Cold outreach to Media & publishing companies
The buyer is a content director at a media company, measured primarily on audience engagement metrics. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a deep understanding of their editorial calendar and how your solution can enhance content distribution or audience retention during key publishing cycles.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 563 media & publishing company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- declining audience engagement
- challenges in content monetization
- increasing competition for attention
- difficulty in reaching target demographics
The playbook
- 01
Identify upcoming editorial themes
Research the publisher's editorial calendar for the next quarter. Use tools like BuzzSumo or their website to pinpoint themes or topics they are focusing on. This allows you to tailor your outreach to align with their upcoming content needs.
- 02
Analyze audience engagement data
Look for recent engagement metrics shared by the publisher, such as spikes in website traffic or social media interaction. Use platforms like SimilarWeb to gather data on audience behavior. Mention these insights in your outreach to demonstrate relevance.
- 03
Pinpoint recent industry challenges
Identify challenges the media industry is currently facing, such as declining ad revenues or shifts in audience consumption habits. Reference these pain points in your outreach to show that you understand the pressures they are under.
- 04
Craft a value-driven message
Create a message that highlights how your solution can help them improve content distribution or audience retention. Focus on specific pain points like subscriber churn or content visibility, and present clear benefits that resonate with their goals.
- 05
Follow up with timely insights
If you don't receive a response, follow up after a week with a relevant industry insight or a recent case study that aligns with their editorial focus. This shows persistence and positions you as a knowledgeable resource rather than just a salesperson.
Can media & publishing companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 563 media & publishing companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 24.2% of 1–10-person companies against 82.9% of the largest — 59 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Boost your audience engagement
- Insights for your next editorial cycle
- Navigating media challenges together
Questions
- Why do content directors ignore cold outreach?
- Content directors often receive numerous unsolicited emails and may prioritize messages that directly relate to their current projects or challenges. If your outreach doesn't align with their immediate goals or lacks personalization, it may be overlooked.
- What topics resonate most with media buyers?
- Media buyers typically respond well to topics like audience growth strategies, innovative content distribution methods, and tools that enhance reader engagement. Tailoring your message to address these areas can increase your chances of a response.
- How can I effectively research a media company's needs?
- Effective research involves analyzing their recent articles, audience engagement statistics, and any public statements about their strategic goals. Utilize social media and industry reports to gather insights that can inform your outreach.
- What common objections do content directors have?
- Content directors often cite budget constraints, lack of time to evaluate new solutions, or satisfaction with current processes as common objections. Addressing these concerns upfront in your outreach can help mitigate resistance.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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