Engage With a Journalist Profile
NOTE: The information in this article applies to PR professionals. For information on accessing Journalist Profiles as a Journalist, check out our Claim or Create A Journalist Profile article.
Journalist Profiles provide a wealth of knowledge about the individuals you pitch to. A journalist profile on Muck Rack is a comprehensive and dynamic online portfolio showcasing a journalist's or media professional's professional background, expertise, and work. It is a centralized hub for journalists to highlight their articles, multimedia content, social media presence, and accomplishments.
Navigate a Journalist Profile
You can find a Journalist Profile by running a People Search in Muck Rack, selecting a journalist's name, then selecting the View Full Profile button.
NOTE: The full profile can also be accessed directly from search in a new tab by either using cmd + click (Mac) or ctrl + click (Windows) when selecting the name.
Watch the video or follow the table below to learn how to access and navigate a journalist profile in Muck Rack.
Features of A Muck Rack Journalist Profile
Profile Feature | Description |
Journalist Bio
 | Contains basic information about the journalist's location, who they write for, etc. It also displays the verified status if it applies |
Topics Most Covered
| This will display which topics a journalist has covered in the last 12 months in order of frequency. |
Articles
 | Articles by the journalist. You can click these to read their work |
Word Cloud
| Displays common keywords extracted from articles written by them (in the last 12 months) presented as a visual word cloud, with the most frequently mentioned terms appearing larger. |
Contact Information  | A journalist's default email and phone number, as well as any active social media accounts they have
You can also add Contact Preferences in this area |
Add A Note Or Log
 | Allows you to make private comments/notes about the journalist. For example, if there is a special way this journalist should be contacted |
Request Update
| Request an update if you feel the journalist's profile is out of date |
Create Alert, Export, Job History
 |
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Log Emails 
| Forward emails with this journalist to an email of your choice |
Media Lists
 | Add the journalist to a media list |
Relationship Owner
| A place to note if there is a teammate that communicates with this journalist regularly
|
NOTE: If any information on a journalist's profile is outdated, click Request Update to the right of the reporter's name. If the profile is not a maintained Muck Rack profile but rather one of your team’s Custom Contacts, Muck Rack’s team cannot research them.
Share a Journalist Profile
You can generate a sharable link from any Journalist Profile to share with your team. From the Journalist Profile, select "Share this page" under Actions:
Add, Edit, or Customize Contact Information
Muck Rack allows you to add email addresses, mailing addresses, and phone numbers as Custom Contact Information only visible to your organization on any journalist’s profile. This is the perfect way to store contact information shared with you and your colleagues by journalists or otherwise unavailable in Muck Rack.
Go to a Journalist profile.
Select Edit next to Contact on the right side.
Add your custom contact information and select Save.
NOTE: You can also Override the Default Email Address. Your custom email for that Journalist displays on their profile for you and your team, and all new Pitches created by your team will automatically list your contact's new default address.
You can still select any other email address listed on their profile. Additionally, all Media List exports will automatically list your contact's default email address.
Relationship Owners
Relationship Owners allow you to assign your teammates to a journalist to help track and manage your team’s most important relationships. The teammates assigned on a journalist profile page are Relationship Owners. With Relationship Owners, anyone in your organization can quickly tell who already has the strongest connection with a journalist.
From any journalist’s profile page, select "Add teammates" under the Relationship Owner section on the right-hand side.
Select the dropdown menu, choose a name, then select the Save button.
NOTE: Any change to the Relationship Owner in Muck Rack will be automatically tracked as an Activity so you can see how your relationships evolve.
Job Change Highlights
Muck Rack makes it easy to see when journalists you care about change jobs in your Media Lists and on profile pages.
The green job changed badge appears when a new media outlet or title has been added for any person in your organization’s Media Lists or for any profile you’ve previously viewed.
Easily dismiss the badge wherever they appear by clicking the X icon on the badge. Manually dismissing a job change badge does not remove the badge for any teammates in your organization -- that way, they can see who has changed jobs when they return to Muck Rack.
Under each job update, you can view the journalist's former title and media outlet. You can also click Congratulate to open a new email to the journalist.
Job Updates Digest
You can enable a tailored Job updates digest email to be sent daily via your Settings. This will contain job updates on journalists you've recently viewed or are on any of your organization's media lists.
You can also view all relevant job updates on Relationships > Job Updates.
Contact Preferences and Do Not Contact
With Contact Preferences on Muck Rack, your team can add essential information about working with a journalist to any profile for every teammate to see. Easily denote how and when journalists like to be pitched, topics to avoid, or add them to your Do Not Contact list and prevent your teammates from contacting them in the future.
Go to a journalist profile, locate the Contact section on the right-hand side, and select Edit in the top right corner.
You can add any notes about this journalist or put them on a Do Not Contact list.
Every time Contact Preferences are changed, a new Activity is created, and you can easily see which teammates edited Contact Preferences last and when. Contact Preferences are also displayed throughout Pitches, so you can always send the most targeted, relevant emails to the journalists you interact with.
NOTE: All teammates can mark profiles as Do Not Contact. When saved, the most recent text in the Contact Preferences field will display on the profile, all contact information will be hidden, and Pitches will not be sent to this person in the future.
Organization Admins can remove profiles from the Do Not Contact list and edit Custom Contact Information.
Activity Logs
You will find an Activity log on each journalist's profile showing a full relationship history and all other Activities relevant to that specific journalist.
Add notes to journalist profiles to keep track of intel, outreach efforts, and team collaboration. Whether notes are private or shared with your team, ensure a journalist’s inbox is not oversaturated or double-pitched.
View All Activity Logs
Go to Relationships > Activity to access all logged Activities for you and your team.
Utilize the filters to the left of your Activity page to sort by Type of Activity (Notes, Email Logs, Meeting Notes, Event Notes, and Automatic activities).
Activity Categories
An activity can be organized into the following categories:
Activity Log | Description |
Note | Add a free-form note to indicate a personal connection or interesting fact about your contact. |
Email Log | Record outreach history with your contact. If pitching through Muck Rack, your campaign will automatically populate and allow you to click directly through to the pitching dashboard. Use the Email Logging feature to forward or BCC emails into Muck Rack and have them automatically tracked as an Email log on the corresponding journalist profile. |
Meeting Note | Add a note from a meeting with the journalist. A meeting note provides the option to include the date and time of the meeting. |
Event Note | Similar to a meeting note, this also adds the option to include the event's location. |
Automatic | Actions such as adding or removing a journalist to a Media List, assigning teammates as relationship owners, and more are automatically added to the profile. |
Journalist Word Cloud
Word Clouds on journalist profiles display common keywords extracted from articles written by them (in the last 12 months) presented as a visual word cloud, with the most frequently mentioned terms appearing larger.
Quickly scan the key terms associated with a journalist's work to analyze and determine the primary topics they write about. Selecting any of the terms in a word cloud will redirect you to an article results page with articles related to that key term written by that journalist.
NOTE: English and Spanish are the only languages supported on word clouds for journalist profiles at this time.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Question | Solution |
Why can't I find a journalist's email address? | When an email address or phone number cannot be found, a message will appear in the Contact Information section of the journalist’s profile. The "Muck Rack's team was unable to find..." message is only set to display if Muck Rack’s team cannot locate an email address or phone number. It will be replaced automatically when a new email address is found or if your team adds it directly to the profile.
You can add a custom email address if you have one that will be suitable for that journalist as a workaround. |
How do I report an incorrect email on a journalist profile? | If any information is outdated on a journalist's profile, including an incorrect email, select the Request update button in the top right-hand corner of the profile:
Muck Rack's research team will look into updating the profile page within a matter of minutes.
NOTE: If the profile is not a maintained Muck Rack profile, but rather one of your team’s Custom Contacts, Muck Rack’s team cannot research them. |
How often will the key terms refresh in a journalist word cloud? | Unlike the Word Cloud widget available in Dashboards that refreshes every 15 minutes, key terms on journalist profiles will only refresh when the page is refreshed. |
Why can't I see a word cloud on this journalist's profile? | There are several reasons why you may not see a word cloud on a journalist’s profile:
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Get Help
For additional help, contact support by choosing the chat icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and selecting Messages > Send us a message.
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