Agency pre-RFP
Planners build publisher lists from memory, so the same names get every RFP and a better fit never gets looked at. Here the brief goes to everyone at once. A publisher uploads its media kit and that is the whole setup.
Before you invite anyone
Three questions, then every publisher answers the same brief in parallel. The third question matters more than it looks: whether you will take a publisher's word on audience numbers changes the shortlist by half.
Publishers are fictional. Scripted for evaluation, but the comparison structure, evidence tiers and set-level findings are the shipping design.
Why this is not a spreadsheet
Six columns is a spreadsheet. Reading across the six is the product.
That your geo requirement and your format requirement are met by different publishers is not in any one media kit. It only exists across all of them.
Third-party verified and publisher-reported are different states. In a category with a known trust problem, showing which is which is most of the value.
Every answer carries the media kit's date. If a publisher uploads something 19 months old, that is their call and you can see it and discount it.
The shortlist is ranked by must-haves cleared, and the criterion is printed next to it so you can re-sort on something you care about more.