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Introduction to Coverage Reports

What they are, how to use them, and more!

Sara Sorenson avatar
Written by Sara Sorenson
Updated over 2 months ago

Introduction to Coverage Reports

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What is a Coverage Report?

A Coverage Report in Muck Rack is a customizable, data-rich report that showcases the media coverage you've earned for your brand or clients. It allows you to visually demonstrate the impact of your efforts by highlighting key metrics such as reach, engagement, publication details, and sentiment analysis.

By consolidating media mentions and interactions into a single, easy-to-digest format, these reports help you gain valuable insights into your brand's visibility, reach, and overall reputation in the media landscape.

Muck Rack Academy Essentials

You can learn all about Coverage Reports by taking the Coverage Report course in the Muck Rack Academy.


Navigating a Coverage Report

When you access a coverage report, the Article Overview section will provide visual data on your report. Watch the video below or continue reading to learn more about these topics.

Coverage Report Tabs

Select each item listed below to view a preview and description of each tab available within a Coverage Report.

Coverage Report Tab

Description

Article Overview

thumbnail of the Article Overview tab in a Coverage Report

In the Article Overview tab, you'll see top-level metrics for the set of coverage. Included at the top of every report are several engagement metrics.

Articles

thumbnail of the Articles tab in a Coverage Report

The Articles tab is the central place to view the individual articles that make up your report. Every Coverage Report will be created with a set of default columns which can be customized to fit your needs.

Clips
(Broadcast subscribers only)

thumbnail of the Clips tab in a Coverage Report

The Clips tab provides access and analysis of Broadcast Clips added to your Coverage Report.

NOTE: Access to Broadcast Clips is a paid add-on feature. To get Broadcast added to your Muck Rack account, contact your Customer Success Manager via Email, or contact Support.


What Metrics are included in a Coverage Report?

Muck Rack offers various types of data points, KPIs, and metrics to make it easy to quantify your PR campaigns. For a full list of the data that can be seen or added to Coverage Reports, see our guide below.

Overview Tab Metrics

Below is a list of all metrics that may appear within the Overview Tab of a Coverage Report and the description for those metrics.

Shows an example Coverage Report with the Article Overview tab selected

Metric

Description

Total engagement

The number of times a link was shared, commented on, or liked on social media networks tracked by Muck Rack. Currently, social data is available for the following social networks:

  • Facebook

  • Pinterest

  • Journalist shares on X (Twitter)

Average engagement

Total engagement divided by the number of links in a Coverage Report.

Journalist Shares

The total number of journalists who have shared a link on X (Twitter). This metric is used to provide insight into how many times a story has been amplified by the most credible, influential sources, journalists.

Journalist Reach

The cumulative number of X (Twitter) followers the journalists who tweeted the link have. This metric is used to measure journalists’ personal circulation on X (Twitter).

Average UVM (Unique Visitors per Month)

The average of the sum of unique devices visiting each publication’s domain in a month, divided by the number of total articles, over your selected time frame.

Total UVM (SimilarWeb’s UVM)

The sum of unique devices visiting this publication's domain in a month. The Total UVM is the UVM of each media outlet in the current view, added up per media outlet article. If there is more than one link included from the same outlet, this will be counted into the total UVM.

Total AVE

The total estimated monetary value of articles in the report based on each Media Outlet's popularity.

Learn more about Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) in Coverage Reports in our dedicated article.

Top Topics

The top 10 topics for a set of coverage and the number of articles for each, sorted by the topics with the most coverage.

You can learn more about Reporting on Topics in our dedicated article.

NOTE: Topics will only appear in Coverage Reports for those with a Premier subscription. Please contact your Customer Success Manager if you would like to upgrade your subscription. (View available plans)

Topics Breakdown

This widget is a pie chart that defaults to showing the breakdown of all topics for the coverage based on the number of articles where that topic is mentioned.

You can select wedges to drill into topics and see articles attached to a specific topic or subtopic.

You can learn more about Reporting on Topics in our dedicated article.

NOTE: Topics will only appear in Coverage Reports for those with a Premier subscription. Please contact your Customer Success Manager if you would like to upgrade your subscription. (View available plans)

Sentiment

The classification of tone of an article, which may be positive, negative, or neutral, shown in a pie chart.


Articles Tab Metrics

Below is a list of all metrics that may appear within the Articles Tab of a Coverage Report and the description for those metrics.

Shows the Articles Tab of a Coverage Report with the Edit Columns panel highlighted, showing the available metrics

Article Data

Metric

Description

Content Type

Denotes if the article is online or in print.

Language

The automatically identified language the article is written in.

Sentiment

The classification of tone of an article, which may be positive, negative, or neutral.

Pitch Placement

Denotes the pitch that helped generate your coverage.

Clip Data

Metric

Description

Media Type

Whether the clip is from television, radio, etc.

National and Local Audience

The number of people that have viewed this clip based on Neilsen ratings.

The local audience number that you see on broadcast coverage refers to the number of individuals watching a program in a designated market area. The national audience number is a measure of who is watching the program nationwide and not in the specific market area where the affiliate station airs coverage.

National and Local Ad Value

The estimated monetary value of the clip based on the national audience, and media outlet's popularity. Learn more about how this is calculated in our Broadcast Clips article.

Station and Network

The clip's station and network of origin.

Location

The local origin of the clip.

Date Aired

The original date the clip aired on its station.

Media Outlet Data

Metric

Description

Audience

The total print distribution for the media outlet.

Scope

The range and type of audience the media outlet creates content for.

Location

The primary location for the media outlet that published a link.

Media Market

A region where the population is likely to view content from the media outlet.

Advertising value equivalency (AVE)

A media outlet’s default AVE in Muck Rack is calculated using the industry standard formula of a Media Outlet’s SimilarWeb UVM x .025 x $0.37.

Learn more about AVE in Muck Rack in our Academy resources.

Insights by SimilarWeb

Metric

Description

Unique Visitors per Month (UVM)

The sum of unique devices visiting this publication's domain in a month. Insights by SimilarWeb. The Total UVM is the UVM of each media outlet in the current view, added up per media outlet article. If there is more than one link included from the same outlet, this will be counted into the total UVM.

Average Visit Duration

The average amount of time spent on the site's domain. Insights by SimilarWeb.

Global Rank

A website’s relative size globally, calculated by combining the unique monthly visitors with the number of page views across desktop and mobile traffic. Insights by SimilarWeb.

Pages Per Visit

The average pages per visit to the outlet's domain. Insightsby SimilarWeb.

Total Visits

The sum of all visits per month to the media outlet's domain. Insights by SimilarWeb.

Data provided by Comscore

Metric

Description

Unique Visitors per Month (UVM)

The number of unique people who visited this publication’s domain in a month, provided by Comscore.

Data provided by Moz

Metric

Description

Domain Authority

A score (0-100) that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines, provided by Moz.

Page Authority

A score (0-100) that predicts how well a specific page will rank on search engine result pages.

Spam Score

A score that represents the percentage of sites with similar features to the site you’re researching which we've found to be penalized or banned by Google. Learn more about what percentages mean on the Moz website.

Social Engagement Data

Metric

Description

Journalist Shares

The total number of journalists who have shared a link on X (Twitter). This metric is used to provide insight into how many times a story has been amplified by the most credible, influential sources, journalists.

Journalist Reach

The cumulative number of X (Twitter) followers the journalists who tweeted the link have. This metric is used to measure journalists’ personal circulation on X (Twitter).

Total engagement

The number of times a link was shared, commented on or liked on social media networks tracked by Muck Rack. Currently, social data is available for the following social networks:

  • Facebook

  • Pinterest

  • Journalist shares on X (Twitter)

Facebook engagement

The total number of reactions, comments and shares for a link on Facebook.

Pinterest engagement

The total number of times a link has been pinned on Pinterest.

NOTE: For the above metrics to appear on the Articles tab table, you will need to enable the appropriate columns using the Edit Columns panel.

Shows the Edit Columns panel being used in a Coverage Report


Clips Tab Metrics

Below is a list of all metrics that may appear within the Clips Tab of a Coverage Report and the description for those metrics.

Shows the Clips tab of a Coverage Report

Metric

Description

Media Type

Whether the clip is from television, radio, etc.

National and Local Audience

The number of people that have viewed this clip based on Neilsen ratings.

The local audience number that you see on broadcast coverage refers to the number of individuals watching a program in a designated market area. The national audience number is a measure of who is watching the program nationwide and not in the specific market area where the affiliate station airs coverage.

National and Local Ad Value

The estimated monetary value of the clip based on the national audience, and media outlet's popularity. Learn more about how this is calculated in our Broadcast Clips article.

Station and Network

The clip's station and network of origin.

Location

The local origin of the clip.

Date Aired

The original date the clip aired on its station.

Broadcast is an Add-On Feature

Access to Broadcast Clips is a paid add-on feature; please contact your Customer Success Manager if you would like to upgrade your subscription.


Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Question

Answer

How can I merge Coverage Reports?

While you technically can't merge two Coverage Reports, you can select articles from one existing Coverage Report and add them to another.

To do so, select the desired articles within a report and use the 'Add to Coverage Reports' option in the blue action menu that appears.

Shows articles being selected within a Coverage Report and added to another Coverage Report

What if UVM isn’t available for a media outlet?

If available, the Unique Visitors per Month (UVM) for a media outlet will be displayed directly on its profile page. A media outlet that does not have UVM will display N/A, signifying that the data isn’t currently available from Comscore or SimilarWeb.

Media outlets are automatically updated when any new or additional UVM data is available, so you always have the most up-to-date information we’re able to provide.

How do I turn on AVE (Advertising Value Equivalency) in my Coverage Report?

You can turn on the AVE (Advertising Value Equivalency) under the filters on the left-hand side of the Articles tab of your Coverage Report. Under the "Media Outlet Data" section, toggle on the AVE:

Shows the 'Media Outlet Data' section under 'Edit Columns' with a red arrow pointing to the 'OFF' toggle next to 'AVE'

This will display AVE for individual articles on the Articles tab and an overall metric on the Overview tab. You can learn more about AVE in reporting here: Enabling and Configuring AVE in Coverage Reports.

How do Coverage Report Spike Notifications work?

The algorithm works by analyzing user-curated Coverage Reports, checking for deviations from normal coverage levels, and sending an email if it's significantly higher than usual, all within 24 hours.

Learn more about Coverage Report Spike Notifications in our dedicated article.

If an article is Print only and I do not have a subscription to LexisNexis, will I still be able to see the estimated reach for the outlet?

Yes - when you add the print story to a coverage report, you will see "Audience" populated from LexisNexis even if you don't pay for the add-on. That's the print distribution of the outlet.

You could also see that print distribution number from LexisNexis on a media outlet page listed as "Audience" under Media Outlet Details, without the need to create a Coverage Report.


Additional Resources

Learn more about Coverage Reports via these helpful resources:

Resource

Description

Case Studies

Read about how some of our customers have leveraged Coverage Reports:

Best Practice Guide

Check out our downloadable ebook for tips on using AVE in Coverage Reports:

Academy Courses, Webinars, and Videos

See Muck Rack Academy's catalog for more opportunities to learn about Coverage Reports and how they can be used.


Get Help

For additional help, contact support by choosing the chat icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen and selecting Messages > Send us a message.


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