What is a media monitoring API?

A service that returns mentions and coverage data as structured records or events. It is used for PR, brand, and market monitoring.

What should I check before buying?

Coverage, deduplication, payload fields, delivery method, and historical depth. Sentiment and dashboards come later.

Can AyeWatch replace a media monitoring suite?

For page and topic alerts, often. For broadcast transcripts, sentiment dashboards, and enterprise reporting, a dedicated suite is still the better fit.

How much do these APIs cost?

From about $9/mo for a page and topic monitor to enterprise contracts for full media coverage.

Media Monitoring API: What to Check

Short answer: A media monitoring API should cover the sources you need, deduplicate syndicated stories, return structured mention objects, and deliver events to your system. Check coverage and deduplication before sentiment or dashboards.

AyeWatch is a page and topic monitor for public sources. It can watch a topic across news and blogs and deliver a summary event, alongside dedicated media monitoring platforms.

Coverage first

Ask for the source list, not the source count. News, blogs, broadcast transcripts, podcasts, and social platforms are different coverage problems. A million blogs does not help if your market is local radio.

Test with five queries from your actual market. The results tell you more than the sales deck.

Deduplication

Syndicated stories appear in many places. A mention API that returns the same article ten times inflates volume and wastes attention. Ask how the vendor clusters duplicates.

Also ask how it handles press release distribution. One release can look like fifty mentions.

The mention object

Source, title, URL, author, published time, language, sentiment, and matched query. Add an excerpt and a stable ID. Without those fields, your dashboard will re-parse HTML.

Sentiment is useful but noisy. Treat it as a filter, not a verdict.

Delivery

Webhook, polling endpoint, or bulk export. Webhooks fit alerts. Polling fits backfills. Bulk export fits analysis. Most teams need a webhook for alerts and an export for reporting.

Ask about rate limits and historical depth. A media API without history cannot support a trend chart.

Pricing and fit

Media monitoring APIs range from affordable page and topic monitors to enterprise suites. AyeWatch Pro is $9/mo with 50 topics and hourly checks; Pro+ is $19/mo with 200 topics and ASAP mode.

Use the media monitoring guide to compare the enterprise options before you commit.

Check	Question	Why it matters
Coverage	Which sources and languages?	Missed mentions are invisible
Dedup	How are syndicated stories clustered?	Volume inflation
Payload	Which fields per mention?	Parsing work
Delivery	Webhook, poll, export?	Pipeline fit
History	How far back?	Trend and audit

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The bottom line

Send the vendor five queries from your real market. Compare the results for coverage and duplicates. If the payload and delivery fit your pipeline, run a trial before you sign an annual contract.