The challenge
Reactive PR gets results, but finding the opportunities takes hours
Laura Wilson runs all of Barrington’s digital PR. Expert comment on a breaking story is one of the most reliable ways to get a client into the news, but spotting the right story used to mean reading site after site for every client, and on a busy week that was the first thing to slip.
“When you’re really busy, going out and reading the news is difficult. Having a tool that tells me what’s in the news and how my client could comment means we can use those opportunities a lot more.”
The solution
JournoFinder reactive alerts land in each client’s Slack channel without the team lifting a finger
Barrington now has JournoFinder’s reactive alerts set up for its clients. Each alert goes straight into that client’s Slack channel, showing what the story is and how the client could comment on it.
From Slack alert to coverage in half a day
When rising petrol prices hit the news, an alert came through for one of Barrington’s clients. Here’s how the team turned it around in half a day.
- 1 The alert lands in Slack A story on rising petrol prices comes through to the client’s channel.
- 2 Existing data gets a new hook The team had petrol data they hadn’t fully used. They pulled it, refreshed it with the topical angle and wrote the press release.
- 3 The list comes from who’s covering it now JournoFinder built the media list from journalists writing about petrol prices that week.
- 4 Pitched and placed The pitch went out within half a day and earned three or four pieces of coverage.
Plenty of alerts only need a quote. Then Laura gets a comment from the client, they sign it off, and it goes straight out to the list.
Their biggest wins
Coverage in national titles like the Telegraph, Fox News and the New York Post
Reactive wins sit alongside Barrington’s planned campaigns, and JournoFinder built the media lists for those too. A parking campaign earned nine links and eleven brand mentions, including the Telegraph. A travel campaign earned more than 30 links and pieces of coverage, including Fox News and the New York Post.
Where Barrington’s clients have been featured
Beyond reactive alerts
JournoFinder is part of every step, from finding journalists to sending the pitch
Barrington builds around 90% of its media lists in JournoFinder, and the rest comes from manual research. Laura uses it at every point in the process, for planned campaigns as much as breaking news. These are the features she relies on most.
AI Agent
The AI Agent builds the media list from a press release
For most campaigns, Laura starts by pasting the press release into JournoFinder’s AI Agent. Nine times out of ten that’s all it needs. When she wants more, she asks in plain English: add marketing and creative sites, leave out outlets already on her list, keep it to the UK. Each journalist comes with a reason they fit and their recent articles, so she can check the list quickly before it goes out.
For a small, niche release, the Agent’s list is often the whole list. On a bigger campaign it’s the foundation she builds out from, following its suggestions for journalists and topics to cover next.
“Sometimes JournoFinder suggests journalists or topics I hadn’t thought of myself. It’s a much faster process than building it manually.”
Verified emails
Verified emails ended the bounce-back problem
Laura has been in PR for over 11 years and has used most of the media databases on the market. With previous tools, outdated emails meant a steady stream of bounce-backs, which damaged the agency’s domain reputation and caused a deliverability problem. The team was also paying for a separate tool to verify emails and another to send pitches.
Every email in JournoFinder shows whether it’s verified, so the separate verification tool Barrington used to pay for is gone. Laura can trust the addresses on her list without checking them somewhere else first.
Outreach
Lists, verified emails and pitches now live in one tool
Barrington used to find journalists in one tool, verify their emails in a second and send pitches from a third. Setting up each campaign in the outreach tool was slow and fiddly.
Now the list, the verified emails and the pitch all sit in JournoFinder. Laura pastes in the press release her client has already signed off, and it arrives with its links, tables and formatting intact. Outreach also has the deliverability settings she relies on, like sending from several email accounts and spacing out each send, so nothing is lost by moving everything into one place.
“The setup process has saved so much time. I copy my press release that’s already signed off, go straight into the tool, and everything is there... This is literally everything that I’ve been saying I needed.”
The team behind it
Quick answers from a team that listens
With other databases, the same problems kept coming up. Prices were high and long contracts locked agencies in, whether or not the tool delivered. One that Barrington tried offered no onboarding and no person to ask for help unless they paid for the top tier.
“It feels like you’re building a tool for the people that are actually using it and what they need to get out of it. I haven’t come across a media database tool that’s like JournoFinder.”
With JournoFinder, Laura messages the team whenever she’s unsure how something works and gets a quick answer. When she suggests something that would make her work easier, the team listens.
“What I’d tell a friend about JournoFinder? Honestly, just do it. It’s so easy to pick up and use.”