In other words, they know a little bit about a lot of things, but they don’t know a lot about anything.

Even beat reporters have a learning curve - most of time they get assigned to a beat just because someone HAS to cover it. It’s not because they have any special background or training in that particular subject.

Helping them shorten that learning curve - becoming their top resource for insight and information on their beat - offers tremendous potential for getting free publicity.

Even if they don’t write about you or attribute quotes to you right away, it’s just a matter of time before you start showing up on air and in print.

So here’s what to do.

Find "new kid on block."

Pitch your idea to someone farther down newsroom hierarchy who’s responsible for coming up with their own stories.

As a rule, reporters don’t make nearly as much money as people think. So there tends to be a high turnover, with reporters moving from place to place fairly often.

When a reporter is first hired, they generally won’t know much about their new job, and (this is extremely important) won’t have built up a list of sources yet.

If you build a relationship and become one of those sources you'll often find yourself getting free publicity that's more believable, powerful productive and profitable than any advertising you can buy at any price.

Future File - Generic name for any system that collects news releases, notes, or any information related to future events.

Evergreen - A story that isn’t necessarily tied to a newshook. Evergreens are stories media pull "out of can" to use on slow news days when there’s not much going on and they have a lot of time to fill.

Kicker - This one relates TV only. The "kicker" is a short, generally amusing story just before end of a newscast. It’s supposed to leave you smiling even if you’ve just watched nearly thirty minutes of mayhem.

If you want to portray yourself as knowledgeable and savvy, just tell an assignment editor you’ve got something you think will make a good kicker. They’ll pay attention, since good local kickers aren’t always easy to find. Plus, if you’ve got interesting video, they’ll "tease" kicker all way through newscast - which means you get even more exposure.

Sprinkling your pitch to media with these words and phrases will greatly improve your chances of getting free publicity.

And that reminds me of one last thing.

Never use word "publicity" when pitching a reporter. Always call it "coverage."

When you "talk talk" of newsroom, "publicity" is one word you never want to say.