Journalist Request Monitor: #JournoRequest & Pitch Calls

Try it free: Apify's free plan includes monthly platform credit, no credit card needed. One example run with the input below costs about $0.03 (up to 10 requests at $0.003 each; filtered posts and duplicates are free).

{
  "requestTypes": [
    "journalist",
    "pitches",
    "podcast"
  ],
  "lookbackDays": 7,
  "maxResults": 10
}

Paste this into the JSON tab of the input form and click Start.

Journalists post source requests on Bluesky and Mastodon every day: "looking to speak to a nutritionist", "case study wanted", "deadline Friday". Editors post calls for pitches, and podcast hosts look for guests. These posts scroll away within hours.

This Actor collects them into one list. You choose the topics you care about, it returns each request with the deadline it found in the text, how the author wants to be contacted and a link to the original post. Put it on a daily schedule and you only get the requests you have not seen yet.

No login, no API key and no account on Bluesky or Mastodon needed.

Who it is for

• PR consultants and agencies who answer media requests for clients
• Founders, experts and authors who want press mentions
• Freelance writers looking for editors who want pitches
• People who want to appear as a guest on podcasts

What you get for each request

Field	Example
requestType	journalist, pitches or podcast
text	"#journorequest looking to talk to parents in Ireland whose children started preschool this year. DM if any thoughts."
deadline / deadlineText	2026-10-24 / "Deadline 24 Oct"
daysToDeadline	17
urgent	true if the post says urgent, ASAP, today and similar
replyVia	email, dm, link or reply
replyEmail	the address, if the author put one in the post
links	links in the post, for example to the full brief
authorName / authorHandle / authorProfileUrl	who posted it
isAggregator	true for accounts that relay requests from PR request services
matchedKeywords	which of your topics matched
platform, postedAt, url	where and when it was posted

Besides the dataset, every run also writes:

• requests.xlsx: Excel file with filters, frozen header and clickable links
• requests.csv: UTF-8 with BOM, comma or semicolon (for Excel in Germany, Austria and Switzerland)
• digest.txt: a short plain-text list you can send by email or post to Slack with an Apify integration
• RUN_SUMMARY: how many posts were scanned, skipped as duplicates, filtered out and delivered

Quick start

1. Leave all three request types selected, or pick only the ones you need.
2. Add a few topics, for example health, nutrition, dietitian. Leave it empty to see everything.
3. Run it. A run usually takes 10 to 30 seconds.

Daily feed with only new requests

{
  "requestTypes": ["journalist"],
  "keywords": ["fintech", "banking", "personal finance", "money"],
  "excludeKeywords": ["gift guide"],
  "lookbackDays": 2,
  "onlyNew": true,
  "monitorName": "finance-pr"
}

Create an Apify schedule (for example every morning at 7:00) with this input. Each run returns only requests that earlier runs of the finance-pr monitor have not delivered. Add the email or Slack integration to the schedule and you have a morning digest.

Podcast guest spots

{
  "requestTypes": ["podcast"],
  "keywords": ["entrepreneur", "marketing", "health"],
  "lookbackDays": 14
}

Where the data comes from

• Bluesky: the public search API, with searches such as #journorequest, #prrequest, #mediarequest, "call for pitches", #podcastguest and a few more. You can add your own with extraSearchTerms.
• Mastodon: the public hashtag timelines of the servers you list (default: mastodon.social and journa.host).

Only public posts are read. Replies and reposts are skipped. The Actor respects opt-outs: Bluesky accounts that asked not to be shown to logged-out visitors are skipped, and so are Mastodon accounts that did not opt in to being discoverable. It never posts, likes, follows or sends messages.

How the filtering works

All rules are simple text rules. No AI model is involved, so results are fast and you need no extra key.

• Real requests only (on by default): a post must read like a request ("looking for", "wanted", "DM me", "open for pitches" and so on). Posts that only use the hashtag, such as news, complaints or tips about PR, are dropped.
• Duplicates: the same post found by several searches, and identical texts posted twice, are delivered once.
• Deadlines: dates like "Deadline 24 Oct", "by Friday", "due 2026-11-02" or "by tomorrow" are turned into a date. Requests whose deadline has passed are skipped unless you turn that off.
• Relay accounts: some accounts repost requests from PR request services. They stay in the results but are marked with isAggregator, and you can drop them with one switch.

Pricing

You pay per delivered request, see the pricing tab for the current price. Filtered posts, duplicates and requests you already received in a monitor are not charged. Set maxResults to cap the cost of a run.

Limits worth knowing

• Bluesky only allows logged-out searches to return the newest 100 posts per search term. With the default look-back of 7 days this is rarely a limit for these hashtags. For a busy custom search term, run the Actor more often with a shorter look-back.
• Volume depends on what people post. Expect roughly 20 to 50 journalist requests per week on Bluesky, most of them from UK and US media, and fewer pitch calls and podcast requests.
• Deadline parsing reads the common formats. Always check the original post before you reply.
• Requests on X (Twitter), LinkedIn and paid request services are not included.

Using the results responsibly

The posts belong to their authors. Reply to the request the way the author asked and only when you are a good fit. Do not add the authors to mailing lists or send them unrelated marketing.

Questions and feedback

Open an issue on the Issues tab. If a search term you care about is missing, tell me which one.

Related Actors by the same developer

• Bluesky & Mastodon Keyword Monitor: alerts for new posts that mention your brand, product or any keyword, with language filters.