Contract PR Researcher

Job Description – Contract PR Researcher (Media List Specialist)

Contract: 1 week

Location: Hybrid (London)

Rate: Competitive, dependent on experience

About Group42

Group42 is a high-growth communications agency working with scale-ups, global tech firms, financial services brands, and leading innovators across the UK, Europe, and the US. We specialise in strategic PR, reputation building, and data-led storytelling that cuts through fast. Our work spans media relations, corporate positioning, thought leadership, and newsroom-style content production for clients operating in highly competitive markets.

The Role

We\’re looking for a detail-driven, media-savvy contractor to join us for a focused one-week project. Your remit: build high-quality, insight-driven PR, journalist, and media lists for several of our clients operating across technology, fintech, education, consumer, and emerging sectors.

This role suits someone with solid grounding in PR research, media relations, and journalist identification tools. You don\’t need to be senior, but you
must
understand the media landscape, know how to navigate key platforms, and be confident building clean, accurate, strategically targeted lists that will be used directly for outreach.

You will work closely with our client leads to translate briefs into tailored lists that reflect the right beats, publication tiers, audience types, and journalist profiles.

Key Skills

• Strong understanding of the UK and US media landscape across national, tech, consumer, trade, and business press.
• Confident using Roxhill, Muck Rack, Cision, or similar media intelligence platforms.
• Ability to build structured, well-researched media lists with clean categorisation and clear rationale.
• Excellent attention to detail and fast, organised working style.
• Ability to interpret client briefs and translate them into highly targeted journalist lists.
• Comfortable analysing publication relevance, journalist beats, and past coverage.
• Strong written communication skills, especially for summarising insights or justifying recommendations.

Key Responsibilities

• Creating tailored PR, journalist, and media lists for multiple clients based on sector, geography, and brief-specific needs.
• Identifying relevant reporters across national, trade, broadcast, online, and specialist verticals.
• Using Roxhill, Muck Rack, Cision, or equivalent tools to verify journalist contact details and recent coverage.
• Organising outputs clearly (beat categories, top-tier vs mid-tier, rationale notes).
• Ensuring lists are accurate, up to date, and free from duplicate or irrelevant contacts.
• Producing short notes outlining recommendations, approach, and insights per client list.
• Working quickly, efficiently, and independently within the agreed one-week window.

Additional Requirements

• Must have strong working knowledge of at least one media database (Roxhill preferred).
• Must be available for immediate start.
• Ability to work autonomously to tight turnaround times.

If you\’re someone who knows the media inside out, is confident with research platforms, and can deliver high-quality lists at speed, we\’d love to hear from you.