, MatchPoint is the first search application that allows public relations professionals to find journalists based on their cumulative body of work. Users simply copy a press release, pitch letter or keywords into a search box. MatchPoint then searches a database of three million articles from 11,000 print publications, 25,000 Web sites and 10,000 bloggers to produce a weighted ranking of the most relevant journalists. Voila: fewer press releases sent to the wrong person.
MatchPoint is cool. If I were just starting out in public relations or trying to find receptive writers for a new product, it might be useful. Just plop in your press release and, like magic, out pops a list of journalists who, at least in theory, should be interested based on what they've written in the past.
However, results were uneven; As the site's FAQ warns, MatchPoint should be used to complement an existing contact database, and not be used as a primary tool.
I copied a few old news releases I had lying around in my in-box, each search producing a healthy list of 30 or more journalists, most of whom looked like good matches. However, accuracy was off in places. For instance, at one point I was listed as a writer for Network World, including an East Coast phone number and a circulation department's e-mail address. (Network World republishes my PC World stuff, but I live in California.) A bigger problem is that MatchPoint does not seem to deliver on the body-of-work promised. I inexplicably was missing from the results for "notebook computers," though I've been reviewing laptops for for the last 10 years.
Just for fun, I tried some other keywords. Not that Barack Obama needs more exposure, but MatchPoint recommends Dr. John Sullivan of Workforce Management Magazine. Huh? For green PCs: Karen Bemoski of Windows and .Net magazine in Colorado. I did get good results for "Facebook": Wailin Wong of the Chicago Tribune, who's done lots of Facebook articles and for an obviously desirable publication.
MatchPoint is free for the first 10 days. After that it costs US$65 a month for a single annual license covering two computers.