The subtle art of creating a media list (or two) for your PR campaign

When I joined the Truesix team four and a half years ago, I had pretty much zero knowledge of PR or content marketing. Taking guided steps, I soon started to learn the meaning of such terms as press release, media pitch, PR campaign, and, of course, media list. 

In fact, crafting a media list for a campaign was one of the first real PR tasks I was asked to do, and I loved it. I mean – you get to spend your work hours Googling people, what’s not to like about that? 

I’m guessing for some of you, that may sound like a nightmare followed by a line of questions – where do I start? How do I know the journalist is a good fit? How do I find the right media and check if it’s legit and worth pitching? Are there tools that can help me?

I happen to have some answers to these questions. Tag along with me.

First things first – what is a media list?

A media list is a list containing media contacts. As simple as that.

Whether it’s a press release or a story idea you’ve crafted for a client or your own business, it needs to go out to journalist inboxes. To do so, you need a list of journalists and media outlets that will receive your email. 

Media lists can contain editor and reporter emails, news desk contacts, podcasters, newsletter authors, and even influencers, if that’s your beat. There can be written media outlets, TV, radio, or video – again, depending on the nature of your prepared material.

Typically, a media list includes:

• the name of the outlet (I recommend linking it to the page as well), 
• the person’s name and surname, 
• and their email address.

At Truesix, we also note the work position of the person and other relevant information, such as topics they cover, previous coverage of a similar topic, a successful pitch history, or anything else appropriate. 

Here’s what a typical setup of our media lists looks like:

You can also include editorial teams or news desks with general email addresses in your outreach list:

Everything is just Googling and guessing…

… is my mantra (and what my desktop wallpaper says). It also perfectly sums up the process of crafting a media list – you Google, and what you cannot find, you guess. However, there are plenty of tips to consider regarding building media contact lists. Here, I present the most essential ones from my perspective. 

#1 Narrow down the field

A media list is a list containing media contacts. 

A good media list is a list containing media contacts relevant to your news. 

Before looking for journalist names and emails, start by considering the most relevant industry and placement for your story. Is it business news? Maybe it’s specifically an e-commerce or [enter any other field here] story? Is it relevant to a particular country or region?

Answering such questions to identify the most relevant field for your news story is a good first step when creating a media list.

Why?

Because that’s how you increase your chances of coverage, and by sending relevant news stories, start building relationships with journalists. Plus, crafting a targeted media list saves you time and effort, as you’re not wasting resources by pitching to journalists who are unlikely to be interested in your story.

#2 Don’t overlook niche media outlets

Of course, we all wish to score publicity within the big media. However, they receive a bazillion news pitches a day. And unless you have something breathtaking to share with the world, chances are your release will get lost among its peers. Meanwhile, if you target a niche, it heightens your chances of getting published. And a niche doesn’t necessarily equal a small readership. 

But how do you determine which niche media is worth adding to your list and which isn’t?

One is checking the domain authority (DA) – a search engine ranking score – of the page. The higher the DA, the higher the page will rank in search engine results. Search engines consider high DA pages trustworthy and authoritative. 

But there’s a catch with DA – in our experience, plenty of niche media outlets won’t have too high DA scores while being relevant and definitely worth sending your news to. Hence, another thing you can check is the website traffic. There are plenty of free tools for this, but we recommend Semrush.  

Another thing to look for is the outlet's social media presence – many followers on social media platforms might indicate its well-established status. 

Last but not least, I recommend checking the frequency of published news. If the page runs new articles often, it’s a good sign they’re more likely to be open to your pitch. On the contrary, if the media hasn’t published anything for a while (think weeks or months) – yeah, don’t bother. 

#3 Contact someone specific

Sending press releases to general news desks or editorial teams is one way to contact media. Sometimes, outlets specifically note that they want to receive press releases in a particular inbox. However, if that’s not explicitly mentioned, contacting a specific person rather than news@media.com might heighten your chances of getting coverage. 

If you’re sending out a press release, look for suitable editors to add to your media list:

• The editor-in-chief position could be your choice if the media outlet is relatively small. Otherwise, their inboxes are usually flooded with all sorts of emails. 
• The deputy editor is a better shot, but they’re also busy bees. 
• Editors are usually the best candidates for sharing a press release, but check whether they’re in charge of a specific section of the outlet and make sure your news fits there.
• A news editor is also a good choice. 

If you’re pitching a story idea, editors are an option, but you can also look into relevant reporters or writers. In that case, you can scroll through the outlet to look for relevant articles and check their authors. 

‍A friendly reminder: Pay attention to the dates of the published stories. If someone wrote about IoT five years ago, it doesn't mean they’re interested in covering it today. And if they wrote just one article on teas, it doesn’t make them a tea reporter. 

#4 Find your inner Holmes when looking for emails

Searching for journalist emails can sometimes feel like a quest. Believe me, I know. The good thing is that media email addresses are almost always out there – you just have to look carefully. Here are some places to look for journalists’ emails:

• On the media website. Media outlets make their contacts publicly available quite often. It’s different for certain major outlets, but in most cases, you can find what you need right on the media webpage. some text
  • Look for subpages or sections like Team, Editorial, About Us, or Masthead.
  • Open the journalist's media profile. They often have bios with email addresses there. 
  • Try hovering your cursor over the journalist’s media profile picture. Sometimes, they have mailto links added to the pictures. 

• In media contact databases. Yes, there are dedicated media contact databases out there. Usually, they’re not free, but the subscription fees are pretty reasonable, so you might give them a shot – I suggest Prowly. The issue with these databases is that sometimes, the information is outdated. Just keep that in mind.

• On X. When Twitter was still Twitter, it was where all the cool kids (read journalists) were. And plenty of them still are. Hence, look for journalist X profiles and check out their bios, as their email addresses can often be found there. If they’re not, check out journalists’ profiles for #journorequests, as the email can appear in replies under such tweets.some text
  • Alternatively, give Bluesky a try – many journalists have started to use that instead of X.

• On Google. Yes, the good old Googling. I usually go for [name] + [surname] + [media] + email address. It requires some digging, but I have landed emails this way. 

• Just guess. This sounds a bit ridiculous. However, I would lie if I said I’ve never done it. Look for other emails of people working at the same media outlet, check how they’re built, and replicate it. It’s a guessing game, but it might be worth playing.

Ok, I’m out of tips

Actually, I’m not. Writing this article, I constantly had “oh, there’s also that thing” moments. But giving into the impulse could’ve led to writing an e-book, and that’s not my intention.

Crafting a media list is not rocket science. However, it usually takes more time than one expects. Plus, to create a really good and relevant media list, you must put some extra thought and work into it, starting with knowing who your target audience is. 

To make the process easier for you, there are a few ready media lists available in our store. You can use them as a starting point. Or contact us at hello@truesix.co to arrange some help not only with the creation of a media list but also with the whole PR thing.