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Researching and Discovering Relevant People and Sources in Meltwater

How to perform media research within Meltwater to discover relevant journalists and publications.

Cheyenne V. avatar
Written by Cheyenne V.
Updated over a month ago

Journalists and content creators are the ultimate influencers, but their time is valuable and highly sought after. This means that targeting the right people is critical to pitching and converting earned media coverage. To succeed, we must start by performing adequate media research and intentionally developing relationships with members of the press, including journalists.

Research helps you identify who wants your pitches, so you send Outreach to the right people. This is undoubtedly hard work, but research says it pays off. Graduate from spray-and-pray and stand out from the crowd. Connect and build relationships with the most relevant people, protect your reputation, and earn more coverage by following these guiding principles.

In this article will cover:


Finding Journalists or Publications by Topic

Unless you are looking for a specific person or publication, we recommend starting your research with a topic relevant to your media campaign or pitching initiative. Media contacts who have written extensively on topics central to your pitch are likely to be much more receptive.

To find people or sources writing about a specific topic, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Media Relations drop-down in the left-hand side navigation bar

  2. Select Search from the top tabs

  3. Navigate to the I’m looking for the section at the top of your screen

  4. Select either Contacts or Sources in the drop-down

  5. Use the search bar to look for journalists by a topic they write about.

  6. In the search bar drop-down, select All contacts writing about

  7. By default, results from the last 14 Days will populate. Click the drop-down to adjust the date range to 30 or 90 days


Finding Journalists or Publications by Name

If you are looking for a specific person or publication, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Media Relations drop-down in the left-hand side navigation bar

  2. Select Search from the top tabs

  3. Navigate to the I’m looking for the section at the top of your screen

  4. Select either Contacts or Sources in the drop-down

  5. Type the journalist’s or source's name in the search bar

  6. If you don't find the right result in the Top results preview, click on All Contacts named to see more results.

Tip: The Top Results preview will display the journalist’s profile type, location, source, and email address.

In a Source search, we display the editions that match your search query. An edition is the main publication; all journalists will be listed for that publication, regardless of the writer's location. On source profiles, you can learn who works at that source via the Staff tab.

The bureau is a smaller, local office and will only list the journalists for that specific office. For example, the New York Times is a very large international publication. In addition to the main New York office, there are also bureaus in cities such as Atlanta and Chicago. In the database, the edition will typically have circulation numbers, unique visitor numbers, and beats, while the bureau will typically be labeled as such in the publication name. You can learn more about the bureaus associated with an edition on the source profile via the Bureaus tab.


Refining Your Search Using Filters

Filter by helps you narrow your focus. For example, if your pitch is regionally focused, the Location filter will likely be relevant. If reaching a large audience is part of your objective, try the Reach filter. If you’re only interested in seeing your private contacts, you’d use the Profile type filter.

Different filters are available to assist your media research. Consider your goals when making your selections. Details for each filter can be found by hovering over the information icon.


Using the AI Journalist Search in Media Relations

We've improved Media Relations Search by adding a new type of search, Suggested journalist search, which will take a prompt comprised of any key messages, drafted emails, articles & press releases, or any other text and produce relevant journalists based on the unique context of that prompt.

It's similar to PR Assistant's Suggested journalists feature, and we will provide up to 200 results. To get started, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Media Relations drop-down in the left-hand navigation bar

  2. Select Search

  3. Navigate to the I’m looking for section at the top of your screen and select the drop-down

  4. Click Contacts

  5. Click on the 'AI Search' tab

  6. Type or paste your prompt and click 'Update results'

    1. You will need to provide a minimum of 100 characters to perform the search

Note: We can only apply filters once you have run the search, so start with your prompt before adding the filters.

Note: Our model is trained on millions of articles, and we use a proprietary machine-learning process in order to quantify relevance. The results are always ordered in descending relevance, and we only offer up to 200 recommendations at a time. We suggest vetting all recommendations for outreach excellence.


Switching Between Contacts and Sources

To switch between Contacts and Sources, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Media Relations drop-down in the left-hand navigation bar

  2. Select Search

  3. Navigate to the I’m looking for section at the top of your screen and select the drop-down

  4. Click Contacts or Sources

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Vetting Journalists

As you refine your search and start to identify contacts you are potentially interested in, you will want to vet them further before adding them to your lists.

  1. Click on a contact's name to open their mini-profile on the right-hand side of the screen. In the mini-profile, you will see the following details:

    1. Name and location

    2. Profile type

    3. Sources

    4. Beats

    5. Lists

    6. Recent Articles

    7. Social Media

    8. Contact Information

  2. To view their full profile, click View full profile for this journalist, which will open in a new tab.


  3. Additionally, you might choose to email the person directly from their profile or profile preview. If that is the case, click Email


    Next, let's take a look at the full Contact Profile:

On the full contact profile, you will have more details to view, including:

Profile header

  • Contact name

  • Profile image

  • Default email address

  • Interactions record

  • Open Rate from your Outreach Emails

  • Sources

    • Also seen in (clicking here will open a side panel showing all publications the contact's work has appeared in, but they may not be directly employed or affiliated with the Source).

Overview tab

  • Articles and X posts (broken down by Writing about and Beats - you can toggle between the two)

  • Content stream with recent articles and X posts

    • Date filter going back 1 year

    • All published content (articles and tweets)

    • Ability to run Keyword searches

    • Actions you can take - tag them, share,

    • Metrics on the documents themselves (reach, social echo, sentiment)

    • X posts - reach, engagement, and sentiment

    • Sentiment of articles or X posts

  • X profile summary

    • Authority score, followers, following and # posts

    • Bio (or contact description if an X handle is not known)

  • Contact information panel

  • Action button

  • Contact’s language(s)

  • Contact’s aliases

  • Contact’s social media handles (when available)

  • Media lists the contact is in

Interactions tab

  • See outreach that has been sent to the journalist or contact

  • See email threads between you (and even your team) and the journalist using Email Integration.


Using Explore to find Journalists and other Media Contacts

You can also find contacts of interest directly in Explore.

  1. Click Explore in the left-hand navigation bar

  2. Open an existing search or create a new one

  3. Click the Media Contacts tab


Following People of Interest in Monitor

You can also power Monitor’s content streams with media and author lists. Learn more about Media and Author Lists in Monitor.


💡 Tip

Need more help? Feel free to reach out to us via Live Chat or check out our Customer Community.

Find answers and get help from Meltwater Support and Community Experts.


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