The best way to get media coverage is to be successful.

5 rules of media success:

• Maintain an accurate, up-to-date list of targeted people. The targeted person's name must be on the press release.
  
• have someone call and get names, titles, phone and fax numbers
  
• keep list up to date: there's typically a 25% turnover rate per year in media personnel
  
• keep a separate sub-list of people who have been good to us and send them everything
  
• Mix up the type of press releases you send out
  
• News Release - tells real news
  
• Issues Release - tells our perspective on issues; 2 criteria for getting attention:
  
• Do you have clout and influence in the political system? or are you invisible?
  
• How interesting are you?
  
• Useful Information Release - provides a service to a media person by giving them factual, interesting info (helps make radio host sound like an expert)
  
• Strategy Release - the press sees politics as a sporting event so they like to know the strategy ("candidate goes for gun x voters")
  
• Use objective facts and figures to prove your credibility (use hard numbers to brag about more members, more candidates, etc.)
  
• Make press releases professional and interesting - we're competing with thousands of other releases
  
• have a punchy, lively headline
  
• keep it short - never more than one page
  
• write it in standard news style, with the lead paragraph summarizing the story
  
• put opinions in quotes
  
• write lively; be colorful and entertaining
  
• have a name and phone # for media people to contact for more info (make sure spokesperson is effective and easy to reach)
  
• Put out more press releases
  
• keeps your name in front of media
  
• cumulative effect - eventually they may notice that you're up to something
  
• the more releases you issue, the better your chances of getting lucky and having something covered

Remember: Press Releases are not a substitute for action and success!

Recommended reading: Ain't Nobody's Business What You Do" by Flynn.