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The media list has been the holy grail in the PR business.
It’s a shrine-worthy artifact that PR pros hold dear—and near—but as the industry modernizes, so must the media list.
While a home base for media contacts is smart, it should no longer be the only tool you use. Instead, add a search engine to your contact mining efforts.
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Journalist beats are changing quickly as the number of journalists decline. One journalist may juggle five beats at once. Therefore, media lists built in databases are increasingly outdated. Google, however, isn’t.
There are four pieces to the pitch planning pie:
1. Research and relationships (60 percent)
This is the most important pie slice. A drag-and-drop database media list will never earn you the caliber of coverage that research and relationships will. By researching who has covered your topic in the past, a search engine will allow you to spend time getting to know a journalist’s style and help you better tailor your pitch.
If someone writes about smartphones regularly, for example, then you know that your pitch relating to smartphones might resonate. After spending the necessary time to build relationships over the years, you’ll have fostered relationships with journalists you already know will like your pitch.
2. Media list (20 percent)
You shouldn’t abandon the media list wholesale. Though research and relationships deliver the most ROI, a media list has its place in the pie filling,