CONTACTING THE MEDIA

Who is The Media, anyway, and how do I get in touch with them?

Individual publications usually list contact information in a special box in the first few pages or, sometimes, on the editorial page.

A well-known organization known as Bacon's Information Inc. specializes in cataloguing and publishing contact information about periodical news media, as well as broadcast media. Bacon's best-known product, its two-volume Newspaper Directory and Magazine Directory, updated annually, is a respected source, which professional publicists and news bureaus use to locate and contact news editors and reporters throughout North America. Bacon also publishes this information in the form of CD-ROM or Internet-accessible directories-but not for free. For more information, visit www.baconsinfo.com.

The American Forest & Paper Association provides a free on-line National Media Guide, available to the public at http://congress.nw.dc.us/cgi-bin/media.pl?dir=afandpa, which enables the user to enter a zipcode, a state, a reporter's or editor's name, or the title of a publication and locate the publication (or list of publications), with contact information, including web site and e-mail addresses of selected personnel (with strongest emphasis on political reporters or columnists).

There are dozens of World Wide Web catalogues of on-line editions of daily and weekly newspapers, searchable by state or other geographic term. We recommend www.allnewspapers.com, which catalogues thousands of easily accessible on-line newspapers. These on-line editions usually, although not always, have staff-search features, enabling the user to locate and communicate with editors and reporters in various departments (look for "staff" or "contact us" buttons). Since an increasing number of newspapers are publishing on-line editions (allnewspapers.com lists over 300 in California alone), with the larger, influential ones leading the way, we consider these on-line catalogues to be growing in importance all the time.