Keeping tabs on mentions gathered from print media sources is just as important as tracking online coverage, especially for PR professionals who need comprehensive media insights.
With a solid print media monitoring service, you should be able to track every print mention, access licensed content so you can show your clients the actual articles they were mentioned in, and gather valuable data on how your brand is portrayed in the media.
In this article, we've rounded up the top 7 print monitoring tools on the market and what they offer in terms of capabilities, price, free trials, and who they're tailored to.
💡 Thanks to Prowly's partnership with LexisNexis, you can now access thousands of articles, even those behind paywalls. Start monitoring print media mentions and get a better overview of how your brand is performing.
What are print media monitoring tools?
Print media monitoring software tools allow you to track media coverage across global, national, regional and local newspapers, along with trade publications, consumer magazines, and business journals.
Prowly's print media monitoring also offers mentions gathered from behind paywalls along with detailed analytics.
Print media monitoring vs. digital media monitoring
While both print and digital media include earned coverage, there are key differences in how news articles are distributed, consumed, and valued across these channels.
| Print media | Digital media | |
| Target distribution | Oftentimes more targeted, newspapers are often local or regional | Usually global, since the internet breaks down geographical barriers |
| Audience reach | Wide, more accessible to people with limited access to digital devices | Also wide, but targeting different demographic groups |
| Value and quality | Perceived as higher quality with a sense of “prestige” | Quick news, could have potential to go viral |
| Competition for attention | Low | Very high |
→ Check out our guide on media monitoring to boost your brand's visibility and keep track of all your digital and print mentions.
Top 7 print media monitoring tools (with pricing)
#1 Prowly
💸 Pricing: Prowly starts at $369/mo, but Print Monitoring is available in custom plans only (Enterprise)
Free trial: Yes
What is Prowly?
Prowly is an all-in-one PR tool built to help you obtain data-driven insights by features created to foster real, long-lasting relationships with journalists.
There are dozens of tailor-made, PR features there, and one of them is meticulous print media monitoring that gives users instant access to global, national, regional, and local newspapers, along with trade publications, consumer magazines, and business journals.
Additionally, in terms of print media monitoring capabilities, communications professionals are also able to track brands, competitors, or keyword press hits across domestic and international outlets (both print and those behind a pay wall), making it a powerful solution for businesses operating on a global scale.
Read more about the advantages and examples of print media in PR.
What monitoring features does it offer?
Online mentions, discussion forums, social media monitoring, and broadcast and print monitoring (in partnership with LexisNexis).
→ Learn more about Prowly's Print and Broadcast Monitoring here.
Who is it best for?
- Busy, small to medium PR agencies with diverse, demanding clients
- Small to medium in-house teams and brands
- Data-driven freelancers who want to show concrete mentions
🔻 Cons
- Not the best for in-house corporate communications or marketing teams managing global communication campaigns and coordinating with local teams
- Not ideal for large agency teams (50+) that require enterprise-class software and advanced team management features
#2 Brandwatch
💸 Pricing: Undisclosed, but third-party sources say starting at $750
All-in-one PR tool: No
Free trial: No
What is Brandwatch?
Brandwatch is a consumer intelligence platform that helps professionals assess their audience engagement, helps do research, and provides metrics for stakeholders and clients.
It's also equipped with specialized features to help teams collaborate on tasks within the app itself.
What monitoring features does it offer?
Social media monitoring with secondary print media and broadcast tracking.
Who is it best for?
- Enterprise businesses
- Brands that focus on social media coverage
- Teams who engage in lots of influencer marketing campaigns
🔻 Cons
- Not suitable if you want an all-in-one PR tool
- Might have little to offer if you're doing PR outside of socials
- Very little to no information about print monitoring quality
#3 Critical Mention (Onclusive)
💸 Pricing: According to third-party sources, around $4k to $10k per year
All-in-one PR tool: No
Free trial: No
What is Critical Mention?
Critical Mention is a media monitoring company that tracks mentions from online sources, social media, print publications, broadcasts, and podcasts.
It also offers a media database, reports, and other functionalities that help evaluate the value of earned media.
What monitoring features does it offer?
Digital, print media tracking, broadcast monitoring and mentions from print publications.
Who is it best for?
- Teams reporting on mentions only
- Wide range of media monitoring channels
- Great for large companies and established brands
🔻 Cons
- According to reviews, its media database is lacking
- Not an all-in-one PR tool
#4 Meltwater
💸 Meltwater pricing: According to third-party sources, $12k per user per year
All-in-one PR tool: Yes
Free trial: No
What is Meltwater?
Meltwater is a media intelligence platform that offers a media database, media monitoring including newspaper monitoring, reporting, and tools to help professionals engage with their audience. It provides insights across various channels, making it a valuable solution for brands looking to track coverage across social media platforms and traditional media.
In addition to monitoring digital mentions, Meltwater also helps businesses track printed documents, such as press clippings and physical publications.
What monitoring features does it offer?
Online media tracking, social media, print, broadcast and podcast monitoring.
Who is it best for?
- Works well for enterprises and large teams
- Teams in need of a good media database
- Those who want various tracking offers
🔻 Cons
- User reviews say it's difficult to use
- Very expensive for small businesses
→ Read more about Meltwater's alternatives and how it compares to Cision and Prowly.
#5 Cision
💸 Cision pricing: According to third-party sources, starts around $8k/year
All-in-one PR tool: Yes
Free trial: No
What is Cision?
Cision is one of the oldest PR tools available, with a media database, media monitoring, press release distribution, and reporting available. As a media intelligence platform, it helps businesses track and analyze their media coverage across multiple channels, ensuring they stay informed about their brand presence and industry trends.
What monitoring features does it offer?
Online media, social media, print, broadcast and podcast.
Who is it best for?
- Great for enterprises and large teams that need media monitoring on a global scale
- Good for companies that want to use newswires
- Solid choice for well established companies
🔻 Cons
- Might not be suitable for small businesses
- Expensive
- No free trial
→ Read more about Cision's alternatives and how it compares to Muck Rack and Prowly.
#6 Agility PR
💸 Pricing: Undisclosed
All-in-one PR tool: Yes
Free trial: No
What is Agility PR?
Agility PR is a media monitoring and analysis software that helps PR pros with their daily workflow.
What monitoring features does it offer?
The company offers the tracking of online media, social media, broadcast and print mentions, although some are subject to licensing fees.
Who is it best for?
- New users who need an easy to use toll who are not familiar with PR tools
- Teams needing a wide range of features
🔻 Cons
- No transparent pricing
- Some print content is subject to licensing fees
#7 Muck Rack
💸 Muck Rack pricing: According to third-party sources, $10k/year
All-in-one PR tool: Yes
Free trial: No
What is Muck Rack?
Muck Rack is a software database for journalists most known for having a good contact database. Along with that feature, it also has others, such as media monitoring and reporting.
What monitoring features does it offer?
Online monitoring, social media listening, TV, radio and print monitoring.
Who is it best for?
- Large in-house teams and agencies
- Professionals who need an all-in-one
🔻 Cons
- Can get quite expensive
- There's no free trial
💡 If you need even more details, check out this article featuring examples of Prowly alternatives, or simply ask us anything you'd like to know!
Why should you monitor newspapers and print media?
Monitoring print media is essential to gathering all kinds of insights into how your brand, competitors, and industry trends are portrayed across diverse outlets and publications.
By incorporating it into your PR strategy, you can evaluate the PR ROI of global, national, regional, and local newspapers, as well as trade publications, consumer magazines, and business journals.
This allows you to track mentions of your brand, products, spokespeople, or even services in both domestic and international print outlets, including whatever is hidden behind paywalls. This also ensures you're not missing any critical coverage, even if you normally wouldn't have a subscription for it.
Prowly's media monitoring capabilities help you consolidate all insights and data into a single, user-friendly dashboard, which makes it easier to analyze trends, sentiment, and publicity value holistically.
This gives you a broader perspective on the current state of things, but also ensures you capture every mention, no matter where it appears.
Book a demo and choose the best option that would suit your specific needs.
Automated print media monitoring vs. manual
There are plenty of advantages to using a PR tool in order to find all the relevant print mentions in hard-copy publications. Check out the table below to learn more:
| Manual Monitoring | Professional Tool | |
| Time and Efficiency | Time-consuming; prone to human error; updates aren’t quick | Automated; highly accurate; alerts are delivered in real-time |
| Coverage and Scope | Limited reach; resource-intensive; risk of missing a mention | Broader coverage; scalable; can get international mentions |
| Data Management and Analysis | Disorganized data; minimal insights; need a long time to gather data | Organized dashboards; advanced analytics; able to spot trends quickly |
| Cost Implications | Need for additional manpower; costly; missed opportunities | Subscription fees; easy to show ROI |
| Reliability and Consistency | Might be unreliable; mentions could be missed | Consistent results; reliable backups; instant results |
| Strategic Advantage | Limited strategic use; reactive approach | Proactive approach; offers competitive insights; saves a lot of time |
Take a look at the monitoring tool that checks all the boxes.
9 steps to choose the best print media monitoring tool
In order to get the right tool for your business needs, go over these nine steps to make sure you're not forgetting about anything that may have an impact on your final choice of a print media monitoring service.
1️⃣ Define your monitoring needs
Do you know what exactly you need to monitor?
If you're in a niche industry or only dealing with local outlets, chances are you need fewer capabilities from a tool than someone who needs to be monitoring news on a national and global scale.
👉 This will also affect the frequency and types of mentions you need to track, since things in more widely spread publications pop-up more often than in, let's say, research journals or trade publications.
2️⃣ Evaluate the database
Does the tool's database contain all the print media sources you're interested in? A lot of traditional media monitoring tools out there may fall short, especially in niche markets.
👉 To see if the tool you're interested in will meet your needs, check things like geographical reach, all relevant publications, niche outlets and more.
3️⃣ Watch for real-time monitoring and alerts
Not all tools give you real-time mentions. Sometimes it takes a while to get updates, which can cause delays in your own work and strategy. That's why you need to look for a strong print media monitoring service that will send you instant alerts so you're always informed of when your brand is mentioned.
👉 Additionally, you can evaluate a tool by checking out whether or not they offer alerts delivered to your inbox.
The whole point of having print monitoring tools is to let them do the work by identifying a new mention and letting you know about it as soon as it happens without the need to check in on the tool all the time.
4️⃣ Check out their analytics and reporting
👉 When choosing print monitoring software, it's important to make sure that it offers features like sentiment analysis, estimated reach, and publicity value. These insights contribute to comprehensive media analysis which can help you measure the impact of your coverage effectively.
This will help you understand the mention on an in-depth level, especially if such a tool also has easy-to-use data visualization options. Together, all these metrics and features can help you prove the worth of your print media coverage, while at the same time enable you to make data-driven decisions and optimize your media strategy effectively.
5️⃣ Assess its ease of use
No one likes a tool that's difficult to learn.
👉 See if the tool you're interested in has an intuitive interface, easily customizable dashboards.
Simply put, you want to look for something you can add to your workflow that doesn't have a huge learning curve.
6️⃣ Ask about support and training
How many times did you get a subscription for a tool, only to later find out they barely have any guidance or support on how to use it?
👉 When choosing a tool, make sure they have a responsive customer support team ready to help you out when you need it.
👉 Make sure the tool your choosing offers the onboarding and training you need, along with live chat support.
With the latter, it's useful if they have a "real human" to help you out as well, instead of a bot.
7️⃣ Check out pricing and ROI
Don't be a victim to hidden costs. Some media monitoring software has pricing tiers, and while at the beginning it might not look costly, sometimes you might rack up a bill you never even dreamed of.
👉 If the tool has a free trial—go for it an see if it's for you.
Then, carefully assess the value it gives you against the actual cost you'll have to pay. At this stage, it's useful to schedule demos with these companies to see if their solution is something that fits both your needs and budget.
8️⃣ Make sure you're getting gated content
Chances are some of the mentions you're getting might be behind paywalls.
Not all print monitoring software has licenses and permissions to access gated articles and content. This can be a big issue, especially since licensed outlets are usually the ones clients most want to see the mentions from.
9️⃣ Reviews and recommendations
Last but surely not least, do your research and see what others have said about the tool.
Whether you're using Reddit or reading up on case studies often released by the company itself, make sure you know what you're getting yourself into. You can even find a person who gave a testimonial on LinkedIn and ask them about it personally.
Conclusions
Having access to print media monitoring gives PR professionals an abundance of benefits: from being able to automate the process of collecting mentions, to reducing the risk of human error and saving time, having this option frees up our time to focus on strategy and on forming creative ideas on how to stay ahead of the curve.
Interested?
Try Prowly's all-in-one PR tool for free and sign up for a demo to find out which additional features will suit your business needs best.
