a solution properly updates their database from the outset can save you from major headaches later on.
Most media databases will tout some awesome proprietary feature or tool, but it’s important to know whether they are designed to handle real pain points you’ve encountered with your media outreach. For example, are media lists exportable to the other software that you or your team relies on? Do the reporting tools generate metrics that are meaningful/universally understood?
How many seats are included for the platform? How is data shared, exported, and viewed from different team members? Larger PR teams will have many team members working on media relations and building lists, so it’s critical to know who owns a relationship with a given reporter, and who is working on what. An ideal database has integrated reporting features that offer your marketing team/leadership some valuable measurement insights on your earned coverage too.
How responsive is your database’s customer service team toward adding contacts and outlets that they aren’t currently pulling into their search?
PR, marketing and audience growth roles are increasingly merging under a unified strategy. The silos are continuously being torn down. Any media database worth your investment should not only understand this direction that the industry is moving, but also be equipped with the features and tools to encourage collaboration from across the aisle.
Are you looking for a better way to find and connect with journalists? Explore the industry’s most accurate database, with quality standards maintained by a full editorial team.
Muck Rack’s database enables PR teams to:
Learn how Muck Rack can help you find the right journalists, monitor news, build reports and collaborate with your team.
