# Pitch Lists

A **pitch list** is a named list of publishers your team plans to pitch: *"Q4 Series C announcement"*, *"Trade press for the CMO survey"*, *"Tier-1 targets, all clients"*. Each row reads through the two numbers PR teams already use, **Est. Traffic** and **Domain Rank**, plus the publisher's [AI Placement Value Score (AIPVS)](/docs/methodology/ai-placement-value-score) tier and how often AI already cites the outlet for your brand's prompts. A status and a note on every row let you work the list, and a share link lets a client approve it.

<Callout>
Pitch lists and [Coverage Groups](/docs/dashboards/coverage-groups) are two ends of the same campaign. A pitch list holds **publishers, before the story runs**: the outlets you intend to pitch. A coverage group holds **placement URLs, after the story runs**: the articles you landed. When a pitched publisher runs the story, mark the row Placed and send its placements to a coverage group.
</Callout>

## Where to find it

- **Property lists** belong to one client. Open **Pitch Lists** in the Coverage section of the property sidebar.
- **Organization lists** span your whole book of business. Open **Pitch lists** in the organization sidebar, above Placement scoring.

Click **New pitch list**, give it a name and an optional description, and add publishers.

Pitch lists replace the Publisher Lookup watchlist. If you starred publishers there, they were moved into a pitch list named **Watchlist** on each brand, notes included.

## Property lists and organization lists

| | Property list | Organization list |
|---|---|---|
| **Brand** | The property's brand, on every row | Each row can name a brand, or none |
| **AIPVS** | Scored for the brand, with category relevance and brand uplift | Scored for the row's brand. Rows without a brand are scored without brand context |
| **Citations** | Counted against the brand's tracked prompts | A row with a tracked brand counts that brand's citations. A row with no brand counts citations across every tracked brand in the organization. A row with a scoring-only brand shows **Not tracked** |
| **Project goals** | Can be added to a PR project | Cannot be added to a project |

Organization lists name brands the same way [Placement Scoring](/docs/dashboards/placement-scoring) does. A brand you name that is not in your workspace becomes a hidden **scoring-only** record, so its rows are scored for that brand without adding a client. Citation counts come from tracked brands' prompts. A scoring-only brand has none, so its rows show **Not tracked** instead of a misleading zero. A row with no brand counts citations across every tracked brand in the organization, so it answers how often AI cites the outlet anywhere in your clients' spaces.

## Adding publishers

### From the list

Click **Add publishers** on a property list. The dialog has two tabs:

- **Search publishers** looks up publishers Spyglasses already knows, by name or domain. Each result shows Est. Traffic, Domain Rank and the AIPVS tier. Publishers already on the list are marked **On this list**.
- **Paste domains** takes one domain or URL per line. URLs are trimmed to their domain, so pasting a story link adds its publisher. Duplicates and publishers already on the list are skipped.

An optional note applies to every publisher added in that batch. The result shows how many publishers were added, how many were already on the list, and any lines that could not be read. New publishers are looked up and scored in the background, and their rows show *Scoring…* until the numbers arrive.

On an organization list, **Add rows** opens an import wizard instead:

1. **Paste or upload.** Paste straight from a spreadsheet, or upload a `.csv`, `.tsv` or `.txt` file. Files are read in your browser, and nothing is saved until you confirm the brands.
2. **Match columns.** Domain is required. Brand and Note are optional.
3. **Review brands.** See which brands were found, which will be created as scoring-only records, and which rows have no brand. Leave the brand blank for a general media list.
4. **Result.** A summary of what was added and skipped.

### From Publisher Lookup

In [Publisher Lookup](/docs/dashboards/publisher-lookup), click **Add to pitch list** on any result, or select several and add them in one step. Pick an existing list or create one on the spot.

### From earned media

The earned-media drill-down on the [Brand Dashboard](/docs/dashboards/brand-dashboard#earned-media) lists the outlets AI cites for your prompts that mention your competitors but not you, built from [Citation Intelligence](/docs/dashboards/citation-intelligence) data. Select outlets there, or open one in its drawer, and choose **Add to pitch list**.

## Reading the list

| Column | What it shows |
|--------|---------------|
| **Publisher** | Logo, domain and name. Click the domain to open the [publisher page](#the-publisher-page) |
| **Brand** | Organization lists only. The brand this row is pitched for, with a **Scoring only** badge on a scoring-only brand, or *No brand* when the row has none |
| **Est. Traffic** | Estimated monthly organic search visits, from DataForSEO |
| **Domain Rank** | A third-party authority score from DataForSEO, 0 to 100. It is a reference, not an AIPVS input. See [Domain Rank](#domain-rank) |
| **AIPVS** | The publisher's AI Placement Value Score tier: Premium (75 and up), Strong (50–74), Moderate (25–49) or Limited (under 25) |
| **Citations** | How often AI cited this publisher for the row's tracked prompts in the selected window. See [Citations](#citations) |
| **Status** | Where the pitch stands. See [Status](#status) |
| **Note** | Your team's note on the row |

Four tiles above the table summarize the list: **Publishers**, **Already cited** (the share of the list AI cited at least once in the window), **Placed**, and **Premium + Strong** (publishers with an AIPVS of 50 or higher).

Filter by publisher or note text, status, AIPVS tier, and cited or not yet cited. Sort by traffic, Domain Rank, AIPVS, citations, status or the date a row was added.

### Domain Rank

Domain Rank is [DataForSEO](https://dataforseo.com)'s authority score for a domain, on a 0–100 scale, based on the sites that link to it. PR teams know this kind of number from Domain Authority and Domain Rating, so it sits beside Est. Traffic as a familiar reference.

Domain Rank is **not part of AIPVS** and never changes it. AIPVS measures what a placement is worth in search and in AI answers, including whether AI assistants can read and cite the site at all, so a site with a high Domain Rank that blocks AI crawlers can still carry a much lower AIPVS. See the [AIPVS methodology](/docs/methodology/ai-placement-value-score) for what goes into the score.

### Citations

The **Citations** count is how many times ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews cited a page on the publisher in answers to the brand's tracked prompts and reports. In the app, choose a 30, 90 or 365-day window above the table, and hover a count for the split by platform. The shared page and the PDF always use the last 90 days.

A publisher AI already cites for your topics is one it reads, so a placement there has a clearer path into AI answers. A zero means AI has not cited the outlet for these prompts in the window, not that it never will.

On organization lists, what a row counts depends on its brand:

- **A tracked brand**: that brand's citations.
- **No brand**: citations across every tracked brand in the organization.
- **A scoring-only brand**: **Not tracked**, because a brand you don't track has no prompts to count against.

## Working the list

### Status

Every row carries one of four statuses:

| Status | Meaning |
|--------|---------|
| **Target** | On the list, not pitched yet. New rows start here |
| **Pitched** | Your team has pitched the outlet |
| **Placed** | The outlet ran the story |
| **Declined** | The outlet passed. The row stays so you can pitch it again later |

Any status can move to any other, because pitching is not a straight line: a declined outlet gets pitched again next quarter, a placed one gets a follow-up. The date under the status shows when it last changed. Select several rows to set a status in bulk.

### The Placed suggestion

When Spyglasses finds a scored [placement](/docs/dashboards/placements) for the brand on a publisher whose row is still Target or Pitched, the row shows **Placement found · Mark as Placed?** Hover it to see the placement URLs and their scores, and click it to mark the row Placed.

The suggestion only appears when a scored placement on that publisher landed after the row was added, and it never changes the status by itself. The status is your team's call.

On a Placed row, **Add placements to coverage group** sends its placement URLs to a [coverage group](/docs/dashboards/coverage-groups), so the landed coverage keeps being tracked after the pitch is done.

### Notes

Click the pencil in the **Note** column to add or edit a note: the angle, the contact, the embargo date. Notes save as you go.

Notes appear on the shared page and in CSV and PDF exports, so write them for the client as well as for your team.

## Sharing a list with a client

Click **Share** and turn on **Public link** to create a read-only page a client can review and approve. Anyone with the link can view the page, and nothing on it can be edited.

The shared page shows the list name, the brand, the date it was prepared, summary tiles, and each publisher's Est. Traffic, Domain Rank, AIPVS tier, AI citation count for the last 90 days, status and **your notes**. A short *How to read this* section defines each number. The page leaves out the per-platform citation split, the AIPVS breakdown, placement URLs, status dates and every action.

- **Declined** publishers are hidden unless you turn on **Include declined publishers**.
- On agency plans, the page carries your agency's name and logo, with no Spyglasses branding or docs links.
- Turn **Public link** off to revoke the link. Anyone who opens the old link after that gets a page that no longer exists.

## Exporting

- **CSV** downloads the list's publishers with their numbers, status and notes, for spreadsheets and other tools.
- **PDF** renders a client-ready report: the list name and description, who it was prepared for, four summary tiles, and a table of publishers with Est. Traffic, Domain Rank, AIPVS, Cited by AI (last 90 days), status and note. Organization lists add a Brand column. On agency plans the PDF carries your agency's name, logo and website instead of Spyglasses branding.

## Adding a pitch list to a project

A property list can be a goal on a [PR project](/docs/dashboards/projects). Open the project, click **Add goal**, choose **Pitch list**, and pick the list. The goal is hit when AI cites any page on any publisher on the list, and the whole list tracks as one goal with one influence rate, the way a coverage group does.

A pitch-list goal matches on the publisher, like a publisher goal, so it also counts citations of articles your team did not place. It answers "are AI answers drawing on the outlets we are targeting?" To track the articles you landed, use a coverage group.

When you add the goal, Spyglasses checks the project's past citations against the list, and publishers you add to the list later are checked against past citations too. Only lists on the project's own property can be added; organization lists cannot.

## The publisher page

Click a publisher's domain, or **Details**, to open its page. It collects everything Spyglasses knows about one outlet for one brand:

- **The numbers, AIPVS first.** AIPVS with its confidence, then **Est. Traffic**, then **Harmonic Centrality**: how central the domain is in [Common Crawl](https://commoncrawl.org)'s web graph, shown as a *Top X%* figure, an authority tier and a rank, the same way the [Common Crawl Rank Checker](/common-crawl-rank-checker) shows it. Harmonic Centrality is the web graph signal inside the organic authority layer of AIPVS. **Domain Rank** comes last, as a reference.
- **The AIPVS breakdown.** Organic authority, AI citation access per platform, and AI training influence.
- **Cited for your brand.** Citations by platform, when AI last cited the publisher, and a link to every citation in [Citation Intelligence](/docs/dashboards/citation-intelligence).
- **Placements on this publisher.** The brand's scored placements there, newest first.
- **On pitch lists.** Every list the publisher is on, with its status there.
- **Actions.** Add to pitch list and Add to project.

Opened from an organization row with no brand, the page scores the publisher without brand context and replaces the citation and placement sections with a short note. The same page opens from **Details** in Publisher Lookup and from the **Full AIPVS** link on a placement's score panel.

## Pitch lists in an AI assistant (MCP)

With the [Spyglasses MCP server](/docs/mcp) connected, an assistant can read your pitch lists and add to them:

- `list_pitch_lists` lists a property's or an organization's pitch lists.
- `get_pitch_list` returns a list's rows with status, notes, citation counts, Placed suggestions and, optionally, AIPVS. Its `window` argument takes 30, 90 or 365 days and defaults to 90.
- `add_pitch_list_publishers` adds domains to a list, creating the list first if you name a new one. It **writes to your account**: the list, publisher records, and background enrichment for new publishers. It spends no credits.

See [MCP → Account data](/docs/mcp/account-data#pitch-lists) for every argument.

## Related

- [Publisher Lookup](/docs/dashboards/publisher-lookup): Score any publisher and add it to a pitch list
- [Coverage Groups](/docs/dashboards/coverage-groups): Track the placements you landed as one project goal
- [Placements](/docs/dashboards/placements): The scored placements behind the Placed suggestion
- [Placement Scoring](/docs/dashboards/placement-scoring): Score placements for any brand at the organization level
- [Projects](/docs/dashboards/projects): Add a pitch list as a goal and read its influence rate
- [AI Placement Value Score methodology](/docs/methodology/ai-placement-value-score): How AIPVS is computed, and why Domain Rank is not part of it