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Getting Started with Search in Muck Rack
Getting Started with Search in Muck Rack

Explore search types, filter preferences, sorting options, and how to leverage Saved Searches in Muck Rack.

Nick Lemen avatar
Written by Nick Lemen
Updated over 2 weeks ago
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With Muck Rack's Search, easily explore articles, media outlets, journalists, and broadcasts to gain valuable insights on topics, industries, or events. Use search types like People, Articles, Media Outlet, and Broadcast to support your projects. Access up to 5 years of historical data to inform strategies and track changes over time.

Learn More in Muck Rack Academy

You can learn all about Searching by taking the Searching on Muck Rack course at Muck Rack Academy.


Search Types in Muck Rack

People Search

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Find the most relevant press contacts for each campaign with People Search.

When you complete a People Search, our system scans each journalist profile in our global database for mentions of the keywords you’ve entered, whether it’s located in their bio, the titles of their recent articles, or recent tweets they’ve published.

Article Search

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Use Article Search to easily find coverage on your brand, competitors, products, spokespeople, phrases or keywords.

Our system scans each article in our global database for mentions of the keywords you’ve entered, whether it’s located in the article headline or body.

Media Outlet Search

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With Media Outlet search, you can discover outlets by criteria such as location, name, keywords and more. From there, you can view outlet descriptions and metrics, people at an outlet and the articles they’ve published.

Broadcast Search

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The Broadcast Search feature enables you to search for broadcast content, including television and radio. You can search by date range, locations, networks, programs, and more to discover relevant broadcast content and gain insights into media appearances, interviews, or news coverage.

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

Print Search

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You can access print content by going to Article Search and selecting the Article (Print) Content Type.

Muck Rack enables you to search, monitor, and measure the impact of print coverage you care about—be it your brand, competitors, products, spokespeople, phrases, or keywords. We partner with LexisNexis to give you access to print coverage in their database directly within your Muck Rack account.

NOTE: While searching for print content comes at no extra cost, access to the text of print articles can be purchased as an additional add-on with your Muck Rack subscription. Without the add-on, articles from LexisNexis will include the title only.

To learn more about obtaining access to full text, please contact your dedicated Muck Rack Customer Success Manager or select the chat widget in the bottom right-hand corner for support.

⚠️ Important: Starting March 31st, 2025, LexisNexis print snippets will no longer be included in our packages due to changes in publisher licensing requirements. Instead, LexisNexis will be available as an Add-On for all packages. To support publishers and their license requirements, we're no longer able to include the content unless you purchase the print add-on.

Shows an example of a print snippet for a LexisNexis article that appears in article search results

Previously, print snippets (above) could be viewed across all packages, and will now require the LexisNexis add-on.


Configure Search Preferences

Muck Rack search offers many different filters and it can be time-consuming to manually enter the same filters for every new search you run. Using Search Preferences you can define your preferred default search filter settings for new searches.

  1. Select Search preferences from above the Advanced Search tool, or navigate to Settings > Search preferences.

    Shows the 'Settings' page with the 'Search preferences' section circled in red
    Shows the 'Search preferences' link above the Search bar

  2. Configure your filters to your preference, then select the Save button at the bottom.

    Shows the 'Search preferences' panel that appears when you select 'Search preferences' from above the search tool with the 'Save' button circled in red

NOTE: When setting up Search Preferences from the search page, you may check the "Apply immediately" box to clear any previous filter selections and apply the defaults you just set up.

Shows a close up of the 'Apply immediately' checkbox next to the 'Cancel' and 'Save' buttons at the bottom


Boolean Search in Muck Rack

Boolean search combines keywords and operators to refine online searches and get more accurate results. The three basic operators used in boolean search are "AND," "OR," and "NOT," but there are more operators in advanced iterations.

Example of a keyword search:

Tesla

Example of a Boolean search:

Tesla AND CEO

Thumbnail of the Boolean Quick Reference Guide


Download our Boolean Quick Reference Guide for a full list of available operators, modifiers, and tips.

We recommend using filters as much as possible first, reviewing your initial search results, then adjusting your Boolean search string to further refine your results as needed.

Learn More About Boolean

Want to learn more about Boolean search? Check out our dedicated article on Boolean Search or take the Become a Boolean Expert course, which provides hands-on search education.


Search Filter Guide

If you come across a filter within search that you don't understand, use this guide to see how each filter functions. Filters have been listed in alphabetical order.

Filter

Function

Article Topics

Muck Rack will automatically analyze the text of an article, determine what it is about, and assign up to 4 Topics to that article.

You can then use the new Article Topics filters to include some, all, or none of the topics you see in your Article Search results.

Appears in: Article Search

Beats

Filter journalists based on the specific topics or industries they cover.

Appears in: People Search

Bios and Titles

By enabling this filter, the search results will only include journalists who have written blogs or articles with the specified terms in their titles. This filter allows users to target journalists who have created content specifically related to the keywords or topics of interest.

Appears in: People Search

Content Types

Allows you to filter results based on the specific type of content.

  • For Articles, this includes online or print

  • For Broadcast, this includes Radio or Television

Appears in: Article Search, Broadcast Search

Contributed Content

Allows you to specify whether your results should include media outlets that accept or do not accept contributors.

Appears in: Media Outlet Search

Date Range

Allows you to select a specific timeframe within which you want to search for articles. You can search up to 5 years.

Appears in: Article Search, People Search, Broadcast Search

Domain Authority

Only shows results from media outlets that have been given a Domain Authority score within the specified range (as provided by Moz).

Appears in: Article Search, Media Outlet Search

Domains

Search for articles from specific website domains. You can enter domain names related to specific websites to find articles published on those websites or from related sources. This filter helps You focus your search on articles from preferred domains or sources.

Appears in: Article Search

Frequency

Filter results based on how frequently a Media Outlet publishes content (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).

Appears in: Media Outlet Search

Languages / Article Languages

Search for results with articles written in specific languages. You can select one or multiple languages to refine Your search.

Appears in: Article Search, People Search, Media Outlet Search

Locations

Allows you to search for articles based on geographic location.

Appears in: Article Search, People Search, Media Outlet Search, Broadcast Search

Markets

Narrow down results by specifying a particular geographic area based on the location of a media outlet.

Appears in: Article Search, People Search, Media Outlet Search

Media Lists

Enables you to search for articles or people only from the specified media list.

Appears in: Article Search, People Search

Media Outlets

Enables you to search for articles or people specifically from selected media outlets. You can choose specific media outlets or a combination of outlets to narrow down the search results to articles published by those particular sources.

Appears in: Article Search, People Search

Media Outlet Types

Filter articles based on the type of media outlet they are published in. You can select specific outlet types, such as newspapers, magazines, online publications, or broadcast outlets, to refine your search results according to your preferences.

Appears in: Article Search, People Search, Media Outlet Search

Must Appear In

Allows you to specify where your search terms must appear.

  • For Articles, you can specify whether terms appear in the Headline or Article body

  • For People, you can specify whether terms appear in their Name, Bio or title, Posts on X, Shared articles, Bylined articles, or Headlines

  • For Media Outlets, you can specify whether terms appear in the Name or Description of the outlet

Appears in: Article Search, People Search, Media Outlet Search

Outlet Lists

Enables you to search for articles or people only from the specified outlet list.

Appears in: Article Search, People Search

Scopes

Search for articles within specific areas or scopes of expertise. Like the "Scopes" filter in People Search, this filter helps you find articles that cover particular topics or industries of interest.

Appears in: Article Search, People Search, Media Outlet Search

Verification

Filters results based on verification status.

  • Verified articles have been independently fact-checked or vetted by reputable sources.

  • Verified journalists and media outlets are those who meet Muck Rack's criteria.

Appears in: Article Search, People Search, Media Outlet Search


Sorting Options

From your search results page, you will have multiple options to sort your results, depending on which tab you are currently using.

A dropdown box appears in the top right-hand corner of the results with the option "Relevancy" shown

Outlet Search Sorting Options

Search Sorting Option

Definition

Relevancy

Your results will default to Relevancy. This shows media outlets most relevant to your search terms and criteria. Your terms will match the keywords in the media outlet's bio details or title.

Outlet Rank

Outlet Rank displays media outlets that work for top tier publications first. Outlet Rank is based on UVM (Unique Visitors Per Month). Read more about UVM in Muck Rack here. Data provided by Similarweb.

Name

Sorts your search in ascending or descending order alphabetically by the media outlet's name.

People Search Sorting Options

Search Sorting Option

Definition

Relevancy

Your results will default to Relevancy. This shows the journalist contacts most relevant to your search determined by a combination of prominence, recency, and domain authority.

Recency

Recency displays every matching result in reverse chronological order, with the most recent results on top.

Note: Because this sorting option displays each matching result individually, it is likely that a Recency search will display the same contact more than once in the results because they may have written multiple articles matching your search.

Outlet Rank

Outlet Rank displays media outlets that work for top tier publications first. Outlet Rank is based on UVM (Unique Visitors Per Month). Read more about UVM in Muck Rack here. Data provided by Similarweb.

Name

Sorts your search in ascending or descending order alphabetically by the journalist's last name.

Article Search Sorting Options

Search Sorting Option

Definition

Relevancy

This will sort coverage using a combination of prominence, recency, and domain authority to determine the most relevant results.

Recency

This will sort coverage in reverse chronological order with the most recent articles appearing at the top.

Prominence

Articles are sorted by the number of search term mentions in proportion to the volume of the article text.


Saved Searches

Saved Search allows you to save and refer back to search queries you use regularly. Saved Search will save keywords, Boolean Search, and filters in a search, allowing you to run that search again without requiring you to type the search details.

From any search results page, select the Save icon in the Search bar or the "Save Search" button on the action bar just above the results.

Shows the search results page with the 'Save Search' buttons circled in red

NOTE: A green banner will appear to confirm your search has been saved.


Find A Saved Search

You can find saved searches in various places within Muck Rack:

  1. On the Welcome to Muck Rack page.

    Shows the Muck Rack home page with 'Saved Searches' circled in red above the Search section

  2. Above the search bar on the results page.

    Shows the 'Saved Searches' option circled in red above the search bar on the search results page


  3. After selecting the search bar at the top.

    Shows the 'Saved Searches' option at the top of the persistent search bar


  4. By selecting Media Database > Saved Searches from the navigation bar.

    Shows the 'Media Database' dropdown menu expanded with the 'Saved Searches' option circled in red


​You can select Saved Searches in any of these locations to enter your Saved Search library and make edits and adjustments.



View and Edit Saved Searches

The Saved Searches section in Muck Rack allows you to review, edit, and sort your saved searches. This is beneficial if you are regularly repeating multiple searches and need to reference them for different subjects.

Shows the 'Saved Searches' page

Edit a Saved Search

Hover over the Saved Search name to reveal and select the Edit button. You can then edit all search elements, including keywords and filters.

Shows a cursor hovering over a Saved Search on the Saved Searches page, an 'Edit' button appearing and then being selected, then an Edit Saved Search page opening



Organize Saved Searches

Saved search folders allow you to group related saved searches. You can easily access and review saved searches, saving time and effort manually searching for specific topics or keywords.

  1. From the Saved Searches page, select Create Folder in the top left corner of the side menu.

    Shows the Saved Searches page with the 'Create Folder' button highlighted


  2. Enter a name, choose permissions, and select Save at the bottom.

    Shows the Saved Searches page with the 'Create Folder' slide-out menu expanded


  3. You can revisit folders on the lefthand side of the Saved Searches section at any time.

    Shows the Saved Searches page with folders highlighted


  4. Select the Saved Searches you'd like to move into the folder, then select Move to Folder from the action bar.

    Shows the Saved Searches page with several searches selected via checkmarks and a blue action bar at the top of the table with the 'Move to folder' button circled in red


Search Troubleshooting Tips

Issue

Solution

A paywall may be affecting my search results.

Muck Rack cannot track mentions behind a strict paywall that is only available to paid subscribers of the outlet. However, we can still monitor many mentions that occur in the content previews in less stringent paywalls. We also partner with some paywalled outlets to allow content to show.

My search for a journalist or media outlet didn't return any results.

If you're searching for a journalist or media outlet that returns the message "[name] did not return any results," select the button under this notification to contact the Muck Rack research team. Our team can help you find results and add any missing reporters or media outlets that meet our database criteria.

A journalist profile appears in Muck Rack but not in the Muck Rack platform.

Muck Rack's editorial team is responsible for filling in a selection of these profiles that meet our criteria so they appear on Muck Rack's curated platform. A smaller subset of these searchable profiles is set as verified.

This is why they may appear in one place and not the other. The quickest way to flag these profiles for review is by using the "Request update" button. Alternatively, you may start a new chat anywhere in Muck Rack or email us at support@muckrack.com.

Getting too many Newswires or Press Aggregators in your search results.

Within your search filters, select the "Exclude" checkbox under the Media Outlets filter, then use the dropdown to select 'Newswire/News Agency' and 'Press Release/News Aggregator.'

Another way you can exclude these results is by adding the following NOT operator string to your search:

NOT (Q1 OR Q2 OR Q3 OR Q4 OR NASDAQ OR earnings OR stock* OR "market research" OR NYSE OR PRNewswire OR Businesswire OR “Business Wire” OR marketwired OR newswire OR globenewswire OR PRweb OR ereleases)

If you still notice certain outlets trickling through, you can exclude those specific outlets with the 'Exclude Media Outlets' filter or by adding them to the NOT section of your search string.

I keep getting results that have nothing to do with my industry. How can I exclude these?

Depending on the industry your business operates within, you may find that there are often articles included in your monitoring and reporting that are not relevant to the coverage you need.

The best way to exclude irrelevant results is by first looking at the Topics that get assigned to the Articles in your results. Topics appear just below the article snippet.

Shows an article result with 4 Topics tagged shown at the bottom

You can then leverage the "None of these" filter under Article Topics to exclude any articles tagged with that topic.

Shows the Article Topics filters in the Filter menu



If you still see irrelevant results, you may consider adding some of the following keywords to a NOT string in your Boolean query:

Sports/Athletic News

(athletic* OR baseball OR softball OR football OR soccer OR hockey OR swim* OR volleyball OR basketball OR “insert team mascot here” OR lacrosse OR “track and field” OR “cross country” OR golf OR championship OR tournament)

Obituaries

(obit* OR “passed away” OR “died from” OR “died of” OR “died at” OR "departed this life")

Promo Codes/Coupons

(“promo code” OR “promo codes” OR “on sale” OR “coupon code” OR promotion OR discount*)

Financial/Stock News

(Q1 OR Q2 OR Q3 OR Q4 OR NASDAQ OR earnings OR stock* OR "market research" OR NYSE)

Press Releases

(PRNewswire OR Businesswire OR “Business Wire” OR marketwired OR newswire OR globenewswire OR PRweb OR ereleases)

Crime

(“was shot” OR shooting* OR stab* OR wounded OR “hit and run” OR kidnap* OR murder* OR homicide OR police) 

Commercials (Broadcast search):

(“sponsored by” OR “brought to you by”) 


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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