Statement of Work (revised)_Media Database-8-11-2025.pdf

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Statement of Work: Media Database 1

TITLE: Media Database A comprehensive, authoritative, up-to-date, and media monitoring database and contacts management system that will allow the public affairs office (PAO) to efficiently conduct media outreach and monitoring activities in support of NIST’s mission

Background The NIST Public Affairs Office (PAO) supports NIST’s mission by providing high-quality, strategic communications that focus on NIST and Administration priorities, highlight NIST’s unique services and capabilities, and celebrate science and discovery. These communication activities are critical for disseminating information about research findings and new technologies to U.S.

industry, for attracting collaboration and enhancing relationships with our stakeholders.

To fulfill this responsibility, PAO’s Media Liaison Group (MLG) requires a software tool with the following functionalities:

• A media database that includes comprehensive, up-to-date lists of news media contacts, including accurate email addresses.

• A way to flexibly create and update customized lists of media contacts for distributing news releases and announcements to journalists who might report on NIST activities.

• A way to flexibly generate reports that detail media coverage of NIST, including media metrics and analysis.

Objective(s)

PAO’s Media Liaison Group (MLG) requires a subscription licenses to a media database that includes comprehensive, up-to-date lists of news media contacts, including accurate email addresses.

Scope/General Requirements This requirement is for a subscription licenses to a media platform that includes comprehensive, up-to-date lists of news media contacts, including accurate email addresses.

The database shall have a comprehensive, , up-to-date database of media contacts; to implement an email list and email distribution system; and to generate media coverage reports.

The databases shall allow for migrating data, if necessary, from existing mailing lists. NIST requires ten (10) subscription licenses for staff members to access the database similatenously.

Tasks/Specific Requirements

The Contractor shall provide subscription licenses to an integrated media relations management system available via a web portal.

a. The system shall provide access to a comprehensive, up-to-date, accurate database of news media contacts in the United States, including reporters, editors and other

Statement of Work: Media Database 2 influencers, their contact information, coverage beats, preferred methods of contact, follower statistics, and recent stories and social media posts, with the ability to conduct searches based on keywords and topics and to create customized mailing lists from within the database. The database contact list shall be up-dated at least quarterly.

b. The system shall allow NIST users the ability to conduct real-time searches of recently published news articles on specific topics or keywords to aid in the identification of appropriate media contacts and outlets that are currently covering topics relevant to NIST and to view recent articles on those topics by those reporters and outlets. Results shall be filterable by region, content type, outlet ranking, etc., allowing the user to easily generate customizable reports detailing news coverage of NIST.

c. The system shall all the user to create and manage mailing lists of reporters and other influencers and enable the distribution of news releases or related communications via email. Recipients must be able to reply directly to the NIST sender using the standard “Reply” function. As NIST prohibits external platforms from accessing its mailboxes, the system shall deliver outreach emails through a bulk email service selected by the vendor. This service must implement SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) for email authentication to ensure successful delivery.

Emails shall be sent from a "noreply" address on a vendor-specific custom subdomain (e.g., noreply@vendorname.nist.gov) and include a Reply-To header directing responses to the originating NIST user account email address (e.g., john.doe@nist.gov).

d. The system shall provide analytics of open rates, click-throughs, and other metrics for analyzing the performance of email outreach.

e. Outreach emails shall provide the recipient a way to opt out of future emails (eg. an unsubscribe button), and the database must indicate if/when a contact has opted out.

f. The system shall allow NIST staff the ability to quickly and visually benchmark coverage of NIST against coverage of other similar organizations and to compare coverage of NIST in a current period with the same period in years prior.

g. IT Security and Privacy Requirements: The IT solution must to meet requisite IT security and privacy controls to be compliant with security and privacy requirements defined by applicable federal laws, regulations, policies, and standards (e.g., the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA), Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, and Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 200). The Contractor must work with the Government in having a security and privacy assessment on the system towards continued authorization, and for annual continuous monitoring of security and privacy control implementation thereafter – including remediating any Government-identified risks or findings as a result of these Federally mandated annual IT security and privacy assessments.

h. Authentication. The Contractor must implement Okta for Multi-Factor Authentication of users (i.e., ensure that the application works with NIST’s Okta tenant).

i. Provide ten (10) licenses for simultaneous use of its integrated media relations solution.

Provide unique user login credentials for ten (10) PAO staff. Provide set-up instructions for all usernames.

mailto:noreply@vendorname.nist.gov mailto:john.doe@nist.gov

Statement of Work: Media Database 3

Delivery The contractor shall provide 10 subscription licesese to a web-accessible database of news media contacts in the United States. The contractor shall work with NIST staff to transfer/ migration of existing NIST media lists to the new system.

The Contractor shall provide 1-hour of training for ten (10) NIST staff to use the system properly and optimally no later than 31 Oct 2025.

Period of Performance Base Period: 30 Sep 2025 through 29 Sep 2026 Option Year 1: 30 Sep 2026 through 29 Sep 2027 Option Year 2: 30 Sep 2027 through 29 Sep 2028