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Media List and Pitch Template

Five documents and five sheets for pitching journalists: a media list built from their recent articles, an angle for each person and a reply log.

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What you get

Pack of 10 files: 5 documents, 5 spreadsheets

Media List and Pitch Template
  • Sourcing MethodDocument
  • Byline EvidenceSpreadsheet
  • List Staleness AuditSpreadsheet
  • Pitch AnglesDocument
  • Outreach GuidanceDocument
  • Embargo and Exclusive TermsDocument
  • Media ListSpreadsheet
  • Pitch TrackerSpreadsheet
  • Response LogSpreadsheet
  • Campaign ReviewDocument
RiverMedia List and Pitch Template

Byline Evidence

One row per journalist, created from the article

Subject: carrier settlement  ·  window: 180 days  ·  days since computed, never stored

JournalistMost recent on-topic articleDaysAngle
Calla LoxdaleBroker and CarrierQuick pay is a discount wearing a different hatArgues the fee costs a carrier more than the cash-flow gain is worth2Contrary conclusion
Quill QuarringtonMiddle Mile ReviewThe broker selection process, from the cabTreats payment terms as one factor among several4Planned
Maeve YaxleyHaulage WeeklyThe economics of paying a carrier in four daysRan the numbers and stopped short of the capacity claim15Follow-on
Wilhelm VerinderBroker and CarrierCarriers want consistent freight, not faster moneyArgues capacity is won on lane consistency, not terms53Contrary conclusion
Vasco UttleyPayments in TransitException queues are the settlement bottleneckArgues exceptions, not transfer speed, set the real clock151Planned

What the rule did to the list

In the sheets’ made-up example, 240 purchased rows, tagged for the category, were checked against 180 days of bylines. 81 survived. Searching the subject’s own recent coverage found 23 writers the database had never tagged. The list is those 104 rows, and nothing else goes on it.

The conclusion field is the one people skip and the one that earns the coverage, because it decides the angle. "Argues consolidation has stalled" is a conclusion. "Covers consolidation" is a tag.

Page 1 of 2679 words

How to build a media list and pitch journalists

A media list is a spreadsheet of the journalists most likely to cover your news, one row per person. Build each row from evidence: a recent article that person wrote on your subject, its date and what it argued. Then pitch each journalist with a short email that opens with that article and says why your news matters to their readers.

Work from articles to people, not the other way around. A database records what someone covered when the entry was made. A dated byline shows what they cover now.

A row of folded newspapers, the nearest one showing the header of its World Business section
A reporter's beat shows in what they publish, not in a database. Photo: AbsolutVision on Unsplash

Start from recent coverage

Name your subject the way reporters do. They rarely use your category name: a company may call itself a carrier liquidity platform while trade reporters write about quick pay and payment terms. Collect three to six phrases from real headlines.

Search recent coverage with those phrases, then work back from each article to its author. Jasmine Roberts-Crews's textbook, published by Ohio State University, advises reading some of a reporter's previous stories1 to judge whether they are right for your story.

Hold every row to one time window: the template uses 180 days, shorter for fast-moving subjects. A bylined article on your subject counts, at any outlet. An unbylined newsletter mention, a wire rewrite or a passing reference does not.

That evidence makes a pitch relevant. Cision, which sells a media database and other PR software, surveyed 1,899 journalists and media professionals early in 2026. Asked what makes them more likely to engage with a pitch, 79% chose relevance to their beat, audience or coverage area2. The next answer, a timely or newsworthy angle, drew 35%.

What a media list template should include

Give every journalist one row, with the evidence in it. Recalculate the days column before each campaign: a row that was fresh in March can be stale by September.

The columns every row needs

ColumnWhat goes in it
Journalist and outletName, outlet, and the beat their recent articles show
Latest on-topic articleTitle, link and publication date: proof they cover your subject now
What it concludedOne line on the position the piece took, which decides the angle
Days since that articleToday's date minus the publication date, so stale rows stand out
AnglePlanned, follow-on or contrary, explained below
Contact and policiesEmail, time zone, and rules such as no embargoes

Write a conclusion, not a topic

"Argues small fleets pay the most for 30-day payment terms" can decide an angle. "Covers freight payments" cannot, because it says nothing about what the reporter thinks.

Check an old or bought list first

Contact lists go stale because newsrooms keep changing. Pew Research Center analyzed Bureau of Labor Statistics data and found US newsroom employment fell 26% between 2008 and 20203, from about 114,000 jobs to about 85,000. Over the same years, newspaper newsrooms shrank 57% while digital-native newsrooms grew 144%.

Test a sample before you mail anyone: take 30 rows, find each person's latest on-topic article inside your window, and give each row one of four outcomes:

  • On-topic article in the window: keep the row and record the article
  • Recent articles on another beat: save them for a future story
  • Bylines elsewhere, none at the listed outlet: update the outlet
  • No byline anywhere in the window: don't mail them

The second group is the trap: they still publish, just not on your subject, so the rows look alive. Then search recent coverage for writers the old list never had.

Choose an angle for each journalist

State your announcement's claim in one sentence: the part a reporter could disagree with. Then compare it with what each journalist's latest article concluded. That comparison, not their job title, decides the pitch.

Three angles, chosen from each journalist's latest article

AngleWho gets itHow to open
PlannedCovers your subject but hasn't run this storyWhy the news matters to their readers now
Follow-onPublished this story in the last 90 daysThe question their piece left open, and what you can add
ContraryRecently argued against your claimTheir conclusion, stated fairly, then your evidence on the point you dispute

The contrary group is small and easy to miss. They know the subject and have taken a public position, so new evidence on that point can give them a reason to write again. Agree where you can, and expect their piece to include the disagreement. To make the case in your own name instead, write an op-ed.

One journalist told Cision what helps: "I love when PR professionals reference my past stories and offer sources, new information or other angles to move the coverage forward2."

Write a short pitch to one person

Address each pitch to one person. In Cision's survey, 97% of journalists said they prefer pitches by email2, and the report puts the sweet spot at about 100 to 200 words. Six lines cover it:

  1. Their article

    Its title and date, and the point in it you're answering.

  2. Why you're writing

    One line that connects your news to that piece.

  3. The story

    Your news in the words a headline would use.

  4. The evidence

    Two or three specifics, with numbers where you have them.

  5. The offer

    An interview, the data, early access, or an embargo with agreed terms.

  6. One question

    A question they can answer in a word, like "Would the data help?"

Write the subject line last. Roberts-Crews warns against generic lines such as "Story Idea" and suggests a headline similar to one the journalist might use1. If a subject line could go to anyone else on your list, rewrite it.

ExampleA pitch to a reporter who disagreedAn illustrative example written for this guide. The names and figures are made up.

Subject: Your quick-pay math, with a year of acceptance data

Hi Calla, your Oct. 4 piece, "Quick pay is a discount wearing a different hat," argued the fee costs a carrier more than faster cash is worth. On one load, we agree. Over a year, the numbers look different.

We tracked 12 months of loads at brokers who paid carriers in four days with no fee. Carriers accepted 82% of the loads offered, up from 71% the year before.

I can share the dataset and two carriers who will talk on the record. Would the numbers help?

  • Their argument, fairly put. The opening states the piece's conclusion in terms its author would accept.

Follow up once and keep a record

Send one follow-up, and only if it adds something: a new figure, interviewee or development. Roberts-Crews suggests following up within two days on a time-sensitive story, or within a week otherwise1. In Cision's survey, 64% of journalists said a PR professional should follow up once2, and 28% said never.

Log every reply and every silence, so you can tell a weak list from a weak pitch. When a reporter writes back, answer quickly: 52% told Cision they expect a response within 24 hours2.

Agree any embargo before you send material. EurekAlert!, a science news-release service run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, shows how. It defines an embargo as a prohibition against making certain information public before a specific date and time4, and reporters sign an embargo agreement before getting an account.

Never trade anything for coverage. The Society of Professional Journalists' code tells reporters to refuse presents, favors, fees, free travel or special treatment aimed at unduly influencing coverage5. The Public Relations Society of America's code tells members to keep gifts nominal, legal and infrequent6.

Before you send

  • Every row names a dated, on-topic article inside your window
  • Each angle comes from what that person's article concluded
  • The first line names their article and the point you're answering
  • The pitch is under 200 words and ends with one question
  • Any embargo was agreed before material went out

If the announcement still needs writing, start with the press release generator, and plan the dates with a product launch plan. To start faster, open this template in River: it finds recent coverage of your subject and builds the first rows.

How to use this template

Use the files as they are, or open them in River. River asks what you're announcing and the subject it falls under. Send a list you already have and it checks the rows against recent articles, sorting the failures by cause. A long list gets a 30-row sample first. If you are starting fresh, it finds recent coverage and builds a first set of rows, each naming the article behind it.

Either way, it ends with angles for a few journalists, points out anyone who recently argued against your claim, and suggests one next step, such as rebuilding the list or drafting a first pitch.

  1. Download it or open it in River

    Download five Word documents and five CSV sheets free, or open them in River and work through them with AI.

  2. Share your subject or your list

    Tell River what you're announcing, in a reporter's words, and send any list you already have for checking.

  3. Review the evidence behind each row

    Every row names the article behind it and what it argued, so you can see who still covers your subject.

  4. Pitch one person at a time

    Draft each pitch from that journalist's row, then log the send, the follow-up and every reply or silence.

What's in the template

The sheets that treat a byline as the primary keyMade-up example: 240 purchased rows audited by outlet, the 104 on the byline-built list with their angles, and what each angle produced.
RiverMedia List and Pitch Template

List Staleness Audit

Made-up example: Ashcombe’s purchased database segment, every row tagged for the category, scored against 180 days of bylines. Eight of the 21 outlets shown.

OutletRowsOn-topic bylineBeat changedNone at outletNone anywhereSurvivesFound by byline
Freight Ledger19952347.4%2
The Rate Con17852247.1%3
Payments in Transit14722350.0%3
Intermodal Brief12342325.0%0
Freight Capital Weekly11522245.5%2
Cold Chain Monthly9132311.1%0
The Drayage Report8132212.5%0
The Deadhead603120.0%0
All 21 outlets2408168375433.8%23

159 of 240 rows failed, 66.2%. The four columns are kept apart because they lead to different actions. 68 rows still write, just not about this any more, and those are the rows that look alive, get mailed and never reply.

In this example, survival rate had nothing to do with reach. The smallest outlet Ashcombe targets survived at 45.5% and one of the largest at 11.1%. Four outlets have no live coverage of the subject at all, which is a finding rather than a gap to fill with whoever is listed there.

Survivors plus each failure column must equal the purchased row count, per outlet and in total. A row that lands in two columns has been counted twice and the survival rate is wrong.

Media List

Made-up example: the 104 rows that survived the test or came out of it, with the two columns a bought list cannot carry. Nine shown.

JournalistOutletRow sourceLast on-topic bylineDaysAngle
Engage the contrary conclusion  ·  12 rows  ·  11.5% of the list
Calla LoxdaleBroker and CarrierByline search only2025-10-042Contrary conclusion
Una UdallFreight LedgerPurchased list2025-09-0630Contrary conclusion
Kirra FennimoreFreight Capital WeeklyPurchased list2025-07-2375Contrary conclusion
Follow-on angle  ·  17 rows  ·  already published the planned story
Maeve YaxleyHaulage WeeklyPurchased list2025-09-2115Follow-on
Ulla ThurlowLinehaul QuarterlyPurchased list2025-09-2016Follow-on
Planned angle  ·  75 rows  ·  cover the subject, have not run this story
Quill QuarringtonMiddle Mile ReviewPurchased list2025-10-024Planned
Ilse PeverellOwner Operator LedgerPurchased list2025-10-015Planned
Pádraig TarbuckFreight LedgerByline search only2025-05-06153Planned
Vasco UttleyPayments in TransitPurchased list2025-05-08151Planned

Days since the last on-topic byline is computed, not stored. A row that was fresh in March is a different row in September, and the number has to move on its own or the list quietly rots while the spreadsheet still says it is good.

The angle comes from the article, not the person. The same journalist sits in a different group for the next announcement, which is why the assignment lives next to the byline and gets redone each campaign rather than being stored as a tier.

No row without a matching row in Byline Evidence. That is the space rule, and it is the only thing standing between this and a category tag with a name attached.

Response Log

Made-up example: all 104 pitched, angle assigned per person, silences logged. Read the bottom two blocks together.

AnglePitchedRepliedReply rateWroteCoverage rate
Planned angle751418.7%45.3%
Follow-on angle17529.4%15.9%
Engage the contrary conclusion12541.7%325.0%
All angles1042423.1%87.7%
By days since the last on-topic byline
0 to 30 days29931.0%413.8%
31 to 90 days411024.4%37.3%
91 to 180 days34514.7%12.9%
The same company’s previous launch, same category, bought list, one generic pitch
Previous launch24072.9%20.8%

The twelve journalists who had just argued the other way converted to coverage 4.7 times as often as the planned-angle group. They were 11.5% of the list and 37.5% of the coverage. A purchased database cannot identify that group, because the field it turns on is what somebody concluded.

43.3% of the previous launch’s sends produced four times the coverage. Reply rate 23.1% against 2.9%. At four minutes a row to find and read the last on-topic piece, 104 rows is 6.9 hours, which is 0.9 hours per piece of coverage earned.

Log the silences. A group with a high send count and no replies is a list problem; a group that engages and does not commit is a pitch problem, and counting only replies cannot tell them apart.

  • Sourcing MethodYour subject in a journalist's words, the byline window, and what does and doesn't count as evidence.
  • Byline Evidence sheetOne row per journalist: their latest on-topic article, its link and date, and what it concluded.
  • List Staleness Audit sheetScores a bought or inherited list outlet by outlet: how many rows survive and why the rest fail.
  • Pitch AnglesYour one-sentence claim, the three angles, and a worksheet for each journalist who argued against it.
  • Outreach GuidanceThe six-line pitch, the subject line test, send timing, the single follow-up and how to handle each reply.
  • Embargo and Exclusive TermsHow embargoes differ from exclusives, getting acceptance in writing, and what to do if one breaks.
  • Media List sheetThe list itself, with days since each person's last on-topic article, their angle, time zone and policies.
  • Pitch Tracker sheetEach send: the angle, the subject line used, the date, what was offered and what the follow-up added.
  • Response Log sheetEvery reply and silence, whether it came after the follow-up, and any piece the pitch prompted.
  • Campaign ReviewFour questions to answer after each campaign, ending in three decisions that each name the figure to move.

Common questions

What is a media list?

A media list is the set of journalists, editors and creators you plan to pitch, kept as one row per person. Beyond contact details, a useful one records each person's latest article on your subject and when it ran, so you can tell at a glance who still covers the topic and what to offer them.

How many journalists should be on a media list?

As many as you can back with a recent article on your subject, which is usually far fewer than a bought list holds. A short list you can pitch one person at a time beats a long one you can only mass-email. If you find only a handful, search with more of the phrases reporters use before you lengthen the time window.

How often should you update a media list?

Before every campaign. Recheck each person's latest article on your subject and recalculate how old it is, since reporters change beats and employers often. Drop rows that no longer pass and record why. Keep anyone who changed beat on file, because they may suit a later story.

What is the difference between an embargo and an exclusive?

An embargo gives several journalists your news early, on condition that nobody publishes before an agreed date and time. An exclusive gives one outlet the story first. It is worth more to that outlet, but it can cost you everyone else's interest, because a story already published is no longer news.

Does this replace a media database?

No. A database is useful for finding candidates and checking contact details. Treat each entry as a lead rather than a row: confirm a recent article on your subject before the person goes on your list, and search recent coverage for writers the database never listed.

Is this media list template free?

Yes. The five Word documents and five CSV sheets download free, with no signup. The sheets come filled with a made-up campaign, so you can see how each column works before you clear it and add your own journalists. Edit with AI opens the same files in River instead.

What does Edit with AI do?

It opens the template in a free River workspace and asks what you're announcing. Send a list you already have and River checks it, or a 30-row sample, against recent articles and shows why rows fail. With no list, it builds 15 to 20 rows from recent coverage. Then it suggests angles for a few people. Nothing goes to a journalist until you send it.

Sources

  1. The Ohio State University. “Pitching to the media.” ohiostate.pressbooks.pub (opens in a new tab)

  2. Cision. “2026 State of the Media Report.” prnewswire.com (opens in a new tab)

  3. Pew Research Center. “U.S. newsroom employment has fallen 26% since 2008.” pewresearch.org (opens in a new tab)

  4. American Association for the Advancement of Science. “EurekAlert! Science News Releases - Frequently Asked Questions.” eurekalert.org (opens in a new tab)

  5. Society of Professional Journalists. “SPJ’s Code of Ethics.” spj.org (opens in a new tab)

  6. Public Relations Society of America. “PRSA Code of Ethics.” prsa.org (opens in a new tab)

Written by

Chandler Supple

Co-founder & CEO, River

Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.

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Reviewed by

Brian Joseff, Co-founder, River

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