I'm a journalist for one of the publications listed in Cision. (I'm San Francisco/Silicon Valley editor at Xconomy.) Cision is a fine company, but if I were an

I'm a journalist for one of the publications listed in Cision. (I'm San Francisco/Silicon Valley editor at Xconomy.) Cision is a fine company, but if I were an entrepreneur at a cash-strapped company I would never pay $2500 for a list of media contacts. A much better (and cheaper) strategy is to read the publications that follow your industry, figure out which reporters at those publications write about your niche most often, and contact them directly with a quick summary of your company and its latest news. Most publication's websites list reporters' email addresses, or at the very least provide an address for story tips. Of course, maybe digging up this information counts as "spending countless hours," but I don't think a media strategy has to be so time-consuming. Whatever your company is working on, there are probably only five to 10 journalists who will know enough about your field to do an accurate, thoughtful story. Figure out who they are and target them directly. By the way, my address is wroush at xconomy dot com.