How to Fact-Check a Media Contact Before You Pitch
A practical guide to verifying email addresses, social profiles and job titles before you pitch, so your...
Most media directories are judged on a single question: does this profile tell me what to do next? A name, a title and a publication are a start, but they do not tell a PR whether to pitch a story about business rates or one about shoplifting, and they do not tell a commissioning editor whether a writer can turn round 1,200 words on the Northern Irish housing market by Friday. Good profiles answer both. They are also harder to write than they look, because they have to stay accurate, current and useful to two different audiences at once.
Most profiles are written for one reader and used by another. The person browsing is usually a PR, a press officer or a freelancer hunting for a commissioning contact. They are scanning, often against a deadline, and they need three things quickly: what this journalist covers, what they have published recently, and how they prefer to be approached.
Write for that scanning reader first, then add the detail an editor or fellow journalist would want — how the journalist works, what they are building, what they will not touch. A profile that satisfies both readers earns its place. One that satisfies neither is just a business card with extra words.
Half the errors in directory profiles come from rushing. Half come from copying an older entry without checking it. Do the groundwork.
While you are gathering, draw a line. Home addresses, family details, personal mobile numbers and off-duty opinions have no place in a professional directory. Neither does anything you would be uncomfortable defending if the journalist read it themselves.
A CV-style entry is easy to write and rarely useful. Structure the profile so a reader can make a call in under a minute.
Name, current title, outlet, and the city they are based in. Say whether they are staff or freelance, and whether they take pitches at all. That single detail saves everyone time.
“Business journalist” tells a reader almost nothing. “Covers UK grocery retail, with a focus on supermarket pricing, supply chains and competition law” tells them whether their story fits. Use the recurring subjects you found in the bylines, and name the outlets they write for beyond their main employer if those matter.
Three to five pieces with dates. Dates matter more than titles, because they show whether the journalist is still active on that beat. If the most recent piece is eighteen months old, say so rather than implying current coverage.
Where pitches should go, and how. Email, a newsdesk address, a contact form. Note anything obvious and useful: prefers email over phone, does not accept attachments, works part-time.
One or two sentences on what lands — exclusives, original data, case studies with named sources, embargoed reports — and what does not. Mass mailouts, chasing within the hour, and press releases pasted into the body of an email are worth flagging.
Before you fill in fields, draft the two or three sentences that sit at the top of the profile. If you cannot write them, you do not yet know enough about the journalist. A useful summary reads something like this:
Consumer affairs reporter at a regional daily, covering food prices, energy bills and retail complaints. Keen on data-led stories and case studies with named sources. Pitches by email in the morning; works two to three weeks ahead.
That is not elegant prose, and it is not meant to be. It is a decision aid. Keep the tone neutral and factual — no flattery, no speculation about what they “really” want to write.
Two rules carry most of the weight here. First, every factual claim should be traceable to something you have seen or been told directly — a published byline, an outlet page, a reply from the journalist. If two sources disagree about a job title, note the discrepancy or leave it out. If you cannot date a piece of information, say it is undated rather than guessing.
Second, give people a way out. Some journalists receive enough email already and would rather not be listed with contact details. Honour that request without argument, and keep a record of it so a later editor does not undo your work. Where a profile contains personal data, data protection rules apply to directories just as much as to any other published record, so check with whoever handles compliance if you are unsure.
Finally, make corrections easy to request and quick to make. Add a visible “last updated” date, and log what changed. A directory that fixes errors promptly earns trust; one that quietly rewrites entries does not.
A profile has a shelf life of roughly three to six months. Journalists move outlets, change beats, go freelance, take parental leave, go on sabbatical, or quietly stop commissioning. Build a review cycle rather than relying on chance.
Read the entry once as a PR with a story to place, then once as an editor looking for a writer. Ask yourself: is the beat specific enough to rule something out? Are the recent pieces dated? Is the contact route current? Is anything in there that the journalist has not agreed to share? Have you removed the padding sentences that add warmth but no information?
If it passes, publish it, date it, and diarise the next review. A directory of fifty well-maintained profiles will outperform a directory of five hundred stale ones every time — and the journalists listed in it will keep answering your emails.
Photo: StartupStockPhotos / Pixabay
A practical guide to verifying email addresses, social profiles and job titles before you pitch, so your...
How to tell a freelance journalist from a staff writer, why it changes your pitch, and how to approach...
A practical audit checklist for media directories, covering the fields that make journalist and...
