On March 12, Outset Media Index (OMI) entered soft launch as a new intelligence platform designed to benchmark media outlets within a unified analytical framework. 

Within that framework, OMI tracks more than 340 publications, including crypto-specific outlets and broader finance, technology, and general news portals with consistent crypto coverage. The infrastructure is built to scale into more niches as the dataset grows. 

The index uses 37 proprietary and standard metrics that help teams analyze audience size, engagement, how stories spread across the web and how easy it is to collaborate with a publication – all without relying on multiple separate data sources.

Several indicators shaped by years of actual media work help contextualize media performance beyond widely used traffic and SEO metrics.

Unique Score highlights meaningful differences in audience reach between publications, while Composite Score determines whether an outlet’s traffic is growing, declining, or remaining stable over time. Reading Behavior combines engagement signals to show how deeply people interact with content once they arrive on a site. The Reprints parameter reflects where articles appear after the first publication and reveals outlets that function as distribution hubs, with stories picked up by aggregators or mirrored on secondary platforms.

OMI also considers practical collaboration factors that influence campaign planning, including typical turnaround times for publishing, editorial flexibility when working with external contributors, and price ranges for sponsored placements relative to the outlet’s audience reach. 

Together, these and other indicators feed into two summary ratings within the index: General Rating, which reflects overall outlet performance compared to other indexed publishers, and Convenience Rating, which ranks outlets based on how comfortable they are to work with.

Placement in OMI isn’t something outlets can buy. Every publication is reviewed using the same signals and scoring metrics, which helps keep the rankings grounded in actual performance.

In practice, the index is meant to support everyday media work for advertisers, marketing and PR agencies, as well as publishers themselves. Teams can move from a broad view of the market to a closer look at individual outlets and analyze indicators that help them understand competitive positioning or decide where coverage is likely to have the most impact.

The main interface presents publications within a single table where users can examine them through different lenses. Some teams may begin with traffic dynamics, others with engagement or regional reach. 

Filters allow the dataset to narrow quickly. For example, to outlets that publish in a specific language, attract readers from a certain region, or show stronger engagement trends.

From there, each publication opens into a dedicated media profile that adds more context: historical performance data, distribution signals, and operational details that matter when planning coverage. 

OMI is also paired with a research arm called Outset Data Pulse (ODP). The index focuses on what’s happening at the level of individual outlets, while ODP looks at the bigger movements across the media market. 

“The index lets people look at the numbers themselves,” says Sofia Belotskaia, product lead at Outset Media Index. “If someone needs help with the signal interpretation, that’s where the reports come in.”

Together with several internal tools, the two form a growing ecosystem of analytical products around Outset PR, an agency recognized for its data-driven approach to Web3 communications.

Why the Media Needs Standardized Benchmarking Right Now

What’s also notable is that OMI is arriving at a moment when the media industry itself is under strain.

In early 2026, The Washington Post said it would cut around 300 jobs (about 4% of its workforce) as digital ad revenue continues to put pressure on the news business. The decision comes after a tough year for the media market, with publishers seeing less referral traffic, relying more on platforms, and struggling with rising costs. 

What’s happening at the Post is part of a wider trend across the news business. Over the past two years, publishers from Vice Media and BuzzFeed News to the Los Angeles Times and Business Insider have announced layoffs or newsroom cuts as advertising revenue slows and social platforms send fewer readers to news sites than they once did. 

When budgets tighten and audiences become less predictable, media professionals end up asking the same question more often: which outlets actually hold attention, and which ones only look strong on the surface? 

That uncertainty has led some teams to look for more systematic ways to examine how publications perform. OMI is the first structured attempt to do exactly that.

“Increasing newsroom cuts are a reminder that the media industry is going through a difficult period,” says Mike Ermolaev, founder of Outset Media Index and Outset PR. “Over the past period, our team has seen how hard it’s become to interpret fragmented media performance data – traffic, rankings, and reputation don’t always tell the full story. OMI grew out of that experience.”

Outset Media Index has begun with a soft launch, giving early users an opportunity to test the platform and share feedback on how the data and tools function in real media workflows. That process is expected to help improve the index before the full launch, with refinements guided by how teams actually use it in practice.