Muck Rack and HERO Partner to Connect Journalists and PR Professionals

Muck Rack, the company that enables organizations to build trust, tell their stories and demonstrate the unique value of earned media through its public relations management platform, and Help Every Reporter Out (HERO), the platform founded by Peter Shankman that makes it easy for journalists and sources to connect, announced today that they have partnered to help journalists and PR professionals tell their stories.

Through the partnership, HERO will integrate journalist profiles from Muck Rack's industry-leading media database into its daily emails to subscribers, allowing PR professionals to easily research a querying journalist with one click.

HERO launched to great fanfare in late April gaining 15k+ subscribers within the first week. Free for users, HERO sends subscribers up to three emails a day featuring queries from journalists from various media outlets. If a source is or represents someone knowledgeable about a query, they may reply directly to the source with the potential to participate in the story.

Muck Rack's database indexes hundreds of millions of data points on journalists and media outlets across digital, broadcast, print, podcasts and podcasters, newsletters and social media, adding an extra layer of information to HERO queries. Access to this real time data can help journalists share more information about themselves and their work, which will empower PR professionals to send better, more targeted pitches more likely to result in coverage.

Muck Rack has a long-standing manual verification process conducted by its editorial team, in which journalists and outlets are vetted against its strict set of criteria. Queries from Muck Rack-verified journalists will be prioritized at the top of every HERO issue, signaling that those journalists are legitimate.

"My goal is to help businesses get the press they're looking for and for journalists to get the sources they need when they're being asked to do so much more with so much less," said Peter Shankman, founder of HERO. "Muck Rack profiles on HERO will allow sources to be able to know that they're dealing with an actual reporter, guaranteeing the integrity of the query."

Greg Galant, cofounder and CEO of Muck Rack added, "The more content there is, and the more new technologies like AI emerge, the more crucial it is to know if that content was created by a credible journalist for a credible publication. It's our aim to foster trust and build relationships between journalists and PR professionals, and we could think of no better partner than Peter and HERO to leverage Muck Rack verification."

In time, Muck Rack will index HERO queries on its platform, alerting Muck Rack customers when one of their contacts has an active HERO query. The partnership is the first of a number of new feature enhancements coming to the journalist experience on Muck Rack.

Founded as a journalist resource, Muck Rack has committed to providing journalists with free tools forever, to help them showcase their portfolios, analyze news about any topic and measure the impact of their stories. Verified journalists are able to search for other journalists and outlets, set alerts when their stories are picked up or shared, and track stories and Tweets about any company, brand, story angle and more. To ensure the integrity of its listings, Muck Rack's editors review all verification requests and vet them against its strict criteria.

About HERO

Launched in April of 2024 by serial entrepreneur Peter Shankman, HERO has quickly become the goto source repository for journalists on deadline around the world, and for businesses looking to gain attention from the media. Famous for its "no strikes" policy, HERO is designed to eliminate the friction between journalists and sources, by creating a trusted space for both to find the benefits of working together in a seamless environment. Always and forever free, sources and reporters can sign up for HERO emails at helpeveryreporter.com.

About Muck Rack

Muck Rack enables organizations to build trust, tell their stories and demonstrate the unique value of earned media. The only public relations management platform powered by intuitive technology and the most accurate, comprehensive data provided by journalists themselves, Muck Rack combines media database, monitoring and reporting for seamless team collaboration, pitching and measurement. Purpose-built for communications and public relations, Muck Rack helps more than 5,000 companies worldwide analyze and report on the impact of their media relations. Thousands of journalists use Muck Rack's free tools to showcase their portfolios, analyze news about any topic and measure the impact of their stories. Learn more at muckrack.com.

We're Hiring!