How to become a reporter’s most valuable resource

Newsrooms are shrinking and the pressure on reporters to deliver timely, relevant, searchable high-quality content continues to mount. As a result, it’s important to keep tabs on exactly what reporters need. Luckily, as part of our comprehensive, always-on media relations approach, Linhart PR does the legwork. We subscribe to a variety of reporter Substack newsletters and source-request platforms, including Qwoted, Source of Sources, Podcast Guests, HARO (Help-A-Reporter-Out) and more, and monitor them throughout each day.

We help companies and brands tap into real-time media opportunities that build visibility, credibility and momentum, resulting in slam-dunk media wins and opening the door to long-term reporter relationships. If you can quickly tee up a valuable media-trained expert or insightful content, you’ll become any reporter’s best friend. Plus, these platforms are often a microcosm of the larger media landscape and reflect what reporters are looking for to drive clicks and eyes to their content, which can inform and sharpen your proactive media outreach.  

Here are some recent stories Linhart PR has secured via source request platforms:

• We offered a chef’s expert perspective on cooking eggs in butter versus oil for a food ingredient client, scoring a Simply Recipes mention highlighting the various flavor and cooking benefits of grass-fed butter.
• When a Good Housekeeping reporter was seeking advice from food safety experts on how to properly store ground beef for optimal freshness, our food client had just the right beef scientist for the job, equipping at home cooks with information they can use.
• Our multi-state homebuilder client was the perfect local market housing expert for a GoBankingRates reporter working on a story about reasons to buy a home in Arizona, also resulting in AOL.com, Yahoo! Finance and MSN syndications.
• We recommended a financial aid expert to a Wall Street Journal reporter looking for advice on student loans for part-time students, initiating a key relationship that resulted in additional WSJ BuySide and Credible articles for our client, the first 100% online, institutionally accredited public university in the U.S.

The team identified a USA Today reporter looking for veterans to speak about their hearing loss for a special Memorial Day print edition, securing a pivotal spot for our hearing technology client in a publication distributed exclusively to their key audience of military bases and VA facilities. Using these reporter-driven platforms can be a useful, practical part of a broader earned media strategy. Don’t let these daily media opportunities pass you by. Reach out and we can help.