What is Sam Whitmore Media Survey (mediasurvey.com)?

Updated

Sam Whitmore Media Survey (SWMS) is a research and analysis publication for technology PR professionals, running since 1998 and currently describing itself as "Tech Media Intelligence for the AI Era." It interviews business and technology editors, analyzes published work, and packages the results into advice aimed at helping PR people pitch more effectively and land coverage. If you work in tech communications and want to understand how editors actually think, this is the kind of resource the site positions itself as; if you're looking for general news or a consumer tech publication, it isn't that.

What the site actually publishes

The homepage organizes content into a few recurring categories, each with a distinct purpose:

  • Research — empirical looks at specific publications. A current example is the "SWMS Audit" series, which the site describes as an ongoing feature "to help you see a publication empirically, the way it actually is." The first entry covers VentureBeat.
  • Influencers — short interviews with journalists, often framed as "Out of the Gate" pieces with people such as Cade Metz (NYT), Erin Woo (WSJ), Micah Barkley (Bloomberg), and Alex Eichenstein (The Information).
  • Cheat Sheets — reference lists of targets and contacts. Recent examples include CEO/leadership podcasts, CEO profiles, Yahoo Finance producers and hosts, CNBC producers, cybersecurity podcasts, quantum computing targets, and "Gatekeepers."
  • Strategies and PR — advice-oriented material for pitching and relationship-building.
  • Contributed Content, Interviews, and Events — additional formats listed in the site's navigation.

Who it's for

The stated audience is tech PR pros. The content assumes you already know the beat and want tactical help: which producers to contact, which editors are newly in role, which topics are heating up. The cheat sheets are explicitly framed that way — for instance, the "User Organizations" sheet notes it doesn't identify edit targets per se but lists membership-driven organizations that "might welcome your research or access to inside knowledge."

A useful way to think about it: if your task is "find the right producer at CNBC" or "figure out which cybersecurity podcasts are worth pitching," a cheat sheet is the intended tool. If your task is "understand why an editor passed on my pitch," the interview and audit content is closer to the point.

How current is it, and what to expect

The material shown is dated through late 2026, with frequent updates — several cheat sheets carry "(updated)" labels and revision notes (e.g., "Scarcely any turnover from last year at this time" on the CNBC producers sheet). That cadence matters for PR work, since contact lists go stale quickly.

The site does not display pricing information or payment details in the material available, so whether full access requires a subscription isn't something that can be confirmed from the page itself. Treat access terms as something to verify directly rather than assume.

Practical takeaway

Use mediasurvey.com as a working reference for tech-media targeting: start with the cheat sheet closest to your beat, cross-check names against the dated update notes, and read the audit and influencer interviews when you need to understand a publication's actual interests rather than its stated coverage area. The value is in the specificity of the lists and the editor commentary, not in broad industry news.