PR Tracker

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Managing Contacts and Outlets ​

Contacts and outlets are the foundation of PR Tracker. Outlets represent the media companies, podcasts, conferences, and awards bodies you work with. Contacts are the people — journalists, editors, producers, and hosts.

Outlets ​

Creating an outlet ​

Tell your agent what you want to add, including as much detail as you have:

"Add TechCrunch as a tier 1 outlet. Website is techcrunch.com, global reach, industry focus on technology and startups."

"Create an outlet for the All-In Podcast. It's tier 2, national reach."

You can always come back and add more detail later.

Outlet tiers ​

PR Tracker uses a simple tier system:

  • Tier 1 — Top-tier, high-impact outlets (e.g., New York Times, TechCrunch, Bloomberg)
  • Tier 2 — Solid mid-tier outlets with good reach
  • Tier 3 — Niche, local, or emerging outlets

Adding channels to an outlet ​

An outlet can have multiple channels. TechCrunch has a website and a newsletter. NPR has radio and a podcast. Create channels to track them separately:

"Add a website channel to TechCrunch with 15 million monthly unique visitors"

"Add a podcast channel to the All-In Podcast — 500K downloads per episode"

Channel types: website, newsletter, podcast, tv_broadcast, print, event, award

Each channel type has its own set of metrics (subscriber count, downloads, viewership, etc.) stored as flexible attributes. Add what you know — everything is optional.

Searching for outlets ​

"Find all tier 1 outlets"

"Search for outlets related to AI and technology"

"Show me the full background on TechCrunch"

The outlet_background tool gives you everything linked to an outlet: channels, contacts, opportunities, coverage, and notes.

Contacts ​

Creating a contact ​

"Add Sarah Chen as a contact. She's a senior reporter at TechCrunch, email sarah.chen@techcrunch.com. Her Twitter is @sarahchen."

"Create a contact: Mike Johnson, editor at Forbes, mike.johnson@forbes.com"

The agent will create the contact and link them to the outlet in one step.

Linking contacts to outlets ​

Contacts can be associated with one or more outlets. Each link includes their role and dates:

"Link Sarah Chen to TechCrunch as a senior reporter"

"Sarah Chen left TechCrunch and joined The Verge as a staff writer"

When a contact moves, the agent marks the old link as ended and creates a new one. This preserves the history — you can see everywhere a contact has worked.

Freelancers ​

Some contacts write for multiple outlets. Mark them as freelancers:

"Mark Sarah Chen as a freelancer"

"Add a freelance journalist: Lisa Park. She writes for TechCrunch, Wired, and The Verge."

Freelancers can have active links to multiple outlets simultaneously.

Updating contact information ​

"Update Sarah Chen's title to 'Senior Technology Reporter'"

"Add Sarah Chen's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarahchen"

"Update Sarah's preferences: prefers email over phone, best reached Tuesday-Thursday mornings"

Getting a contact's full picture ​

"Give me a full background on Sarah Chen"

The contact_background tool pulls together everything: their outlets, opportunities, coverage, emails, and notes — giving you the complete relationship history.

Searching for contacts ​

"Find all contacts at Forbes"

"Search for contacts who cover AI"

"List all freelance contacts"

Tips ​

  • Search before creating. Always check if a contact or outlet already exists to avoid duplicates. Your agent will typically do this automatically, but it helps to be aware.
  • Keep it current. When you learn that a contact has moved outlets or changed roles, tell your agent right away.
  • Use the background tools. Before pitching someone, ask for their full background to see your entire history with them.
  • Add notes for context. After a call or meeting with a contact, log a note so the history is captured. See the Notes guide for details.