Five Tips to Keep Your Media Lists Relevant

Katie Levien // January 10, 2011 // Public Relations // No Comments

Part of my job as a PR account coordinator is to stay on top of the ever-evolving world of media and provide accurate information to our team about relevant media outlets. In essence, my team trusts that I’ve done my work to help them reach the right people efficiently and effectively through accurate media lists. Creating and maintaining these lists are often part of my to-do list, and may very well be one of the most important steps to determining the success of a team’s media outreach.

That said, it’s difficult to keep a finger on the pulse of an industry that’s constantly changing.  In order to stay up-to-date and avoid wasting time sifting through bounce back e-mails, I’ve jotted down a few helpful tips for all my fellow media list builders out there.

• Living lists – Keep your lists current and edit whenever you get notice of media changes, moves, etc. If you use Vocus, there’s a “living lists” button you can choose to ensure all of your lists are constantly being updated. 
• Research – Make sure you know and understand the media outlets you are pitching. Are you contacting the relevant beats, sections and segments for your client? Check out mastheads from certain sections to see who’s covering what.
• Correct contacts – It helps to be up-to-date on the editorial breakdown at each publication. Are you sending to the right person at each media outlet? Try following some of your media contacts on Twitter to stay up-to-date on their recent work. It’s also an easy way to find out whether someone’s changed beats or positions. People like @themediaisdying share stories like this every day. Also sites like the Daily Front Row have a weekly post for media moves at Fashion/Women’s publications. 
• Industry – Are you familiar with the industry trade publications, and are you utilizing them? Even doing a quick search for these type of outlets will help in leading you to the right media.
• Newsletters – plenty of news publications produce newsletters, and it is a fabulous way to stay current on what the company is interested in and covering, so sign up for them. I sign up for these as I stumble across a new media outlet that sparks my interest, and browse through them usually first thing in the morning.

Ultimately, a relevant media list won’t guarantee your client a spot on the final season of the Oprah Show, but it will definitely help guide you through a more efficient media outreach process. Instead of relying on your media database service, try dialing in the manual way, and you may end up saving time and producing even better results in the end.

As a new-er PR professional, I’m always eager to learn as I go, so I’m curious, how do you make your media lists relevant?