How to build better: 5 tips for crafting the perfect media list

By: Laura Ledesma

As a PR practitioner one of the first things you learn is the importance of message crafting. And from there, how to get that message in front of the right audience.

Your media list is essentially a rolodex of relevant relationships— journalists that might be interested in covering and writing about your clients. Treat it like a growing plant that needs love, care, and lots of attention over time.

Knowing who to pitch and when is crucial to securing press coverage—and building good lists can be time consuming and tough work. Putting in the time to craft a solid story angle and research the right reporter is the difference between an unread email and a feature story.

Here are some tips for better list building.

Read everything:

My first PR job taught me that the key to good list building starts with reading. In order to become a list-building PR wiz, you have to put in the work. The more you familiarize yourself with different publications and their sections, the easier it will be to create a targeted list of contacts. Certain publications run weekly sections, or topic-specific columns which can be relevant to clients.

Find your target audience and do your homework

Good publicists know that reading is important, great publicists know that defining your target audience and researching what they read and how they consume media is the key to successful media coverage.

Quality over quantity

A carefully researched and curated list of 20 targets is better than a clumsy thrown together list of 100. Make sure to Google the writer on your list and read the last 3-4 articles they’ve written, it’s possible they may have switched beats or changed jobs so it’s important to keep up with their latest stories.

Make it personal:

Take the time to learn about the journalist you’re pitching—their interests and their writing style. Engaging with journalists before you pitch them is important, it might be a slow burn but it could be worth it in the long run.

Keep up with trends:

The media industry is constantly changing— keeping up with journalists, their beats and current trends will help you create more targeted pitches. Remember— journalists and PR professionals have a symbiotic relationship, we need them as much as they need us. As PR pros we need to give journalists information they can use and will find interesting to write about.

At the end of the day your main objective is to build relationships and give journalists something they can’t get from anyone else— be it an expert source, an exclusive story, or a blind item. Make sure it’s you they go to first.