HN Explorer

Ask HN: What is your method for contacting reporters, journalists, and bloggers?

18 points by workhorse ↗ HN
Recently I found myself researching reporters, journalists, and bloggers to drum up some free press for a startup.

I was manually researching websites and recording the email addresses of reporters, journalists, and bloggers that might find my startup relevant. Needless to say this was tedious and inefficient.

So what I did was write a little script that would scrape a website for email addresses and then it would research each email address and provide me with a summary for each email address.

After I scraped approximately 2,000 email addresses and looked at the results with research, I was surprised at how well this worked.

I was able to build a list of 100+ reporters that have written about or published a related story in an industry that my startup is entering.

I was thinking about putting a UI around this technology.

What do you guys think?

If you could login and search tens of thousands of journalists, and then build your own list from these journalists to contact through the website (and save the list for later, plus access categorical lists predetermined), would you be interested?

I had the idea of limiting the subject and body of any email sent through the website to 100 chars and 400 chars respectively. It would force the person contacting the journalist to be short and sweet.

Thoughts?

21 comments

[ 6.2 ms ] story [ 77.8 ms ] thread
eeagerdeveloper
This maybe considered spam. You need the permission od the bloggers, journalist, and reporters to email them.
workhorse
I thought so too at first, but if the intentions are good, I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to receive the emails if they are relevant to the reporter and would help them do their job.

By saying I would "need" the permission of them to email them, what do you mean by that? Do you mean that it would be more effective? Or it would be illegal without?

RealGeek
Most bloggers encourage readers to contact them to submit anything newsworthy.
tlack
I'd be interested in your service but only if it was cheaper than me spending an hour to do the same thing with a limited selection of blogs/journalists/sources.

Perhaps you could make money at both ends of the deal by allowing journalists to list themselves and "making a match" for a given story - i.e., reporters say they are covering green technology and someone with a green tech startup would be matched with them.

workhorse
This is exactly what inspired my original thought.

I still can't find a place that provides all of this contact information in once place.

Any place that claims to be able to do this isn't transparent, you can't tell where they are sending it.

philiphodgen
Find the least intrusive way to hit them. Email or voicemail.

Really brief pitch. Story, what's in it for them. Offer to supply relevant contact people and backup data.

Only only only do this after you've read their body of work and you know for a fact that it is up their alley.

Think of it from the reporter's POV and make them able to understand and say yes or no in 5 seconds. Be prepared to give them all the info they need to research your story but don't write it for them. If they turn you down this is a sign you might need some #custdev work in the media field. Or maybe the person had a bad day. You never know.

Don't spam. Research the person first.

That's what I do.

rospaya
I'm an IT journalist but get hit up mostly by PR people and bigger businesses, not startups and lone developers.

My advice is just to keep it brief, eliminate most of the PR crap and make a good presentation of what your product/service provides.

Keep it simple yet provide enough data. Also, use only their work e-mails, nothing private, and avoid phone calls if you can.

megablahblah
I tried sending press releases (as the body of the email) and wasn't sure if I should include a short note with it. Or should I just send a brief pitch with no press release?
RealGeek
It can be a useful application.

Most startups will be happy to pay like $10 for access, if it can save them a few hours.

hansel
how does it compare to the Vocus service?
eli
Just an aside, but professional PR firms already have detailed internal databases of journalists.
workhorse
Yeah, the problem is transparency.

When I have used PR firms in the past, we have left it in their hands to send our news and press releases to the right people. Beyond us sending a legal department approved press release, and seeing it later that morning on Business Wire, the whole thing is rather secret.

I like to think that startups do not need PR firms, they just need transparency and a tool that allows them get the media's attention faster.

middlegeek
Am I naive to think your startup should be that good, that great, that unfailing that reporters should find you?
mmorris
I think a lot of the value one gets from researching the reporters/journalists/bloggers is getting to know their content and getting a sense of the "personality" of each publication, not just finding contact information. That being said, it sounds like your service would allow people to focus on the important stuff and make it simple to contact whichever people you select (while many journalists make their contact information readily available, there are those that are more difficult).

I wonder about the legal issues surrounding this idea. Last time I worked with a service that provided an email database and sent people emails, it required an opt-out link in each message -- which would be easy -- and it required prior opt-in from the person being emailed -- which would make it a bit harder for you. I was working in market research then (a few years ago), however, and the laws and regulations may be different.

Anyway, certainly this is an idea worth looking into, I hope you go for it and have great success!

workhorse
Thanks!

I have been researching for the past 2 hours and I can't find anything that says they have to opt-in to send them an email.

The only thing I can find is that you cannot be deceptive, and you must include a link that allows them to be removed from any further mailings. Both of which are easily accomplished.

But anyways, thanks for the words of encouragement.

eduardo_f
If you are in the US, then it has to be opt-in. It's the CAN-SPAM law.
workhorse
Quoting someone summarizing the CAN-SPAM:

If your email list isn't opt-in or double opt-in ("prior affirmative consent"), include a clear notice that states the email is an advertisement or solicitation in commercial messages (section 5(a)(5)(A)(i)). If your list is opt-in or double opt-in, you're exempt from this provision.

prodigal_erik
"Double opt-in" is what spammers call confirmed opt-in. Only spammers think there's any reality behind an "opt-in" that hasn't even been acknowledged by the owner of the email address.
workhorse
Yeah, there are some shady practices.

But I still think there is room for an honest service with good intentions.

There are plenty of ways to prevent people from abusing such a system that is in discussion here.

But it does look like it is legal to email someone who hasn't asked for the email as long as you follow the rules about disclosure.