Media Lists and Journalist Outreach for DACH Coverage

A media list exported from a database is wrong on the day you download it. The last inherited list we rebuilt held 380 names in the travel sector; 104 of them had left the outlet, moved beat or gone freelance, and 31 addresses were shared editorial inboxes. Rebuilding from published bylines backwards took nine working days and produced 112 names, every one of whom had written about the client's segment in the preceding 18 months. How the list is built: We start from what has been published, not from who is listed. For each target segment we read the past 18 months of relevant coverage in the trade and business titles that matter — for automotive that means Automobilwoche, kfz-betrieb, Automobil Produktion and electrive alongside the national business desks; for travel, fvw TravelTalk, Touristik Aktuell, Reisevor9 and ahgz; for software, heise online, Computerwoche, t3n, Golem and the Handelsblatt tech desk. Zimpel and Muck Rack are used to confirm a contact detail after the byline has already earned the name a place, never to generate the list. What a name has to earn: Each entry carries the three most recent pieces that journalist wrote in your subject area, what they were arguing, what they clearly find tedious, whether they take embargoes, whether they are staff or freelance and which titles the freelancers sell into. Ressortleiter and Chefredakteur are marked separately, because pitching a section head a story their reporter already owns is how a client burns both. The DSGVO part most shops skip: A press distribution list in Germany runs on legitimate interest under Article 6(1)(f), which requires a documented balancing test, a record in the Verzeichnis von Verarbeitungstaetigkeiten and a suppression list that is actually honoured. We write that documentation and hand it to your data protection officer with the list. Opt-outs are processed the same day. German journalists do complain about unlawful distribution, and being the agency in that complaint is a bad quarter for everyone. Outreach: Pitches run under 150 words with a subject line under 60 characters, no attachments, a link instead. Sie by default, du only where the outlet's own culture is du. One follow-up after four working days, then silence — a second follow-up converts almost nothing and costs the relationship permanently. No tracking pixels: several German journalists filter for them and it is the quickest route onto a personal blocklist. What you receive: The list as a working file with the reasoning attached to each name, the outreach copy in German and English, the send log with responses, and a note on the journalists who declined and what they said. The declines are the most useful page. They tell you what your story is missing more precisely than any placement does. Not included: Mass sends to editorial inboxes. Purchased contact databases resold to you as our work. Pitching a story that is not one — if the assessment says there is no story yet, the outreach round does not run and you are not billed for it. We also do not do influencer or creator outreach; that is a different trade with different rules and we would be pretending. Not for you if: You want the spreadsheet without the outreach. A list detached from someone who has read the coverage is a decaying asset, and you will have paid for the least valuable half. You also should not buy this if your target is national consumer press with a story that is a product update — no list solves that.