About the Tool

The Growthack Media List Builder answers the first question of any outreach campaign: who actually covers this? Enter a topic and it analyses up to 60 recent news articles, then organises what it finds two ways:

1. Journalists: writers with bylines on your topic, ranked by how often they've covered it, with the outlets they write for and a link to their latest piece

2. Outlets: the publications running coverage on your topic, ranked by article count, so titles that publish without bylines still surface as targets

The analysis covers the last 90 days by default. If a topic has little recent coverage, the tool automatically widens the search and labels the results clearly, so you always know what you're looking at. One click exports the whole list as a CSV for your outreach tracker.

Use Cases

Campaign Outreach

Build the target list for a data study, report, or campaign launch before you write the first pitch.

Beat Research

See who owns a topic before you pitch: a journalist with five recent pieces on your subject is a far warmer prospect than a cold name from a database.

Pitch Personalisation

Every journalist comes with their latest piece linked, giving you the reference point that turns a generic pitch into a relevant one.

Trade Media Discovery

Surface the niche trade titles covering your industry that generic media databases often bury.

Contributed Content Opportunities

Outlets that publish under "Guest Contributor" or without bylines are often open to contributed articles: a route to coverage that doesn't need a news hook.

New Market Entry

Entering a new sector or country? Map its media landscape in one search before committing PR budget.

How to Build a Media List for Digital PR Campaigns

Step 1: Enter Your Topic

Type the subject, industry, or story area you want coverage in. Be specific: "electric vehicle charging" will find more relevant journalists than "cars", and "sustainable packaging" will beat "sustainability".

Step 2: Build the List

Click Build my media list. The tool analyses recent news coverage on your topic and returns the journalists and outlets behind it. This can take up to 20 seconds.

Step 3: Review Your Targets

Work down the journalist table from the top: writers with multiple recent articles on your topic are your warmest prospects. Check the outlets list for publications worth targeting at title level.

Step 4: Export and Plan

Click Export as CSV to download the full list, including each journalist's outlets, article count, and latest piece, ready to drop into your outreach tracker.

Additional Notes

• Coverage comes from Google News, which captures press, trade media, and news-style publications. Social posts, podcasts, and newsletters aren't included.

• Not every article carries a byline, so the outlets list can be broader than the journalist list. Both are useful: bylines tell you who to pitch, outlets tell you where.

• The tool intentionally doesn't include contact details. It tells you who to reach: finding the right contact route, and having a story they'll actually want, is where the craft comes in.

Tool FAQs

For additional questions or support, please contact [email protected]

Why doesn't the tool include email addresses or contact details?

Contact data lives in licensed media databases and changes constantly. Rather than provide stale or scraped contacts, this tool focuses on the research layer: identifying who genuinely covers your topic right now. Our PR team works with full media databases and can take the outreach from there.

How should I prioritise the journalists it finds?

Start with article count: a writer with several recent pieces on your topic has an active interest in it. Then check their latest piece to understand their angle before you pitch. Relevance and timing beat volume every time.

Why do some rows say "Guest Contributor" instead of a name?

Some outlets publish contributed articles under a generic byline. That's a signal in itself: those outlets accept external content, which can be a faster route to coverage than earned pitching.

What if my topic returns very few results?

Try a broader phrasing of the same subject, or the terms journalists actually use (industry jargon often differs from search phrasing). If a topic genuinely has little coverage, that's worth knowing too: it may mean an open space to become the story, rather than chase it.

Is my data saved?

No personal data is stored. The topic you enter is used to fetch live news results, and that result may be cached briefly (up to 24 hours) to speed up repeat lookups, but nothing personally identifying is stored or transmitted.