Media database statistics
The numbers, and when we checked them
Every figure Media List publishes about its own database comes from this page. It is generated from the live database rather than written by hand, so it cannot quietly go out of date. Each table states the exact set it counts, because three different scopes are easy to confuse.
Last checked November 11, 2026
Contacts by record type
Every published record that has an email address on file. The total is the sum of the types below, and the types are not the same size, which is why a single headline number tells you very little about whether your beat is covered.
| Record type | Contacts | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Podcasts | 1,224,657 | Guest spots and long interviews |
| YouTube channels | 189,908 | Reviews, demos and sponsored features |
| Journalists, editors and producers | 71,669 | News coverage and expert quotes |
| Newsletters | 28,885 | Niche audiences with high trust |
| Blogs | 28,583 | Reviews and ongoing coverage |
| Total | 1,543,702 |
US journalists by outlet type
US journalists, editors and producers who work for a news outlet, with the number of outlets behind them. Freelancers are counted separately, because a freelancer is not a newsroom and counting them as one distorts the shape. 40,100 people across 4,709 outlets.
| Outlet type | Journalists | Outlets |
|---|---|---|
| TV and radio | 18,065 | 947 |
| Newspapers | 8,961 | 1,230 |
| Online news | 7,654 | 1,341 |
| Trade publications | 3,355 | 909 |
| Magazines | 1,927 | 447 |
| 115 | 10 | |
| Tv | 22 | 6 |
| Radio | 1 | 1 |
TV and radio hold the most people because a station carries many producers, anchors and assignment editors. Newspapers hold the most outlets, because most of them are small.
US journalists by state
The ten states with the most US journalist records. 42,617 of the 71,669 journalist records are in the United States.
| State | Journalists |
|---|---|
| NY | 8,558 |
| CA | 3,540 |
| FL | 2,431 |
| DC | 2,136 |
| TX | 1,909 |
| VA | 1,431 |
| GA | 1,266 |
| MA | 1,135 |
| PA | 1,001 |
| IL | 968 |
The most common US beats
Each record can carry more than one topic tag, so these do not sum to the total. If your topic is small, use fewer filters, because a narrow beat plus a state plus an outlet type is how a search returns nothing.
| Beat tag | US journalists |
|---|---|
| News | 24,167 |
| Business | 4,221 |
| Film | 2,999 |
| Health | 2,245 |
| Technology | 1,340 |
| Sports | 1,307 |
| Science | 1,146 |
| Religion | 1,027 |
| Food | 934 |
| Arts | 827 |
How big a newsroom actually is
US news outlets by the number of journalists you can reach at them. The mental image of a newsroom as a floor of desks describes a small minority of the outlets that will ever cover you.
| Journalists at the outlet | Outlets | Share of outlets |
|---|---|---|
| 1 journalist | 2,027 | 43% |
| 2 to 4 | 1,396 | 29.6% |
| 5 to 9 | 528 | 11.2% |
| 10 to 24 | 415 | 8.8% |
| 25 or more | 343 | 7.3% |
What is on a record
Across all 71,669 journalist records. Every record has an email address, because a record without one is not sellable and is not counted anywhere on this page. The status is per contact, not a promise about the database as a whole.
| Email status | Share of records | What it means for a send |
|---|---|---|
| Verified | 63.5% | Send, and keep it in the A tier |
29.7% of journalist records also carry a phone number. It stays mostly unused, because in the 2025 State of the Media survey of more than 3,000 journalists, 85 percent said an email introduction is the best way to build a relationship.
Scope and method
Three scopes appear on this page and mixing them produces nonsense, so each table says which one it uses.
| Scope | What it counts | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| All contacts | Every published record with an email address, all types, all countries | The total and the type split |
| Journalist records | The 71,669 journalist, editor and producer records | Email status, phone coverage, state counts |
| US news outlets | US journalists at a news outlet, freelancers excluded | Outlet type and newsroom size |
The studies built on these numbers
Each one takes a single figure above and works out what it changes about building a media list.
- How many outlets have exactly one journalist you can reach
- How concentrated journalists are in the largest outlets
- Newsroom size against the quality of its contact data
- How much of a media database is confirmed deliverable
- Who is actually in a media database, by job title
- How many journalist records carry a phone number
- What a media database holds, and what it is for
- US journalists by state and beat
Search the database these numbers describe
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