How to Use Stacker and Muck Rack to Strengthen Your Earned Media Strategy

Summary

Stacker and Muck Rack offer complementary capabilities that help PR and communications teams strengthen their earned media strategies.
Stacker distributes brand content directly to its trusted newsroom network, while Muck Rack is an AI-powered communications platform for media relations, monitoring, measurement and AI search visibility.
Used together in an earned-media strategy, they help communications teams expand their reach, build meaningful journalist relationships, understand their brand's visibility across traditional and AI search, and measure the impact of earned media.

Stacker is an earned distribution platform that turns brand content into publisher-ready editorial that is placed natively across a trusted newsroom network, building SEO authority, high-quality mentions and links, and visibility in AI search.

Muck Rack is an AI-powered communications platform where trusted data, human expertise and embedded intelligence come together to drive clarity, speed, and impact. The platform brings together media relations, global media monitoring, AI-powered insights, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and measurement to help communications teams understand their brand's reputation, strengthen journalist relationships, and demonstrate the impact of their work.

When PR teams use both Stacker and Muck Rack together, they get a complete earned-media program, from widespread placements and AI search visibility to targeted journalist relationships and impact reporting.

The Quick Answer

Stacker and Muck Rack play complementary roles in an earned-media strategy.
Stacker earns native placements with publisher-ready editorial via direct newsroom relationships to create powerful credibility signals that travel across Google and AI answers.
Muck Rack maintains an extensive media database used to create targeted lists of journalists for PR teams, then facilitates and manages the pitch process for earned media placements.
How teams pair them: Build authority in search and LLMs by scaling authoritative brand mentions across a wide range of publishers with Stacker, while using Muck Rack to place third-party editorial coverage of a brand with individual journalists.

How Stacker and Muck Rack Complement Each Other

Capability	Stacker	Muck Rack
Media relations	Places publisher-ready editorial natively via direct newsroom relationships.	Helps teams identify relevant journalists, manage relationships, and execute targeted outreach.
Content distribution	Focused on vetted, primarily US-based news publishers where content runs natively.	Offers press release distribution through GlobeNewswire's 70,000+ media outlets in 158 countries.
Media monitoring	Tracks publisher pickups within its network.	Monitors coverage across global media sources, including news, social and AI-generated answers.
Editorial integration/content adaptation	Stories optimized for maximum reach and native pickups.	Tools enable pitch refinement and tracking.
Brand authorship	Brand bylines preserved on content.	Journalists get bylines, not brands.
Editorial control	All articles must meet Stacker’s editorial guidelines.	Subject to editorial guidelines of individual outlets.
SEO/authority outcomes	Native articles can create mentions, links, and durable authority signals.	Successful campaigns may earn high-authority mentions and links to lift rankings and trust.
AI search visibility	Helps brands build visibility through authoritative publisher placements	Measures how brands appear in AI-generated answers and identifies journalists and sources influencing those results.
Placements at scale	A Stacker story is typically picked up by 200+ outlets.	Results vary from story to story.
Guaranteed placement	Earned (not guaranteed).	Earned (not guaranteed).
Reporting	Publisher-verified pickups and engagement, plus GEO reporting for Growth and Scale clients.	Provides integrated monitoring, analytics, competitive insights and reporting to demonstrate PR impact.

How They Work

Stacker — Earned Distribution

What it is: An earned distribution platform connecting brands and publishers to run editorial natively (not advertorial).

How it works: Stacker takes brands' publisher-ready stories and distributes them into newsroom workflows for native pickup. You pay for platform access; publishers aren’t paid to run the story. Stacker's reporting includes data on publisher pickups and audience engagement as well as GEO tracking for Growth and Scale clients.

Why it matters: Native placements build credibility with users, search engines, and LLMs; Stacker scales these placements quickly.

Muck Rack — AI-Powered Communications and Media Intelligence

What it is: An AI communications platform that helps PR and communications teams manage media relationships, monitor coverage, understand their brand's visibility, and measure the impact of their work.

How it works: Muck Rack brings together a trusted media database, AI-powered journalist recommendations, pitching tools, global media monitoring, analytics, and GEO insights in one integrated platform. Teams can identify relevant journalists, manage outreach, track earned media coverage, and understand how their brand appears in AI-generated answers.

Why it matters: Muck Rack helps communications teams make more informed decisions, strengthen journalist relationships, identify opportunities to influence brand visibility, and demonstrate the business impact of earned media.

How They Work Together

Stacker and Muck Rack combine for a strong earned-media approach.

A typical workflow could look like:

Distributing brand stories via the Stacker Newswire and building authority at scale.
Using Muck Rack's media database and AI-powered recommendations to identify journalists covering relevant topics and develop targeted outreach strategies.
Reporting on impact by:

Tracking brand mentions, coverage trends, and media impact through Muck Rack's monitoring and analytics capabilities.
Using Muck Rack's Generative Pulse to see how a brand appears in AI-generated answers and identifying the journalists and sources influencing those results.
Combining Stacker's publisher pickup reporting with Muck Rack's media intelligence and measurement capabilities to evaluate performance and inform future campaigns.

When Each Fits

Use Stacker when you need …

Consistent editorial coverage for your brand.
To boost authority signals like publisher pickups, brand mentions, and links.
To improve your brand’s AI search visibility.

Use Muck Rack when you need …

To identify and build relationships with relevant journalists and media outlets.
To monitor media coverage, emerging narratives, and brand reputation across channels.
To understand how your brand appears in AI-generated answers and which sources influence that visibility.
To measure earned media performance and demonstrate the impact of communications efforts.
To bring media relations, monitoring, and measurement together in one integrated platform.

Use both when ...

You want to go both broad and deep: expand your brand mentions and authority across many publications at once with Stacker, while using Muck Rack to build journalist relationships, understand brand visibility, and measure the impact of your communications efforts.

What Customers Say

Stacker

"Stacker has been a real catalyst…bridging the gap between SEO and PR while driving tangible results." — Michael Farr, Paylocity.
"For startups or content-heavy orgs, Stacker is a great addition to PR…placements are more meaningful." — Jess Pelini, TurboTenant.
"Stacker has really streamlined our link-building strategy." — Mariah Bliss, Simply Business.

Muck Rack

"If I didn't have access to this tool, my job would require five interns doing the work of the Muck Rack platform." — Izzy Santa, Consumer Technology Foundation
"Muck Rack is known for its data accuracy. But beyond that, my members love it because the software makes it easy for them to translate insights – positive coverage, negative mentions, everything – into actions, and then report impact in [a] way leaders can easily understand." — Michael Smart, Michael Smart PR
"Whether pitching, media list development, or overall research, reporting, and recommendations, Muck Rack is my go-to for all of those strategic public relations decisions." — Derek D. Ross, the D2 Group

FAQs

How do Stacker and Muck Rack support earned media and AI search visibility?

Stacker and Muck Rack help brands strengthen their earned media strategies and improve their understanding of AI search visibility. Stacker improves AI search visibility by distributing content across its network of trusted publishers, generating the kind of mentions and authority signals that LLMs draw from in their responses. Muck Rack's Generative Pulse helps communications teams understand how their brand appears across leading AI platforms, identify the journalists and sources influencing those answers, and develop targeted media strategies to improve visibility over time. Together, they help teams connect earned media activity with AI visibility insights.

How do Stacker and Muck Rack work together?

Many PR teams use Stacker to scale brand mentions across hundreds of news sites at once, and Muck Rack to pitch reporters on an individual basis and track results. Used together, they can deliver the breadth of a distribution network and the depth of individual reporter relationships.

Why should communications teams use Stacker and Muck Rack together?

Stacker and Muck Rack offer complementary capabilities that support different parts of an earned media strategy. Stacker doesn't pitch journalists or build media relationships; it distributes brand articles that publishers then choose to run on their own websites. Since Muck Rack supports pitching, monitoring, and reporting, the two play different roles in an earned-media program.

How does Stacker differ from Muck Rack’s press release distribution service?

Muck Rack offers press release distribution through GlobeNewswire, helping communications teams share company announcements and news. Stacker distributes editorial stories, not press releases, and publishers run them natively under the brand's byline.

What does Stacker do?

Stacker distributes brand stories that earn native placements on a network of 3,000+ vetted publishers. While placement decisions are made by editors at these publications, a Stacker story is typically picked up by 200+ publishers.