How to judge a PR agency's reporter research

Good reporter research explains why a particular journalist might be interested in a particular story. List length and publication prestige tell you little on their own. Ask the agency to walk you through a few representative contacts and the recent work that makes them relevant.

You are checking the reasoning. The agency should handle the detailed research and maintain the list.

Look for a current reason to make contact

Fictional comparison: A reporter covered a company's funding round several years ago. Another recently reported on the technical problem the company now solves. The second may be a better fit for a product story, even if the first works for a bigger publication.

A useful explanation connects the reporter's current role, recent work, audience, and the evidence or access the company can offer. “They cover tech” is too broad.

Read a couple of the articles the agency points to. You should be able to see the connection without being an expert in media databases.

Treat relationships as useful context

An agency may know a journalist's interests and preferred way of working. That can improve its judgment. It cannot make the journalist cover you.

Ask what the relationship means in practice. Familiarity built through accurate, helpful work is more meaningful than a contact appearing in an address book. No party owns a journalist or guarantees future access.

Use media strategy to judge the overall audience choices and newsworthiness to judge the story.

Let the agency keep the research current

People change jobs and beats. Database entries can lag. Expect the team to check current sources and respect stated contact preferences, rather than rely on an old list or an unchecked AI summary.

Repeated wrong names, irrelevant subjects, bounced addresses, or ignored requests to stop are worth raising. A quiet response to a relevant pitch is different: it may reflect timing, workload, or editorial judgment.

Ask what the team learned and what it will change. Avoid demanding that every silent reporter be contacted again.

Handle contact information appropriately

Professional contact details can still be personal data. The UK Information Commissioner's guidance explains that publicly available business-contact information can carry data-protection duties. The applicable rules depend on the jurisdiction, channel, and use.

Have the relevant company specialist address privacy questions where needed, especially for cross-border work or outside data tools. Unrelated personal details and inferred vulnerabilities have no place in targeting a reporter.

If you change agencies, preserve active commitments, important preferences, and company-specific outreach history. Licensed databases may have transfer restrictions. Agree on a practical handoff without expecting ownership of the agency's entire contact database.