Stop waiting to get picked on Featured. Pitch the journalists you choose, directly.
Featured (formerly Terkel) is a question-and-answer expert marketplace: publishers and journalists post questions, and you answer alongside every other expert who saw the same query, competing in a public queue for inclusion. It's a reactive game — you wait to be picked. Medialyst is the opposite motion: you find your own newsjacking opportunities and pitch any number of journalists directly, on your timeline. Proactive outbound vs. competing in a crowd.
The honest comparison.
Pulled from public Featured documentation, customer reviews, and our own product. We update this page when either side ships something new.
| Capability | Medialyst | Featured |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the right journalist | ||
| Find journalists for this story | ✓ Story-specific relevance scoring | ~ n/a — you answer questions, not find journalists |
| Understand a journalist's beat | ✓ Reads past articles + recent coverage | ✕ — you read the query, not the journalist's beat |
| Analyze past writing | ✓ Grounded in actual articles | ✕ Not available |
| Per-journalist pitch angles | ✓ Personalized angles + pitch drafts | ~ AI drafts your answer to a posted question |
| Data freshness | ✓ Live news article search in real time | ~ Inbound query feed (HARO/Connectively digests) |
| Refine a list with natural language | ✓ “Remove anyone inactive in 6 months” | ✕ Not available |
| Find more like top performers | ✓ “Find 20 more like the top 5” | ✕ Not available |
| Add custom enrichment columns | ✓ “Research if they use affiliate links” | ✕ Not available |
| Pitching & sending | ||
| Email verification | ✓ Multi-step verification waterfall | ~ n/a — marketplace, no contact data delivered |
| Send + track from one place | ✓ Built-in send + tracking | ~ Submit answers in-platform; no outbound send/track |
| Pricing & setup | ||
| Time to first pitch | ✓ Minutes | ~ Hours–days waiting for a relevant query to appear |
| Free trial | ✓ First list free | ~ Free tier (3 answers/mo) on Connectively |
| Contract | ✓ None — cancel anytime | ~ Monthly, cancel anytime |
| Price | ✓ from $149/mo | ~ $0–$99/mo (Connectively) |
| Agent-native workflows | ||
| API access | ✓ Public REST API | ~ Premium API (Business tier only) |
| Remote MCP support | ✓ Hosted remote MCP server | ✕ Not available |
| Agent-native workflows | ✓ Usable directly inside Claude, ChatGPT & Cursor | ✕ Not available |
| CSV import / re-enrichment from competitor exports | ✓ Upload any CSV — the agent re-verifies & re-scores | ~ n/a — no media list to upload |
Three reasons teams switch.
We're not trying to out-database Featured. We're trying to out-result them — by being more accurate, faster to act on, and honest about price.
A smaller list that actually replies.
Instead of a giant static database, Medialyst enriches journalists live and verifies every email in real time before it reaches you — global coverage across any outlet, journalist, or beat, researched for your story rather than pulled from a stale row.
From story to sent pitch in minutes.
Paste a release, a URL, or a topic. Medialyst proposes journalists, scores them 0–100 by fit, and drafts a tailored angle for each — no demo call, no contract, no multi-week onboarding.
Pricing on the website. Not in a sales deck.
Every plan and limit is public. Starter is $97/mo billed annually (or $149 month-to-month, cancel anytime) — and your first list is free: 300 credits, no credit card. No lock-in, no “let’s get on a call.”
Why people switch from Featured.
You're reacting, not reaching out
On Featured you wait for a publisher or journalist to post a question, then answer it. That's a fundamentally reactive motion — success depends on whether a relevant query happens to appear, and how fast you respond. Medialyst flips it: you find your own newsjacking opportunity, identify the journalists who'd cover it, and pitch them directly on your timeline. You're not waiting to be picked; you're making the first move.
Featured research — reverse-marketplace model ↗You're competing in a public queue
Every question on Featured is visible to every other expert who matches it. Popular queries — especially HARO-style ones — draw hundreds of pitches, and reviewers consistently flag low acceptance rates and the grind of monitoring and responding fast enough to be noticed. Medialyst removes the crowd entirely: when you find a story and pitch a journalist directly, you're not one of two hundred answers in a queue.
MentionAgent — HARO review 2026 (competition on queries) ↗No real media database, freshness, or verification
Featured's journalist-finding features live in its Business tier, but the platform doesn't publicly disclose database size, data freshness, or how (or whether) contacts are verified. Medialyst doesn't keep a static inventory at all — it enriches journalists live the moment you build a list, and every email is verified in real time before it's delivered to you, so you're pitching current people, not a row last touched months ago.
Featured research — undisclosed media database depth ↗Discovery isn't part of the job
Featured (and the new featured.com AI co-pilot it relaunched as on June 2, 2026) is built to surface inbound opportunities — journalist requests, podcast spots, speaking, awards, GEO — and help you respond. It does not help you proactively search for journalists by beat, outlet, or story. Medialyst owns that outbound lane: describe your announcement in plain language and the agent reads recent articles to find and score the reporters who'd actually write it.
GlobeNewswire — Featured AI co-pilot scope ↗Where Featured wins.
No tool is best at everything. Here's where Featured is genuinely strong — so you can decide honestly.
Genuinely good for getting quoted
If your goal is expert citations, bylined-article placements, and backlinks from authoritative outlets, Featured is legitimately useful. Major publications actively source through HARO and Featured's Q&A network, and for thought-leadership exposure and SEO link building the model works — that's a real, different job from proactive media outreach.
A low barrier into the Q&A model
Featured's Q&A platform (now Connectively) lets an expert start answering journalist queries for free — 3 answers a month plus HARO access, with paid plans running roughly $0–$99/mo. As a way to begin building credibility through inbound source requests, that's a genuinely low barrier — and a different on-ramp from proactive outreach, where Medialyst likewise starts free with your first list.
HARO brand and two-sided network
Featured acquired HARO from Cision in 2025, and the combined platform reports 100,000+ users, 2,500+ publisher partnerships, and over a million answers collected. That two-sided network — and HARO's 15-year brand recognition — means a steady supply of journalist queries flowing in, which is exactly what a reactive model needs.
Where Medialyst pulls ahead.
The flip side: here's where Medialyst is the stronger choice over Featured for finding and pitching the right journalists.
Proactive discovery, not a waiting game
Instead of waiting for a relevant question to land in a digest, you describe your story and Medialyst reads hundreds of recent articles to find the journalists who'd cover it, scoring each by fit and telling you why. You set the timeline — when news breaks and you have an angle, you pitch now rather than hoping a matching query appears.
Pitch directly, no crowd to beat
On a marketplace you're one expert among many answering the same query. With Medialyst you pitch any number of journalists directly, one-to-one, with a personalized angle for each. There's no public queue, no acceptance lottery — just your story in the right inbox.
Live enrichment and real verified contacts
Medialyst delivers global coverage across outlets, journalists, and beats, enriched live in real time rather than served from a static profile. Every email is verified in real time before it reaches you — so the list you get is current contacts you can actually pitch, not a feed of questions to answer.
Right-priced and self-serve
Starter is $149/mo, Pro $299, Scale $800 — published, monthly, no per-seat fees, no contract, 30-day money-back. Your first list is free, with 300 credits and no credit card. You're paying for a research assistant that does outbound, not a subscription to a query feed.
Agent-native end to end
A public REST API, a hosted remote MCP server, and custom enrichment columns let you run Medialyst directly inside Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor — and ask for things a marketplace can't, like "find journalists who use affiliate links" or "who covered this beat in the last 90 days." Upload competitor CSVs and the agent takes it from there.
Pitching the same announcement.
One launch, two tools. Here's what a comms lead actually does to get a story-specific pitch out the door.
Medialyst9 min totalFeaturedhours–daysThree places the difference shows up.
Database quality
This is where the comparison gets honest fast: Featured isn't really a media database, and it doesn't claim to deliver journalist contacts.
Its core motion is a reverse marketplace — publishers and journalists post questions, and verified experts answer, with the best responses curated into content. Even the journalist-finding features in its Business tier come with no public disclosure of database size, data freshness, or verification method, and reviewers note it feels secondary to the Q&A engine. So the "data" you interact with is a stream of inbound queries, not a researched set of reporters to reach. Medialyst takes the opposite stance entirely.
It doesn't maintain a static inventory and hope it's current; it enriches journalists live at the moment you build a list — pulling recent articles, confirming the beat, and verifying the email in real time before it's ever shown to you. Coverage is global across any outlet, journalist, or beat, but the unit of truth is a freshly-researched contact for your specific story. The practical difference: Featured tells you which questions to answer; Medialyst tells you which journalists to pitch, and gives you verified contact details to do it.
Speed
On Featured, speed is about reaction time.
A relevant query has to appear in your digest or alerts first, and then — because the queue is public and popular questions draw hundreds of responses — you have to answer within roughly the first hour to have a real shot at being chosen. You can be fast and still not get picked. " There's no demo gate and no contract — you paste a press release, a URL, or a topic, and the agent goes to work immediately.
The average time from describing your story to a verified, scored journalist list is four minutes and thirty-two seconds. When a story breaks and you have a timely angle, that means you're pitching the right reporters in minutes, on your schedule — not waiting, possibly for days, for a matching question to surface in someone else's marketplace.
AI & agent surface
com AI co-pilot it relaunched as on June 2, 2026 — is a chat interface that aggregates inbound opportunities (journalist requests, podcasts, speaking, awards, GEO) and helps you respond, with API access reserved for its Business tier.
It's AI applied to the reactive job: finding what to answer. Medialyst is agent-native for the proactive job. A public REST API and a hosted remote MCP server mean you can run journalist discovery and enrichment directly from inside Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor, wire it into your own scripts, or hand it to an internal agent.
Custom enrichment columns let you ask research questions in plain language and get structured answers across a whole list — and you can upload competitor CSVs and the agent takes it from there, re-verifying and re-scoring every contact. If your team is building AI-assisted outbound workflows, Medialyst is a component you compose with, not a feed you log in to monitor.
Two pricing philosophies, side by side.
Ours is public and posted. Here's how it sits next to what Featured customers tell us they encounter.
- Starterfounders & small teams$97/mo annual
- Proin-house comms & PR teams$194/mo annual
- Scaleagencies & high-volume teams$520/mo annual
- No contract · no per-seat fees · 30-day money-back
- Free first list — 300 credits, no credit card
- One unified product — no modules priced separately
- Featured's Q&A platform (now Connectively) runs roughly $0–$99/mo with a real free tier; HARO stays free. Pricing for the new featured.com AI co-pilot, launched June 2, 2026, is not yet public.
- Pricing published online
In the words of Medialyst users.
Real customers, approved for use. Your results depend on your story and your list — these are theirs.
"My new favorite PR intern. With a few detailed prompts, the agent comes up with a pretty targeted list of journalists. The best thing is it gives a summary of their recent articles before I commit to reading every piece."
"Medialyst is the only tool that keeps up with the pace our firm needs to move at across our High Growth B2B Tech clients. The journalist targeting is sharp as well as accurate, and Elvis actually ships when you give him feedback."
"It's 100% customizable to you & your clients. It's affordable. It's built by someone who gets back to you quickly & truly wants to give the people what they want — MORE time."
"Medialyst takes the guesswork out of journalist outreach. It vets your pitch for suitability, matches it to the right journalists, and hands you their most accurate contact details — so instead of firing off cold emails into the void, you're landing in the right inboxes. The result? Fewer emails sent, more stories published."
"This is a must-have if you work in media, it's easy to use and saves you a lot of time! The customer service has been some of the best I have experienced."
Paste a story. Get your journalist list in minutes.
Drop in a press release, your website URL, or a one-line description of your news. Medialyst reads what's relevant, finds reporters who actually cover it, scores them by fit, and verifies every email — your first list is free, no credit card.
Common questions about switching from Featured.
How much does Featured cost?
What is the best Featured alternative?
Is Featured.com worth it?
Featured vs Medialyst — what's the difference?
Does Featured help you find and pitch journalists directly?
Can I switch from Featured to Medialyst?
Stop waiting to get picked. Build your own list.
Start free with 300 credits and no credit card. Paste your story and get a verified, story-specific list of journalists in minutes.