While working on a media list this morning, I realized the extreme pitfalls of online reporter databases like MEDIAtlas. Don’t get me wrong, I use MEDIAtlas on a regular basis, and it is a great tool for compiling media lists. However, for those not careful – or just plain lazy – MEDIAtlas can become a reporter / PR relationship destroyer.
For example, searching for “senior care” provides more than 1,000 media contacts. It is easy to become mesmerized by the plethora of contacts at your disposal and immediately spam the list with a non-targeted pitch. This kind of practice is exactly what journalists complain about when they go on tirades about PR and our irrelevancy.
MEDIAtlas, and similar databases, should simply be one step in your media list compilation. When I compile a media list, I use MEDIAtlas as a quick way to find publications that might be related to my topic. For “senior care,” I scroll through the 1,000-plus media contacts, read the publication description and write down the ones that might be a good fit. At this point I don’t even write down the reporters’ names. The journalism landscape is changing, and reporters are becoming scarce. Last month’s MEDIAtlas listing may no longer be accurate.
I then take this list of potential outlets and research them one by one. This includes finding the publication online, reading articles, scrolling the masthead and finding the reporter — if there is one – who best fits my topic. I would estimate that of the 20 publications I pulled this morning on MEDIAtlas, I may actually pitch only 10. But, it is better to pitch 10 reporters on topic than to pitch 20 off-topic or, at worst, 1,000 with no relevance at all.
Creating media lists is tedious. It takes a lot of time, especially when it is a list you may only use once. However, a pitch’s success depends on who you pitch. Pitch the right people with an interesting and timely topic, and you’re on your way to success.
– Melanie Thompson –
