Outreach

Media list

reporter list · press list

Definition

Media list is the named set of journalists, producers, and newsletters you might pitch, with beat, outlet, recent pieces, and how they take email. A purchased CSV of 8,000 “technology writers” is a spam folder, not a list.

The working unit is a person who filed a neighboring story in the last year. Mastheads change. Beats move. The list is a living object.

How it works

Build from recent coverage, not from a vendor’s generic vertical. One row: name, outlet, beat, last three URLs, email, notes on exclusives and pet peeves. Cap a blast at the people who could actually file this story.

Worked example

A data study on rural ER night shifts goes to 18 health-labor reporters who wrote rural hospital stories, not to 400 “healthcare influencers.” Three replies, one file. The 400-person list would have produced unsubscribes.

How it differs

A media kit is the asset pack. A beat is the territory. Outlet tier is how you rank the masthead. The list is who you contact.

Common errors

BCC’ing the whole vertical. Using a 2019 list. Scraping personal Gmail. Pitching a podcast host as if they were a wire reporter.

Sources