On the former part of this year, I was interning with a public relations firm called Ketchum Sampark. Being a newbie in the business of public relations, I, obviously had no knowledge about anything, whatsoever. Every day was like a new beginning to me because I would learn something new each day. And honestly, I liked doing most of the things I learnt. Be it talking to the media on the phone, writing press releases, creating pitch notes or documentation of the work. Yes! I am that person who likes documentation! The only thing that I dreaded was updating the media lists. I’ll tell you why.

Related Post – https://scoreindia.org/blog/not-everything-needs-press-release/

A media list is a document containing the names, contacts, e-mail ids, field of expertise and publications of people belonging from the media. People from the lists usually are journalists, bloggers, writers, editors and influencers. Now, I dreaded updating the media list because I did not have any idea from I could find out their details. I would always look at the already created media list and wonder who took up all the effort to collate so much data in such a neat and diligent manner. And then, one day I was assigned the task of updating the lists! All hell broke loose! But then, I figured, no was going to listen to my whining. So, why not get it over with?

This is what I figured out:

1. Every public relations firm has a newspaper/reading room where all the newspapers, magazines, books etc. are kept. One has to go sit in there with a few hours in hand and go through the newspapers thoroughly, even the smallest of articles cannot be missed. The e-mail ids of the journalists are generally given at the beginning or the bottom of the article along with their names. The same goes with the pieces written by the editor as well as with the authored articles.
2. The same procedure can be followed with the magazines too. Somewhere around the index page of the magazine, the name of the editor, the sub-editor, the feature writer, the designer all are mentioned!
3. Now, updating the bloggers’ or the influencers’ list is a bit more challenging than the others. Here, one has to take a look at the already created list (if any) before proceeding. Once you are done with that, the process is pretty simple. One has to log on to Instagram and search the most commonly used hashtags or the city names one by one and all the names of the bloggers who has used those hashtags in their posts or belong from the city one has searched for will come out easily! Generally, their e-mail ids are given at the top of their profiles only.

However, what about those whose names that are mentioned in the publications but you cannot find their contact details? In a situation like this, one can call up the board line numbers of their respective publications and ask for their contact details. All of them are polite enough to provide with the basics because they know that’s a part of the job. After this, one needs to cross-check if the other names are still valid. If not, just erase them out and there, you have, a perfectly updated and accurate media list. A perfectly accurate media list is very important because otherwise, people end up calling a wrong person for a wrong reason and in turn building up a bad image. So, even if media lists are quite challenging and toilsome, they are a savior in the long run.

–Baishali Banerjee 

Baishali Banerjee is a part of the Class of 2020 of PG Programme in PR and Corporate Communications at SCoRe, Mumbai. She completed her winter internship with Genesis BCW, Mumbai.

She is from Kolkata. She did her graduation in Media Science with a specialization in Public Relations and Advertising from NSHM Knowledge Campus, Kolkata. She has always been curious about the corporate world and how all these huge brands function and connect with their consumers on a day-to-day basis. She interned with Ketchum Sampark for a period of three months under the Brands & Lifestyle team. This experience made her more curious about the PR fraternity. Also, she is a person very open to learning and her interests lie in corporate, entertainment and lifestyle.
She can be reached at @baishalibanerj5 on Twitter and as Baishali Banerjee on LinkedIn