Building a media list that isn't just names in a spreadsheet

Building a media list that isn't just names in a spreadsheet
We inherited a 400-contact database for a travel brand and threw most of it away. The 30 names we kept drove every placement. Here's how we rebuilt it.

We ignored job titles and read bylines instead — who actually wrote about this topic in the last 90 days, not who lists it on LinkedIn. For each, we logged three things: their last relevant article, the angle they tend to take, and one detail to prove we're human.

We scored each contact: green if they'd covered a direct competitor, yellow if adjacent, red if it was a guess. We only pitched green and yellow.

Then we did the part most people skip — we read each reporter's last five pieces before writing a word, so the pitch matched the writer, not the topic.

Thirty names, eleven placements. The old 400-name blast had earned two.

A contact later said, "You clearly read my stuff, that's why I replied."

Lesson: A media list isn't contacts. It's evidence of who's already half-interested — find them, and the pitch writes itself.