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ResponseSource alternative · 2026The modern alternative to ResponseSource.
ResponseSource is the UK's established journalist-request service — a platform where UK journalists post source requests and PR professionals respond.
FreeMonitor journalist requests from HARO, Connectively, LinkedIn & more with an AI agentFree: let an agent watch journalist requests alongside ResponseSource.
Connect one authenticated MCP feed to Claude, ChatGPT, or another compatible agent. It checks six included request channels every hour, uses zero Medialyst credits, and keeps every response behind human review.
- $0
- 0 credits
- Checks every hour
- Human review before anything sends
All six sources included free
Built by an AI engineer and a working publicist.
Medialyst's co-founders bring both halves of the job into the room: Elvis brings the standard he held at Google, and Carly brings the standard her own clients pay for.


Co-founder
Runs Notably, a boutique PR agency serving 25+ clients, and pitches journalists for a living.
The proof is public. Carly grades our real media lists, and we publish every grade, starting with her first: F, 27.9/100 (latest: B, 81.1). As far as we know, Medialyst is the only AI PR tool that publishes a public, recurring quality benchmark.
The honest comparison.
Pulled from public ResponseSource documentation, customer reviews, and our own product. We update this page when either side ships something new.
| Capability | Medialyst | ResponseSource |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the right journalist | ||
| Find journalists for this story | ✓ Story-specific relevance scoring | ✕ — you respond to journalist queries |
| Understand a journalist's beat | ✓ Reads past articles + recent coverage | ~ Category-filtered request feed |
| Analyze past writing | ✓ Grounded in actual articles | ✕ — no per-journalist analysis |
| Per-journalist pitch angles | ✓ Personalized angles + pitch drafts | ✕ Not available |
| Data freshness | ✓ Live news article search in real time | ~ Real-time journalist request feed (UK) |
| 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 | ✕ — no contact data; you respond through the platform |
| Send from one place | ✓ Built-in sending | ✕ — response through the platform, no direct outreach |
| Pricing & setup | ||
| Time to first pitch | ✓ Minutes | ~ Quick to start — self-serve signup |
| Free trial | ✓ First list free | ~ Free tier available (limited) |
| Contract | ✓ None — cancel anytime | ~ Monthly options available |
| Price | ✓ from $149/mo | ~ ~£50–£250+/mo (varies by tier) |
| Agent-native workflows | ||
| API access | ✓ Public REST API | ✕ Not available |
| 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 | ✕ Not available |
Find your journalists now. No demo. No contract. No credit card.
Start in seconds and see live journalist matches for your first pitch.
Why people switch from ResponseSource.
Reactive by design — you wait for queries
ResponseSource's model is the same as HARO: you wait for a journalist to post a request, then respond alongside everyone else who saw it. If no journalist posts a query matching your topic today, there's nothing to respond to — your outreach is bounded by what journalists happen to ask. Medialyst reverses that: you describe your story and it proactively finds the journalists who cover your topic.
ResponseSource — how it works ↗UK-only coverage
ResponseSource is a UK service — the journalists using it are primarily UK-based, and the queries reflect UK media needs. If your PR extends beyond the UK, ResponseSource's feed is built around UK media. Medialyst works globally across major online news sources and many trade publications; coverage is strongest where articles and bylines are published online, and hyper-local, print-only and some regional trade sources can be thinner.
ResponseSource — about ↗No journalist contact data
ResponseSource doesn't give you journalist email addresses or direct contact information — you respond through the platform, and the journalist decides whether to follow up. You never build a reusable media list. Medialyst gives you verified contact data you own, scored by fit, and every email it delivers was validated within the last 14 days or is re-checked when you build the list.
ResponseSource — PR features ↗Crowd dynamics mean low acceptance rates
Like every source-request service, ResponseSource broadcasts each query to many responders. You're competing with everyone who subscribed to that category. Acceptance rates are inherently low in a crowd model. Medialyst lets you reach journalists directly, with personalized outreach that isn't competing in a public queue.
ResponseSource — journalist service ↗
Where each one wins.
Where Medialyst wins
Proactive discovery, not a public queue
Instead of waiting for a journalist to post a query, Medialyst finds the right journalists for your specific story — each one scored by fit, grounded in their actual recent coverage. Every email we deliver was validated within the last 14 days, or is re-checked when you build the list.
Works beyond the UK
Medialyst works globally across major online news sources and many trade publications, in the UK, US, Europe and APAC. Coverage is strongest where articles and bylines are published online; hyper-local, print-only and some regional trade sources can be thinner.
You get verified contact data you own
Medialyst gives you journalist contact information — verified emails, outlets, recent coverage — that you can use directly, build into reusable lists, and pitch from your own Gmail or Outlook. ResponseSource keeps you inside its platform with no direct contacts.
Right-priced with a free first list
Starter is $149/mo, Pro $299, Scale $800 — published, monthly, no contract. The first list is free with 100 credits and no credit card. You'll know what you pay before you start.
Agent-native, end to end
A public REST API, a hosted remote MCP server, and custom enrichment columns mean you can run Medialyst directly inside Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor.
Where ResponseSource wins
A genuine UK journalist-request feed with lower spam
ResponseSource has built a solid reputation with UK journalists over many years. The queries tend to be higher quality and lower spam than open international feeds, because the journalist base is curated and UK-focused. For UK-based experts who want inbound media opportunities, it's a legitimate channel.
Established relationships with UK journalists
ResponseSource has deep relationships with UK newsrooms and journalists who use it regularly. That institutional trust means the queries are genuine and come from working journalists at real UK outlets.
Complementary to proactive outreach
ResponseSource and Medialyst do different jobs. Running ResponseSource for inbound UK opportunities alongside Medialyst for proactive outreach is a sensible combination — reactive and proactive coverage from two different angles.
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 total
ResponseSourcehours–daysThree places the difference shows up.
01Database quality
ResponseSource isn't a journalist database — it's a request marketplace.
You don't get a list of journalists to pitch; you get a feed of queries to answer. The quality of those queries is generally good for UK media, with less spam than open international feeds like HARO at its worst, because the journalist base is curated.
But the model means you never build a reusable contact list, and your coverage opportunities are limited to whatever journalists happen to post today. Medialyst takes the opposite approach: it builds you a verified, scored journalist list for your specific story, with contact data you own and can reuse.
02Speed
ResponseSource is fast to start — self-serve signup, category subscriptions, and queries appear quickly.
But the speed bottleneck is on the journalist side: if no relevant query appears today, there's nothing to respond to, no matter how fast you are. Medialyst removes that dependency.
You paste a press release, a URL, or a topic, and the agent goes to work immediately — no waiting for a journalist to ask the right question.
03AI & agent surface
ResponseSource is a web platform you log into and monitor for queries.
There's no API, no MCP server, and no way to drive it from your own tools. Medialyst is built agent-first.
A public REST API and a hosted remote MCP server mean you can run discovery and enrichment directly from inside Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor.
Two pricing philosophies, side by side.
Ours is public and posted. Here's how it sits next to ResponseSource's own published pricing page and what named third parties report.
- 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 · cancel anytime · 14-day money-back guarantee
- Free first list — 100 credits, no credit card
- One unified product — no modules priced separately
- ResponseSource offers tiered pricing for PR professionals, with plans varying by the number of category subscriptions and features. Entry plans start around £50/mo, with fuller access running to £250+/mo. There's a limited free tier for basic access.
- 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.
"Then recently I stumbled upon Elvis Sun's agentic PR tool Medialyst — 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 has become one of my go-to tools. It’s fast and intuitive, so I spend less time searching and more time pitching. It’s also helped me find journalists I hadn’t come across before, which has opened up new coverage opportunities for our brands."

"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."

"What came back was a working list with real journalists, current coverage, and contact information I could use the same day. No cross-referencing. No digging through three different tabs. One prompt and I was pitching."

"Medialyst makes it super easy to narrow down and create dedicated PR lists to reach out to the journalists that actually want to hear what you have to say. The timeline from chatting to the agent about what you have to promote to actually launching the campaign goes down to mere 1-2 hours instead of days worth of research and prospecting."

"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."

"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."

"The big media database platforms are built for agencies with full teams and retainers to match. For a boutique practice like mine, the economics just do not work. Medialyst fits the model. Beyond contact discovery, it helps me stay on top of what reporters are actually covering: the beats, the patterns, the recent angles. That is the real work of pitching well these days. Spray and pray is over, and Medialyst is built for how modern media relations actually works, at a price point that makes sense for the way I operate."

"This new company is a terrific idea—and helps PR people in ways they didn't know they needed it. The team really 'gets' this business and so many businesses just don't. Jump in. The agents are ready!"

"I needed a tool built for speed: finding the journalists who are on a story right now, in the moment, while it's still news. For how fast our world moves, this service is genuinely a big deal."

"I love Medialyst. It follows the workflow I already use, which, if I may say so myself, is the right workflow. I don't keep old Excel documents full of old emails and blast things to people. I hate the spray and pray. I like to make sure reporters are writing about the things I'm talking about, and to find new people who are. Muck Rack, Cision, all of those are basically very expensive static databases. I already know the major trade reporters. What Medialyst has helped me uncover are the people at Fast Company and The Wall Street Journal who cover packaging, and the freelancers I can get on the radar of. Muck Rack just doesn't help with that. Now when I tell Claude 'here's the person,' it pulls them through Medialyst, onto my list there, and starts gathering information about them. I haven't gotten a bounced email yet. I'd rather send a smaller list I can defend. And I'm never afraid to share it with clients, because it has everything in there. It proves its worth. My first job, as an intern, was photocopying Bacon's books into an Excel database every year. So I'm acutely aware of how hard it is to keep track of all this. This is how I would approach it myself."

"As most of us in the PR business know, media database services can be expensive, cumbersome, and too often imperfect. We pay a premium for access to AI and out-of-the-box features. We still spend significant time verifying whether a journalist is still covering the same beat, whether contact information is current, whether a reporter is truly relevant to a story, and whether outreach is actually reaching the right person. And that is only one part of the problem. Media relations itself has become increasingly fragmented. Research happens in one place, list building in another, monitoring somewhere else, and outreach through email —with PR teams constantly stitching the workflow together manually. This can leave teams overwhelmed and unsure how efficient they are. At Trier and Company, we’re excited to endorse Medialyst because it is tackling that workflow from a different direction - with AI top of mind. It's 'pitch-driven' in real time with bona fide speaking points. It's an entirely new experience. … It’s time for a change — and Medialyst is building in exactly the right direction. We’re pleased to support the team - Elvis Sun and Carly Martinetti. Excited to see where they take it from here. Count us in!"

"This is awesome and I just want to say I LOVE Medialyst! It’s well into my workflow. Landed an AP and WashPo interview today for a newsjack for two different clients. Cut down HOURS of work and enabled me to move so quickly! What a great tool!"

Common questions about switching from ResponseSource.
What is ResponseSource?
ResponseSource vs Medialyst — what's the difference?
Is there a free alternative to ResponseSource?
Does ResponseSource work outside the UK?
Stop waiting for the right query. Find the right journalists yourself.
Paste a press release, your website URL, or a one-line description of your news. Medialyst finds reporters who actually cover it, scores them by fit, and checks every email before you get it.