Building a media list is one of the most important tasks in PR — and one of the most commonly done wrong. Too many professionals spend hours compiling massive spreadsheets of journalist contacts, only to see their pitches ignored, bounced, or worse, flagged as spam. The difference between a media list that gets results and one that gets deleted comes down to strategy, specificity, and maintenance.
Start With Your Story, Not the Journalists
The biggest mistake PR professionals make is building their media list before they know what they’re pitching. Before you open a single database or search tool, answer these questions: What is the story? Who cares about it? What publications does your target audience actually read?
Starting with the story forces you to think about relevance from the journalist’s perspective. A product launch at a B2B SaaS company is going to interest a very different set of reporters than a consumer wellness brand partnership. If you’re pitching a cybersecurity tool, you don’t need every tech journalist — you need the ones who specifically cover enterprise security, data privacy, or the vertical your product serves.
Use Beat and Topic Filters Aggressively
Modern journalist databases like JournalistDB let you filter by beat, topic, publication type, and geographic focus. Use every filter available to narrow your list. A targeted list of 30 relevant journalists will always outperform a generic list of 300.
Look at what each journalist has actually written in the last 6 months. Have they covered your industry? Your competitors? The specific angle you’re pitching? A journalist who wrote about AI in healthcare last month is far more likely to care about your health-tech startup than a generalist tech reporter who hasn’t touched the topic in a year.
Verify Contact Information Before You Send
Nothing kills a pitch campaign faster than bad email addresses. Bounced emails hurt your sender reputation, and pitching the wrong address wastes everyone’s time. Before you send a single email, verify that:
- The journalist still works at the publication listed
- The email address is current and verified
- They’re still actively covering the beat you’re targeting
- They haven’t publicly stated they don’t accept pitches via email
Tools like JournalistDB provide verified email addresses with confidence scores, which removes much of this manual work. But even with verification tools, spot-check a few addresses before blasting your entire list.
Tier Your List by Priority
Not all media placements are created equal. Organize your list into tiers:
Tier 1: Dream placements — top-tier publications where a story would have massive impact. These get highly personalized pitches with exclusive angles.
Tier 2: Strong fits — journalists who regularly cover your space and have moderate to large audiences. These get personalized pitches with a clear hook.
Tier 3: Broad relevance — reporters who occasionally cover your industry or adjacent topics. These get a well-crafted but more templated approach.
This tiering system ensures you invest your personalization time where it matters most while still maintaining reach across your full list.
Keep Your Lists Living Documents
A media list is never “done.” Journalists change beats, switch publications, go freelance, or leave the industry entirely. Set a recurring calendar reminder — monthly at minimum — to audit your lists. Remove contacts who have moved on, add new journalists who’ve entered your space, and update email addresses that may have changed.
Many PR professionals use list management tools that let them save and update lists dynamically. JournalistDB’s lists feature, for example, lets you maintain named lists of journalists that you can update as your contacts evolve — no more stale spreadsheets.
Personalize Based on What You Know
Your media list should include notes about each journalist — not just their name and email. Record their recent articles, their preferred communication style (if known), their social media handles, and any previous interactions. This context is what transforms a cold pitch into a warm outreach.
When a journalist sees that you’ve read their work and understand their beat, your pitch immediately stands out from the hundreds of generic “Dear journalist” emails they receive daily.
The Numbers Game Is a Myth
The old PR wisdom of “spray and pray” — sending pitches to as many journalists as possible — doesn’t work anymore. Journalists are overwhelmed with pitches, and mass emails feel impersonal. A well-researched list of 20-40 highly relevant journalists, paired with personalized pitches, will generate more coverage than 500 blind emails every time.
Building a media list that actually gets responses isn’t about having the most contacts. It’s about having the right contacts, with verified information, organized by priority, and maintained over time. Start specific, stay current, and always lead with relevance.
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