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Telum Media alternative · 2026The modern alternative to Telum Media.
Telum Media is the Asia-Pacific specialist media database — the go-to tool for PR teams working across APAC markets like Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, India, and Southeast Asia.
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 Telum Media documentation, customer reviews, and our own product. We update this page when either side ships something new.
| Capability | Medialyst | Telum Media |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the right journalist | ||
| Find journalists for this story | ✓ Story-specific relevance scoring | ~ Keyword search + filters over APAC database |
| Understand a journalist's beat | ✓ Reads past articles + recent coverage | ~ Beat tags + desk assignments, journalist-first |
| Analyze past writing | ✓ Grounded in actual articles | ~ Editorial intelligence, not per-article analysis |
| Per-journalist pitch angles | ✓ Personalized angles + pitch drafts | ✕ Not available |
| Data freshness | ✓ Live news article search in real time | ~ Human-curated, periodic refresh |
| 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 | ~ Human-curated contacts — well-regarded in APAC |
| Send from one place | ✓ Built-in sending | ✕ — database + intel, not outreach |
| Pricing & setup | ||
| Time to first pitch | ✓ Minutes | ~ Weeks: sales call → annual onboarding |
| Free trial | ✓ First list free | ✕ Demo only |
| Contract | ✓ None — cancel anytime | ~ Annual-only |
| Price | ✓ from $149/mo | ~ Quote-only (APAC pricing varies by market) |
| 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 | ~ No re-enrichment from exports |
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 Telum Media.
APAC-only coverage in a global market
Telum is deliberately APAC-focused — it covers Asia-Pacific media thoroughly but has minimal coverage of US, European, or other markets. If your PR needs extend beyond APAC, you either pair Telum with a global tool or switch to one. 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.
Telum Media — about ↗Opaque pricing on annual contracts
Telum doesn't publish pricing — every plan requires a sales call and an annual commitment. Pricing varies by market and modules. Medialyst publishes pricing from $149/mo, bills monthly, and gives you a free first list with no credit card.
G2 — Telum Media reviews ↗A curated database, still subject to decay
Telum's human research team maintains curated APAC journalist profiles, and regional contacts are generally well-regarded. But it's still a static database that decays between refresh cycles — and APAC's dynamic media landscape, with rapid outlet launches and closures, makes that decay faster. Every email Medialyst delivers was validated within the last 14 days, or is re-checked when you build the list.
Capterra — Telum Media reviews ↗No story-specific AI research
Telum's discovery workflow is traditional: filter by keywords, beats, outlets, and geography, then manually build your list. It doesn't read each journalist's recent articles to judge whether they'd cover your specific story. Medialyst reads hundreds of articles relevant to your announcement, scores reporters 0–100 by fit, and tells you why each one would write it.
Telum Media — platform ↗
Where each one wins.
Where Medialyst wins
Works beyond APAC
Medialyst works globally across major online news sources and many trade publications, so APAC journalists can sit on the same list as US and European ones. Coverage is strongest where articles and bylines are published online; hyper-local, print-only and some regional trade sources can be thinner.
Right-priced and flexible — no contract, no sales call
Starter is $149/mo, Pro $299, Scale $800 — published, monthly, no per-seat fees, no annual lock-in, and a 14-day money-back guarantee. The first list is free with 100 credits and no credit card.
Recent bylines, plus a 14-day email window
Medialyst picks each journalist from what they published recently about your story, which matters in APAC markets where media moves are frequent. Every email we deliver was validated within the last 14 days, or is re-checked when you build the list. You pay 1 credit only when we deliver a verified email, and misses are free.
Agent-native, not dashboard-bound
A public REST API, a hosted remote MCP server, and custom enrichment columns mean you can run Medialyst directly inside Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor.
Switching is a CSV upload
Already paying for Telum? Export your media lists, upload the CSV, and Medialyst's agent re-verifies and re-scores every contact.
Where Telum Media wins
The deepest APAC media database
For Asia-Pacific PR, Telum is the specialist. Its research team maintains journalist profiles, editorial calendars, and market intelligence across APAC markets with a level of regional depth that global databases like Cision or Meltwater skim over. Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australian PR teams rate it as the default for APAC media relations.
Editorial intelligence beyond contact data
Telum provides editorial calendars, forward features, media moves tracking, and market-specific briefings that give you context beyond a contact list. For teams that need to understand the editorial landscape of APAC markets, that intelligence layer is valuable.
Trusted APAC brand with strong regional relationships
Telum has built deep relationships with APAC media and PR communities over years of regional focus. Its events, awards, and media intelligence reports make it more than a database — it's an institution in APAC PR circles.
AI bolted on vs. AI-native.
Legacy platforms point AI at the same filter UI you already had. Medialyst assigns a research agent to each candidate journalist, reads their actual work, and consolidates the strong fits. Watch the same brief run through both.

MEDIALYST AGENTOUTPUT: 1,847 RESEARCHED TO FIT-CHECKED SHORTLIST
Full architecture notes for Telum Media
Telum's strength is human editorial intelligence — research analysts who curate APAC media contacts, track media moves, and maintain editorial calendars. It's not heavily marketing AI features. But the underlying model is the same as every legacy database: a static, human-maintained index you filter and browse. Medialyst is AI-native end to end — the agent reads real, recent articles per journalist. That's the difference between curated profiles you browse and AI research you direct.
★★★★★“Not a static database pull. Not the same recycled names that have been sitting in a spreadsheet for two years. A researched, current list built around exactly what you tell it to look for, with journalist names, their publication, their most recent articles, and their contact information all in one place.”Amy BartkoPR professional, Chatterbox
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
Telum Media~3 daysThree places the difference shows up.
01Database quality
Telum's database is deliberately APAC-focused, covering journalists, bloggers, and influencers across Asia-Pacific markets with a level of local detail that global databases can't match in the region.
Human researchers maintain profiles, track media moves, and update editorial calendars — providing editorial intelligence alongside contact data. The contacts are generally well-regarded for accuracy within APAC. The structural limitation is geographic scope: coverage outside Asia-Pacific is minimal. Medialyst takes a different approach: evidence-first, not database-first.
When you build a list, the agent reads recent articles about your story, picks the journalists who wrote them, and confirms the beat. The email comes from Medialyst's own database when it was validated within the last 14 days, and is re-checked when you build the list otherwise. Coverage works globally across major online news sources and many trade publications. It is strongest where articles and bylines are published online; hyper-local, print-only and some regional trade sources can be thinner.
02Speed
Telum is built for ongoing APAC media relations, not rapid list-building.
There's a sales call, an annual contract, and onboarding before you start. Finding journalists means browsing the database, filtering, and manually selecting contacts — the standard legacy workflow. Medialyst collapses that.
You paste a press release, a URL, or a topic, and the agent goes to work immediately. A verified, scored journalist list takes minutes, in APAC or beyond it.
03AI & agent surface
Telum's features live inside its platform — the database, media moves, and editorial intelligence are operated through its dashboard.
There's no public 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 Telum Media'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
- Telum doesn't publish pricing — quotes are custom and annual, varying by market and modules. There's no monthly option and no free trial.
- No public pricing — quote on request
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 Telum Media.
What is the best Telum Media alternative?
Is Telum Media APAC-only?
Can I import my Telum contacts into Medialyst?
Telum Media vs Medialyst — what's the difference?
Beyond APAC. Build your first global journalist list now.
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.