How to research media outlets
Researching media outlets is an essential part of making your pitches successful and ensuring your message gets to the right people. By doing research and sending your pitches to specific reporters, editors, or journalists that cover your topic, you are increasing the likelihood that your pitch will be read and an interview booked.
Utilize social media
Many journalists use social media to find sources for their stories. This makes it an ideal spot to follow journalists and also to see what content they post. Social media is also a great place to start when you are researching specific media outlets to pitch to. You’ll be able to:
- See the variety of stories they cover
- Look at their audience and how they engage with the media outlet
- See what type of experts they use
- Look at their stories what they include
Using social media as a tool for research will also help you learn about the media outlet’s audience. Seeing how the audience responds to each story and post will help you understand what content is successful.
Follow coverage from reporters of interest
When you are pitching a media outlet, you should be sending your pitches to the individual journalist that is most likely to be interested in picking it up. This means researching whom at a specific outlet would be interested in hearing from you.
You can have more than one point of contact at each media outlet, especially if they have different areas of interest. When you are looking for a reporter, editor, or producer to talk to, you should be looking at:
- Do the stories they cover have a theme?
- Do they cover news in your industry?
- Who is their audience?
Following coverage from your potential points of contact will help you stay up to date on the types of stories they want and ensure your content will be interesting to them and their audience.
Look through past articles and stories
Browsing archives and past articles helps identify trends. You can see how the outlet has changed over time and if there are any trends that you can contribute to.
You can read past stories and articles to help analyze the writing and content typically featured. Knowing the content that works for each outlet that you research will increase the success of your content and campaigns.
Talk to potential points of contact
When you are researching media outlets to pitch to and build relationships with, do not be afraid to reach out to potential points of contact personally. If you have found someone that you feel would be interested in your pitches, reach out to them and introduce yourself and explain to them what you have to offer. This is also a great time to use social media to reach out. And even if you don’t have anything to offer to them directly, you might be able to help with other contacts and information, which makes you useful to them and they will reach back out.
Getting to know different journalists, reporters, editors, and others within a news outlet will help you grow your contact base. Start building relationships with people you connect with.
If you have trouble finding the right media outlet for your content, let us help you! Contact us today!