PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. They champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Their mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.

Search and Journalist Maps

Here at PEN America, we’re in a period of growth and change in our programming, so want our press outreach to match those changes. Muck Rack’s Search feature helps ensure our existing contacts are up-to-date, as well as find new contacts in our space.

For example, we offer seed funding for members and supporters to host events in their geographic area related to our mission. We’ve seen growth in events outside of our traditional New York center where we do a lot of pitching, so Muck Rack has been helpful in allowing us to identify and pitch reporters in areas where events are being held where we don’t traditionally have media relationships. I typically search by geographic area and target journalists who cover or tweet frequently about the subject matter of the event we’re promoting.

When we came on board with Muck Rack, we had a Journalist Map created to identify which journalists are following PEN America, as well as organizations with similar missions, for comparison. Right away we noticed many reporters not on our map, but on theirs. From there, we can assume these reporters might be interested in the subject matter of our programming, but haven’t heard of us yet, helping us to grow our media list. Journalist Maps have been eye-opening! This tool has helped expand our reach to people who already care about what we do.

We’ve seen a lot of success with this approach, landing coverage in Detroit and Indianapolis, helping to match our press footprint with our national membership reach.

Coverage Comparisons

I’m particularly excited about a new feature Muck Rack recently launched that I’ve begun experimenting with -- Coverage Comparisons. It’s helpful to compare PEN America’s media coverage to the coverage of similar organizations in our space to see where we can improve our work. What I find most helpful is the comparison of metrics -- specifically journalist shares and social reach -- to be able to quantify these metrics and see them against that of a similar organization.

Who Shared My Link

Because we often issue reports on our website and to the media, Muck Rack’s Who Shared My Link tool can be helpful to discover the reach of the resources we share. I’ll often plug the link of the resources into Who Shared and see which journalists have expressed interest through sharing on Twitter or retweeting. That data has been illuminating, especially if we stumble upon a journalist who writes for a publication we haven’t focused on before. It has been helpful in expanding the scope of our press list.

Part of our press outreach strategy includes Twitter, so seeing that “X” journalist tweeted this or 20 journalists retweeted someone else who shared our resource is really helpful. To know our work is being shared and to see that people care about the work we do has been great. We make notes of these instances internally and add those specific journalists to our press list so they’ll receive future announcements.

Who Shared My Link is also helpful for expanding outreach to reporters with asks that aren’t related to coverage. For instance, reporters who’ve shared the link to our Online Harassment Field Manual might be interested in appearing on a panel, or encouraging their publications to sign up for our newsroom trainings aimed at writers, journalists, and the institutions that employ them to defend themselves against online harassment.

1. If you had to explain how you use Muck Rack to someone in a tweet, what would you say?

Muck Rack has allowed us to expand the scope of our outreach based not only on reporters' beats but on their areas of interest thanks to the Twitter integration, and nifty tools such as Who Shared My Link and the Coverage Comparison reports.

2. In addition to results, what other benefits have you experienced from Muck Rack?

Muck Rack is a time saver because it’s up to date, which unfortunately I can’t say for other media databases I’ve used in the past. I also found Muck Rack easy to learn -- it didn’t take more than a day or two to wrap my head around the product. Plus, there are always new features being released, which is exciting. I’m always asking myself, “What other insights can I gain from this one tool?” The editorial team, responsible for the contact information listed on each reporter’s profile, is also super-quick to respond to inquiries and update contact information.

3. What would your job be like if you didn’t have Muck Rack?

Working in the nonprofit field, everyone is crunched for time, and without Muck Rack, it would take a lot more time to do what I do. I’d also be a lot less certain about the media information I’d find without Muck Rack -- it certainly has the most up to date data that I’ve used.

4. How would you describe your experience with Muck Rack in three words?

Intuitive, eye-opening and helpful

5. What would you tell other companies considering using Muck Rack?

Give it a go! I find Muck Rack great as someone who works in-house at a non-profit, and I also loved Muck Rack when I worked at a mid-sized public relations agency.