Reaching Contacts For Link-Building

As far as link-building goes, has anyone else find it even more difficult lately to track down the right journalists / web admins?

It’s tough to tell who’s still there and who isn’t with all the layoffs, but it’s too risky to keep trying with bounce backs since I don’t want to hurt my sender rep / email deliverability rate.

Phone #s to call them have been effective in terms of conversion..but connect rate is 👎🏼

I know It’s not my value message because when I do get ahold of the right contact they’re happy to help. (Replace broken link with fresh content).

Anyone else running into the same thing?