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Your learning path: 24 lessons.
Module 01 / Lesson 02 · Read, apply, check
Build a focused journalist shortlist from current reporting interests and a specific information gap.
A media database is a starting index, not evidence that someone wants your story. Read a small sample of recent articles, noting topics, geography, company stage, recurring sources and unanswered questions. Distinguish the journalist’s current work from an old biography or a job they left. Record the article URL and date that justify the match. A focused shortlist of eight plausible reporters can be more useful than hundreds of names labelled business. Your justification should explain the connection between their reporting and the information you can add, not merely praise their writing.
Look for a development that extends an existing line of reporting. An article on rising delivery costs may leave room for evidence of how smaller suppliers respond; a profile of a market leader does not automatically justify a profile of every competitor. Write one sentence describing the new information relative to the recent work. If the only connection is that both stories mention your industry, the match remains weak. Avoid suggesting the reporter missed something obvious. Present the additional evidence as a useful continuation or a contrasting case they can assess independently.
Use the journalist’s publicly stated professional contact preference or the publication’s current editorial route. Check whether the person still covers the beat, whether they invite pitches and whether a specific format is requested. Separate an outlet’s corporate press office from its newsroom: the former handles enquiries about the publication itself. Capture the source and date for the contact information. Do not infer private addresses or contact family accounts. The practical advantage is precision: reaching the relevant professional channel with a coherent offer gives the pitch a chance to be evaluated.
Give each contact an owner and a status such as researched, ready, offered, responding, declined or closed. Note competing offers and any exclusive commitment before sending. Rank fit with plain reasons: strong evidence match, adjacent interest or weak connection. Start with the strongest realistic matches, learn from substantive responses and improve the next wave. Do not have several colleagues pitch the same reporter separately. A shared record prevents duplicated approaches and lets someone covering an absent colleague see what was promised without searching through scattered inbox conversations.
Record recent work and the actual reporting question.
Identify information that adds something new.
Confirm current role and professional contact route.
Name the owner, sequence and offer status.
A fictional agency represents a supplier of industrial repair parts. It finds a reporter who recently investigated delays affecting small manufacturers. The team reads three recent pieces and sees that replacement-part availability remains unresolved. It can offer anonymized order records, a customer willing to discuss downtime and an engineer who can explain the repair process. The shortlist entry cites the relevant article and states the information gap in one sentence. Another reporter writes mainly about executive appointments, so the agency places that contact in an adjacent category rather than sending the same pitch. A third has changed publications; the team verifies the new biography before proceeding. The final shortlist contains six qualified contacts with different angles and one owner for each conversation.
Another team exports every contact tagged manufacturing, including former staff and advertising representatives. Two account managers independently send different versions of the pitch to the same reporter. One offers an exclusive while the other says the news has already gone to twenty publications. The resulting confusion harms the opportunity even though the underlying evidence is useful. The failure comes from poor research and coordination, not from insufficient volume or an unlucky subject line.
Personalization does not mean adding the reporter’s first name and a generic compliment. It means selecting a relevant proposition and making the connection clear. One precise sentence about a recent reporting question is more useful than a paragraph claiming to have followed every article for years. Only claim reading or familiarity that actually occurred.
Reporter assignments and contact preferences change. Verify the current public source when preparing each campaign, and respect a clear request to stop. Keep the relationship record factual and professionally relevant; personal speculation does not improve editorial fit and makes the database less trustworthy.
Do this today · 30 minutes
Create a six-contact shortlist structure for the industrial parts case.
Use a document or spreadsheet and the fictional case in this lesson. Public or synthetic evidence is sufficient; no purchase or real outreach is required.
Before: Record recent work and the actual reporting question.
After: Name the owner, sequence and offer status.
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Have a colleague review your decision and evidence. Record the unresolved question, its owner and the next review date before using the plan with a client.
Before you move on
Your database lists a journalist as covering manufacturing, but their latest articles focus on executive appointments. A colleague has already contacted them about the same client. You have customer downtime records relevant to a different reporter’s recent investigation. What should you do next?
Next lesson →Society of Professional Journalists: ethics resources
Lesson edition 1.0 · References reviewed 16 October 2026 · Practical exercise reviewed 16 October 2026. Examples are illustrative teaching scenarios.
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