Journalist Requests Scraper

Returns: one row per journalist call-out with source, title, text, outlet, requesterRole, country, deadlineDate and sourceUrl. Input: {"sources": ["sourcebottle", "bluesky"], "hashtags": ["journorequest"], "maxItems": 50} Best for: PR people looking for media opportunities, expert sources answering journalist requests, and newsroom or agency monitoring of who is asking for quotes.

{
    "source": "sourcebottle",
    "id": "sourcebottle:163038",
    "sourceUrl": "https://www.sourcebottle.com/query.asp?qid=163038",
    "title": "Anyone have ticket to fly out of Western Sydney Airport?",
    "outlet": "The Daily Telegraph",
    "requesterRole": "Journalist",
    "country": "Australia",
    "deadlineDate": "2026-10-18",
    "postedAt": "2026-10-16",
    "text": "The Daily Telegraph is hoping to speak to someone who has bought tickets to fly from Western Sydney Airport and is happy..."
}

What does Journalist Requests Scraper do?

Journalist Requests Scraper is a journalist request scraper and call-out feed. It collects public requests from journalists, podcasters and PR professionals who are looking for expert sources, interviewees, case studies or product samples. It reads three public places: the SourceBottle call-out listings, the Bluesky hashtag search (for example #journorequest) and the Mastodon hashtag timeline on mastodon.social. No login is needed and nothing behind a login is read.

Every result is one call-out. SourceBottle call-outs come with a title, a summary, the media outlet, the requester role, the country, the response deadline and the date posted. Bluesky and Mastodon posts come with the post text, the date, the author name, handle and profile link, the hashtags, the language and the like, reply and repost counts. All sources are merged into one list, sorted newest first, and the same request is returned once even when it was cross-posted.

People use this journalist request API to answer call-outs in their niche before the deadline, to build a daily feed of media opportunities for a PR agency, to find which outlets are asking for sources on a topic, and to feed an AI agent that drafts pitches. Schedule it and turn on the "only new" option to get just the call-outs you have not seen before.

What data can you get from SourceBottle, Bluesky and Mastodon?

The table lists every output field. Fields that belong to one network are null for the others: SourceBottle rows have no author or counters, social posts have no outlet or deadline.

Field	Description	Example
source	Network the call-out came from: sourcebottle, bluesky or mastodon.	bluesky
id	Stable unique id: sourcebottle:{qid}, the Bluesky at:// URI, or mastodon:{status uri}.	sourcebottle:163038
sourceUrl	Page of the call-out or post (SourceBottle call-out page, bsky.app post, Mastodon status).	https://www.sourcebottle.com/query.asp?qid=163038
title	Headline of the SourceBottle call-out. Null for social posts.	Anyone have ticket to fly out of Western Sydney Airport?
text	What the requester is asking for: SourceBottle summary or the full post text.	The Daily Telegraph is hoping to speak to someone who has bought tickets...
details	Extra details paragraph of a SourceBottle call-out (only when details are included and the call-out has any).	Please also let us know your age.
category	SourceBottle industry the call-out is listed under. Null for social posts.	General
outlet	Media outlet or organisation of the SourceBottle requester.	The Daily Telegraph
requesterRole	Role shown for the SourceBottle requester, e.g. Journalist, Podcaster, PR Pro.	Journalist
country	Country of the SourceBottle call-out (needs details).	Australia
verifiedMedia	True when SourceBottle marks the requester as verified media (needs details).	true
needsLocal	Whether the source must be local, as stated on SourceBottle (needs details).	false
deadline	Response deadline text as shown by SourceBottle, with time and zone when details are included.	18 October 2026 @ 5pm Eastern Daylight Saving Time
deadlineDate	Deadline date as YYYY-MM-DD, parsed from the deadline text.	2026-10-18
postedAt	When the call-out was posted: a date for SourceBottle, an ISO timestamp for social posts.	2026-10-17T16:28:13.999Z
authorName	Display name of the social post author.	Elizabeth Blackstock
authorHandle	Handle of the social post author.	elizablackstock.bsky.social
authorUrl	Profile link of the social post author: the contact link for social call-outs.	https://bsky.app/profile/elizablackstock.bsky.social
hashtags	Hashtags used in the social post, without #.	["journorequest", "USGP"]
language	Language code the post is tagged with.	en
likeCount	Likes (Bluesky) or favourites (Mastodon) when scraped.	2
replyCount	Replies when scraped.	1
repostCount	Reposts (Bluesky) or boosts (Mastodon) when scraped.	4
matchedTag	The hashtag whose search returned the post.	journorequest
topicCategory	AI-assigned SourceBottle-style category, or "not a media request". Only when AI enrichment is on.	Technology
deadlineFromText	AI-extracted deadline (YYYY-MM-DD) stated in a social post. Only when AI enrichment is on.	2026-10-20
scrapedAt	UTC time of the run.	2026-10-18T00:11:57.404Z

SourceBottle never shows the name of the requester, only the outlet and the role, so authorName and authorHandle are empty for SourceBottle rows. For social posts, authorUrl is the contact link. For SourceBottle rows, sourceUrl is the call-out page, where responding needs a free SourceBottle account.

How to use Journalist Requests Scraper

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console and leave the defaults to get the 50 newest call-outs from SourceBottle, Bluesky and Mastodon, or pick the sources you want.
2. Choose hashtags for the social networks (without the #) and, for SourceBottle, the categories such as General, Technology, Property or Health & Wellbeing. You can also paste start URLs: a SourceBottle category page, a call-out page, a bsky.app hashtag page or a mastodon.social tag page.
3. Set the filters you need: keywords, the maximum age of social posts in days, and "only open" to drop SourceBottle call-outs whose deadline has passed.
4. Set Maximum results and start the run. The newest call-outs across all sources are kept until that number is reached.
5. Open the Output tab and export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS, or read it through the API.

Turning off SourceBottle details saves one request per result, but omits country, details and verified media. Mastodon-only runs may return few results. Unsupported start URLs are skipped with a warning.

Input

All fields are optional. Start URLs replace sources, hashtags and categories when given.

Field	Type	Required	Description
sources	array	No	Networks to read: sourcebottle, bluesky, mastodon. Default: all three.
hashtags	array of strings	No	Hashtags without # for Bluesky and Mastodon. Default: journorequest, prrequest, mediarequest.
sourceBottleCategories	array of strings	No	SourceBottle category names or numeric ids. Default: all 12 categories.
startUrls	array of URLs	No	SourceBottle category or call-out pages, bsky.app hashtag pages, mastodon.social tag pages.
keywords	array of strings	No	Keep only call-outs whose title or text contains one of these words.
maxAgeDays	integer	No	Drop social posts older than this many days. Default 30.
onlyOpen	boolean	No	Drop SourceBottle call-outs whose deadline date is before today. Default false.
includeDetails	boolean	No	Open each SourceBottle call-out page for country, details, verified media and local requirement. Default true.
onlyNew	boolean	No	Skip call-outs returned by earlier runs, remembered in a named key-value store. Default false.
enrichWithAI	boolean	No	Add topicCategory and deadlineFromText with a third-party AI processor. Default false.
excludeKeywords	array of strings	No	Case-insensitive phrases to remove from title, text or details; default empty.
monitorName	string	No	Separate onlyNew history; default empty uses the original shared history.
maxItems	integer	No	Maximum results across all sources, 1-10000. Default 50.
proxyConfiguration	object	No	Proxy settings. Default: no proxy.

{
    "sources": ["sourcebottle", "bluesky", "mastodon"],
    "hashtags": ["journorequest", "prrequest"],
    "sourceBottleCategories": ["General", "Technology"],
    "keywords": ["startup"],
    "maxAgeDays": 14,
    "onlyOpen": true,
    "includeDetails": true,
    "maxItems": 100
}

The optional excludeKeywords array removes requests containing any supplied phrase in their title, text or details, ignoring case. For example, "excludeKeywords": ["gift guide", "sponsorship"] removes those topics from a broader industry feed. Exclusions are checked on the final record, including fetched SourceBottle details when available, before that record is pushed or charged. Excluded rows do not consume maxItems; the Actor continues through the collected candidates, although restrictive filters can yield fewer results than requested.

The optional monitorName string separates histories when onlyNew is enabled. A finance schedule can use "monitorName": "finance-pr", while a health schedule uses "monitorName": "health-pr". A request delivered by one named monitor can still be delivered by the other. Reusing the same name shares that monitor's history. Leaving the name empty preserves the original shared history, so existing schedules keep their behavior. Changing the name begins a separate history; it does not erase earlier histories. With onlyNew disabled the name has no effect. Histories retain the most recent 50,000 emitted IDs per monitor.

Output

Two real items from a run, one per kind of source:

[
{
    "source": "sourcebottle",
    "id": "sourcebottle:163038",
    "sourceUrl": "https://www.sourcebottle.com/query.asp?qid=163038",
    "title": "Anyone have ticket to fly out of Western Sydney Airport?",
    "outlet": "The Daily Telegraph",
    "requesterRole": "Journalist",
    "country": "Australia",
    "deadlineDate": "2026-10-18",
    "postedAt": "2026-10-16",
    "text": "The Daily Telegraph is hoping to speak to someone who has bought tickets to fly from Western Sydney Airport and is happy..."
},
{
    "source": "bluesky",
    "id": "at://did:plc:es3krp3lkhh475unifmgxwgc/app.bsky.feed.post/3my3j4bgjws2w",
    "sourceUrl": "https://bsky.app/profile/elizablackstock.bsky.social/post/3my3j4bgjws2w",
    "text": "wild #journorequest:\n\nDoes anyone have an image of Taylor Swift performing at the 2016 #USGP that I could use for a stor",
    "postedAt": "2026-10-17T16:28:13.999Z",
    "authorHandle": "elizablackstock.bsky.social",
    "authorUrl": "https://bsky.app/profile/elizablackstock.bsky.social",
    "hashtags": [
        "journorequest",
        "USGP"
    ],
    "likeCount": 2,
    "matchedTag": "journorequest"
}
]

The dataset can be downloaded as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS from the Output tab, or read with the API.

How much does Journalist Requests Scraper cost?

The Actor is charged per result returned. You pay only for the results that end up in the dataset, and maxItems caps how many that can be. If you turn on AI enrichment, each result that was successfully enriched is charged as a separate event. See the Pricing tab for the current prices.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Connect Journalist Requests Scraper to Claude, Cursor or any MCP client through the Apify MCP server:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=axiomworks/journalist-requests-scraper"
        }
    }
}

Example prompts:

1. "Get the 20 newest journalist requests from SourceBottle and Bluesky that mention startups and summarise who is asking for what."
2. "Find open SourceBottle call-outs in the Technology category and list the outlet, the deadline and the call-out link."
3. "Check #prrequest on Bluesky from the last week and list the posts that ask for expert sources, with the author profile links."

Integrations and API

Run Journalist Requests Scraper from your own code with the Apify API. Set APIFY_TOKEN to your Apify API token (send it in the Authorization header, never in the URL).

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("axiomworks/journalist-requests-scraper").call(run_input={"sources": ["sourcebottle", "bluesky"], "hashtags": ["journorequest"], "maxItems": 50})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('axiomworks/journalist-requests-scraper').call({ sources: ['sourcebottle', 'bluesky'], hashtags: ['journorequest'], maxItems: 50 });
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/axiomworks~journalist-requests-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"sources": ["sourcebottle", "bluesky"], "hashtags": ["journorequest"], "maxItems": 50}'

The Integrations tab connects the dataset to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets and webhooks. Combine a daily schedule with onlyNew to push new call-outs to Slack or email.

FAQ

Why did my run return fewer results than maxItems? Only as many call-outs exist as the filters allow. SourceBottle lists its current call-outs only, social posts older than maxAgeDays are dropped, and the same text posted on several networks is returned once. Raise maxAgeDays or add hashtags and categories.

How fresh is the data? The Actor reads the live pages and APIs at run time. SourceBottle shows current call-outs, including some that expired a day or two ago; use onlyOpen to drop those. Social posts are as fresh as the network search index.

Why is Mastodon almost empty? The Actor reads the hashtag timeline of mastodon.social, which only holds posts that reached that server. Volume on these hashtags is low compared with Bluesky.

Why are country or verifiedMedia null? Those fields come from the SourceBottle call-out page. They are null when includeDetails is off and for social posts.

Can I get the requester's email or phone number? No. SourceBottle requires a free login to respond and does not show contact data publicly, and this Actor never logs in. For social posts, authorUrl links to the author's public profile.

What happens with a bad category, hashtag or URL? The run still succeeds with 0 or fewer results and a message in the log and the status line explaining what to change. Only a malformed URL or an invalid option value fails the run.

Do I need a proxy? The sources are public and normally work without one. If SourceBottle blocks the run, enable Apify Proxy in the proxy settings; blocked requests are retried on a new IP automatically.

How do I run it on a schedule? Create a schedule in Apify Console and enable onlyNew. Each run then returns only call-outs it has not returned before, tracked in the named key-value store journalist-requests-seen.

Does the AI option change the other fields? No. It only adds topicCategory and deadlineFromText, which use a third-party AI processor and are billed separately per enriched result.

Is it legal to scrape SourceBottle, Bluesky and Mastodon?

The Actor collects only publicly available data, with no login: public SourceBottle pages and the public search of Bluesky and Mastodon. Social posts are written by named people, so the author fields can be personal data. You are responsible for using them in line with the rules that apply to you, such as GDPR, and with each network's terms. This is not legal advice.

Journalist Requests Scraper is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by SourceBottle, Bluesky or Mastodon.

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Feedback

Found a bug or need a field that isn't here? Open an issue on the Issues tab and we'll look at it.