6. Third Party Validation: You might think you'd make a great talk show guest, but is there anyone of your customers or your contacts who will provide a testimonial that supports that notion. "John Smith delivered a speech to our annual general meeting that was both entertaining and informative. We are looking forward to his appearance at our team building sessions coming up in June."

7. Test your Pitch: Once you've decided on how you are going to present your pitch try it out with one of your friends or associates. If you can't get their interest, there is a good chance your idea will fall flat with talkshow as well.

8. Call first, then FAX: Some PR experts recommend sending a pitch letter first and then following up a day or two after. This works well, but I have found that if you can speak to show's producer directly, you will be able to sell them on idea right then and there, as well as demonstrate your ability to engage an audience. Voice mail has made these "cold pitches" more difficult to arrange but it is worth effort to make call. If you can't talk to a real person, leave a voice message and then send a follow- up fax.

9. Love your idea: If you don't buy your goods nobody will. Talkshows need content and are constantly looking for compelling people to tell compelling stories. The more excited you are about your project more likely someone else will be sold on it.

10. Go for it. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Many a good talkshow guest has gone way of shower singer. Great idea, good ability to talk, but no one knows they exist. Take a chance, look up phone number and call them. What can they say? No, or maybe even, yes!

It appears to come down to perception - when we see our company name appear on newswire, or on a website we are artificially comforted in belief that we have achieved some tangible results from our news campaign. Our local customers may tell us otherwise, specifically due to fact that given their news reading habits they probably missed our news announcement, even though it appeared on www.lookhereformynews.com.

While newspapers still appear to be logical first choice for news coverage, survey did find that Internet has passed television in minds of business owners looking to get their news stories covered. There could be several reasons for this including fact that most of us find it increasingly difficult to find time to sit in front of our television sets for evening news and introduction of instant news alerts and online news centers which are making currency of television news less attractive.

The newspaper appears to have remained king purely due to its physical nature - it slams into our door in morning, greets us at bus stop, fills our bird cages and reminds us we are part of a bigger world as we carry out recycling.