All about press lists and press relations

A strong press release stands or falls with the right recipients. An up-to-date, relevant, and intelligently structured press list is therefore essential for successful PR. We answer the most frequently asked questions about press lists, journalist databases, and choosing the right recipients – from compiling your list to maintaining media relations. This ensures that your story ends up with exactly the right journalist.

What is a press list?

A media list is an overview of journalists, editorial offices, or freelancers you want to approach with your press release. A good media list contains up-to-date contact information, specialization (theme or sector), and notes on previous interactions or preferences. PR tools such as Smart.pr offer a journalist database with up-to-date contact information, with which you can easily compile your own media lists

How do you create a good press list?

A good press list must be relevant and up-to-date: The contact information of the journalists must be current, and the press release must be relevant to the journalists on the press list. Tip: Use a database such as Smart.pr where you can filter by themes, region, media type, or function. Look at previous publications by the journalist to see if your topic fits. Often the rule applies: the more specific the list, the better. 

Everything about creating a good media list, can be read in this article

How many journalists should you email for your press release?

We can't say it often enough, but it's not about how big your press list is, but how accurate it is. A smaller, targeted press list with relevant contacts performs structurally better than a bulk mailing to a generic list. In addition, you also reduce the chance that your press release will be marked as spam, or that journalists will unsubscribe from your mailings.  

What are personas for PR?

Personas are fictional profiles of your ideal target groups – based on real characteristics, behaviors, and needs. Consider: age, function, interests, media behavior, challenges, and tone-of-voice. A good persona helps you to pitch in a more targeted way, choose better quotes, and position your news sharply. For PR professionals, there are two types of personas to distinguish:

  • Target audience personas – end users of your product or service

  • Journalist personas – the media professionals who can spread your message

Download our Persona Template here

What is a journalist database and how can I use it?

With the journalist database of Smart.pr you get a professional tool in which you have access to current contact information, function information, recent publications, thematic interests and media titles of more than 17,000 journalists. It is the basis for targeted PR: instead of endlessly googling yourself, or working with outdated Excel files, you can quickly find the right contacts for each subject. With this journalist database you can:

  • Quickly find relevant journalists by theme, medium, or region

  • Build, tag, and update media lists

  • Easily select who you approach for which story

  • Keep track of history and interaction per contact

  • Personalize and send more effectively

A good journalist database is therefore not only an address book, but a strategic tool to build media relations and communicate in a more targeted way.

Read here why Smart.pr offers the best and most complete journalist database in the Benelux

How do you search in a journalist database?

Searching in a journalist database is all about relevance and actuality. In addition to finding contact information, you can also filter on content criteria such as subject, region, or media type in the database of Smart.pr. What makes this search function really powerful is that you can easily combine these filters. This way you can quickly compile a targeted media list – for example: tech journalists in South Holland who write for newspapers and podcasts. You can even further refine your search by using advanced filter options.

What is the advantage of a journalist database?

The biggest advantage of a journalist database is the enormous time savings and reliability it provides. Instead of manually searching for journalists, digging up their contact information and putting everything in an Excel sheet (which is often outdated after a week), with a good database like the one from Smart.pr you have direct access to current data from more than 17,000 Dutch journalists.

You can quickly search by subject, region, media type or job title, and see at a glance who is relevant to your story. You also keep an overview: who you have approached, when and with what message. You can find this overview in the CRM, also called the Smart.pr address book. 

What is a CRM system for PR?

A CRM system for PR is a tool with which you structure and centralize the management of your media relations. Instead of loose notes, spreadsheets or inbox history, a PR CRM keeps a clear record of who you have approached, when, with what message and what the response was. It is not customer management (as with sales), but a relationship management tool specifically aimed at the activities of a PR professional. This allows all contact with journalists, editorial offices and other media relations to be tracked.

Why is it important to have a CRM for PR?

PR is all about relationships – and relationships require attention, context and consistency. A CRM system prevents you from sending the same message to the same journalist multiple times, or from forgetting to send a follow-up. At a glance, you can see which topics have been shared before, who responded positively and what the current status is of each contact.

In addition, you work more efficiently and smarter with colleagues: you can see who is responsible for which relationship, which follow-up is planned and which lists are up-to-date. This makes your PR not only more effective, but also more scalable and professional.

Read here Why a CRM system is indispensable in PR

How do you build media relations?

You build media relations just like any other relationship: with attention, relevance and mutual trust. It starts with good preliminary research. Get to know the journalist: what does he or she write about, what tone do they use, and which channel is the most appropriate for contact? Then make sure you only make contact if you really have something valuable to report – news that fits within their area of interest and journalistic criteria.

Good relationships are not created in one campaign, but by being reliable, adding value and communicating as a human being instead of as a sender. This is how you build a network that extends beyond a single publication. Ultimately, this is more effective than any media list. We say it more often: Good PR is human work. 

Theo van der Meer (Pradd) gives some interesting tips in this article about building media relations