Politis PR Tip #11: Research and Compile Journalist Databases into Smaller Segments

PUBLIC RELATIONS TIPS — TIP NO. 11:

One key trick to being successful at media relations is to make sure you divide editorial contact databases into smaller segments. These can/should be based upon

  • beats covered (new products, sports, health, etc.),
  • title (reporter, reviewer, feature writer, etc.),
  • geography (city, state, region, country),
  • industry focus (personal computers, legal, athletics, women’s issues, etc.),
  • media type (newspaper, online only, television, radio, etc.) or
  • another focus altogether.

Such segmentation will improve your chances for publicity success when pitching targeted story ideas, distributing releases, and crafting media relations strategies.

2 comments
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  1. James Moss April 20th, 2009 10:19 am :

    Thank you. I am so tired of receiving PR about medical care in Boston, new wheat varieties from Kansas and who cares from California. I write about outdoor recreation law!

    Thanks. I intend to send this link out every time I get a stupid PR!

  2. David Politis April 20th, 2009 11:26 am :

    Thanks for the note, Jim. It’s amazing to me too that so-called public relations and marketing professionals don’t segment their editorial contacts databases depending upon beat; that’s just PR 101 basics.

    Feel free to share the link to this post as much as you like.

    Dave Politis

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