Newswire’s media database is one of the platform’s most important tools, helping businesses connect their press releases with journalists who cover relevant topics. However, the legacy system had fallen behind user expectations. The database struggled to surface real-time journalist data, lacked modern search capabilities, and required users to spend too much time sorting through irrelevant contacts.
Working closely with product and engineering teams, we rebuilt the media database from the ground up using a Lean UX and Agile development process. The redesign introduced AI-powered recommendations, intelligent filtering, and a streamlined interface that helps users quickly identify the right journalists for their stories.
Newswire wanted to introduce a powerful new backend capable of pulling in real-time journalist data and leveraging AI to recommend relevant media contacts. At the same time, the user experience needed a complete redesign.The challenge was to create a product that balanced powerful search capabilities for experienced PR professionals while remaining intuitive for small business owners and first-time users who may not fully understand the media outreach process.The new experience needed to dramatically improve search efficiency while making the process of identifying the right journalists faster and more accessible.
User research and stakeholder interviews with PR professionals, small business owners, and Newswire’s support team revealed several critical issues:
Users spent significant time searching through irrelevant journalist contacts. The interface lacked intuitive navigation and modern search toolsTwo distinct user types needed to be served: beginners and experienced PR professionalsBeginners lacked guidance on how to conduct effective media outreach. Many simple usability improvements—like quick filters, smart defaults, and contact previews—were missing. Because media outreach is highly competitive, the longer it took users to find the right journalist, the less effective the platform became.
Using Lean UX methodology, our team collaborated closely with product managers and engineers to rapidly prototype and test improvements. Key elements of the approach included: design sprints to quickly prototype new search and filtering workflows; introducing smart filters allowing users to search journalists by publication, beat, region; and article history; designing a simplified interface that surfaces relevant contacts quickly; and implementing continuous feedback loops through user testing and stakeholder reviews. This iterative process allowed us to refine the product quickly while ensuring the solution addressed real user needs.
The redesigned media database introduced a modern discovery experience built around speed, relevance, and ease of use. AI-powered recommendations analyze press release content to suggest relevant journalists, helping users identify the right contacts faster. Intelligent filters allow users to quickly narrow results by publication, beat, region, and article history. To support both beginners and experienced users, the interface combines guided discovery and smart defaults with powerful search tools and quick filtering options. This balance ensures new users can find relevant journalists without deep PR expertise, while experienced professionals can move quickly and efficiently through the platform.
The redesigned product connects journalist discovery, press release creation, and media outreach into a seamless workflow. The new media database allows users to quickly find relevant journalists using intelligent filters, AI-powered recommendations, and detailed journalist and publication profiles.An integrated articles database helps users understand what journalists are writing about, while business profiles ensure company information stays consistent across campaigns. To streamline the PR process even further, we dtroduced a generative AI press release writing tool and a Pitch Campaign workflow, allowing users to draft releases, select relevant journalists, and launch targeted outreach from a single platform.Together, these features transform Newswire from a simple contact database into a complete media outreach ecosyste.
Newswire serves both novice users learning media outreach and experienced PR professionals who needed speed. The redesign introduced guided recommendations and smart defaults for beginners, while powerful filters and fast search tools allow experienced users to quickly find the right journalists.
End-to-end experience for AImee, a new AI-powered writing and optimization tool embedded directly into the Newswire workflow—helping PR professionals generate, refine, and benchmark releases in minutes.
New campaign workflow that allows PR teams to build targeted journalist lists, personalize pitches, and manage outreach from a single interface—transforming one-off emails into organized media campaigns.
The original experience was a single search box and a hope. The redesign introduced intelligent scaffolding — pre-selected smart filters, quick-access categories, and targeted filtering by media type, name, role, and topic — so users land somewhere meaningful instead of starting from nothing.
This project demonstrated the design team’s value in delivering a solution that directly aligned with business goals, improved user engagement, and maximized the platform’s impact on its target audience.
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