Find Journalists Using These 7 Resources

By Joan Stewart
The Publicity Hound

If you're hoping to generate online or offline publicity, you can do it one of two ways.

The first way is to find journalists who need the kind of story you're offering, pitch your idea to them, and hope they cover you.

The other way, which is usually much easier, is to make it easy for journalists looking for specific kinds of sources to find you. Here are seven ways to connect with journalists, including free or subscription-based leads services.


HelpaReporter.com

Peter Shankman, who owners a PR firm in New York, has many friends who are journalists. They send him queries regularly about specific sources they need for their stories. He passes them along through a free service called "Help a Reporter Out."

Give him your email address and he'll send you about three emails each weekday with queries from journalists, and contact information. You then contact a journalist and explain why you would be a good source for their story. If the journalist thinks you'd be a good fit, he or she will call you.


Dan Poynter's Newsletter

Self-publishing expert Dan Poynter's excellent email newsletter, Publishing Poynters,  often includes queries from authors, publishers, journalists, broadcasters, bloggers and podcasters looking for specific types of sources to interview. You can sign up for his newsletter at ParaPublishing.com.


John Kremer's Newsletter

John Kremer, the guru of book marketing, publishes Book Marketing Tip of the Week, a weekly electronic newsletter that often includes leads similar to those in Dan Poynter's newsletter. Getting into other people's books, by the way, is a terrific way to generate publicity because books have a much longer shelf life than newspapers and magazines.


ProfNet

ProfNet, the granddaddy of subscription leads services at ProfNet.com, connects journalists with expert sources. Here's how it works. Reporters, editors, broadcasters, talk show hosts and others who are looking for interview subjects or guests for their shows send a specific query to ProfNet, detailing the type of interview subject they are seeking.

ProfNet then emails the "leads" to subscribers, more than 100 per day, in several batches. It's up to you to contact the reporter and explain why you'd be a good source. A subscription to this service also entitles you to be included in ProfNet's Database of Experts. If you don't want all the leads, which are very time-consuming to read, you can customize the service and receive only leads that pertain to your organization's expertise. Choose from more than 300 interest categories.

A subscription costs several thousand dollars a year, and the exact amount depends on the size of your company.


PRLeads.com

Similar to ProfNet, Dan Janl's PRLeads is specifically for authors, experts, speakers, doctors and psychologists.

When you sign up for the service for $99 a month, PRLeads will interview you to determine your area of expertise and passion. Some of the topics their clients specialize in are business, sales and marketing, personal finance, health and wellness, relationships, women's issues, home improvement and decorating.

PRLeads will also train you on how to respond effectively to reporters so you can increase your chances of being interviewed! Most reporters want to communicate via email. You'll learn how to respond effectively to each message, in less than 10 minutes. Clients who have had no PR training before get numerous interviews after following instructions.

A subscription includes 30 days of email coaching and the chance to attend Master Classes by telephone.


The Gift List

This subscription service at GiftListMedia.com provides contact information for media outlets, websites and blogs that are planning special sections or coverage of consumer products that make great gifts.

It offers three online media databases designed specifically for seasonal and holiday pitching: The Gift List for Holiday Print & Broadcast, The Gift List for Holiday Web & Blog, and The Gift List for Spring

The Gift List speaks directly with editors and producers at each outlet to get detailed data such as story themes, product features, deadlines, submission preferences, photography requirements, cross-references, and more.

This service is valuable because once you know which sections would be a good fit with your product, you'll know the deadline, and you'll have plenty of time to craft a pitch, or send a press release and photo.

Their media lists deliver contacts for national and regional magazines, the top 250 daily newspapers, news wires and syndicates, national television, and national radio, as well as a list for web and blog outlets.

The Gift List offers a free test drive and makes last year's list available so you can see first hand exactly how the service works. Subscriptions start at $349.


Pitching Tips

Here are the three most important things to remember when using any of these services, and then pitching your story idea:

1. Stay on topic. If you see a query from a journalist whose attention you'd love to attract, but the query isn't a good fit for your story, don't pitch off topic or the journalist might blacklist you.

2. Keep your pitch short. If you're responding by email, write no more than one screen of copy. Give only enough information to let the journalist know what you have to add to the story. Don't try to tell the entire story in your response.

3. Be patient. Don't assume that if you pitch and a journalist doesn't respond, they're not interested. I've heard of cases where someone will pitch a story idea to a journalist and hear nothing until two years later.

Most importantly, be helpful. See "Special Report #49: 17 Ways to Build Valuable Relationships with Media People."



Direct comments or questions about this article, including requests for reprint rights, to:

Joan Stewart The Publicity Hound 3434 County KK Port Washington, WI 53074 Phone: 262-284-7451 JStewart@PublicityHound.com