First, media outlets and freelance journalists can do a lot to help themselves by making it very clear (and easy to find) on their websites what their interest are and who their readers are. In an ideal world, we'd all read every outlet we target, but of course we cannot. The best also make it clear to prospective PR pitchers what their preferences are (for contacts, by-line requirements, etc).

Second, clients need to understand that proper media targeting takes time and therefore costs more. Many don't. So it's down to us in PR to explain the cost/benefits.

Third, most journalists are loathed to accept that a good deal of their content is helped along considerably by PR folk – sometimes the entire story idea. So I'm not sure you'll find many hacks who'd want to identify themselves with this, although it would be nice if you could.

There's also this great 'insider' guide from the CharityComms / Voluntary Action Media Unit stable, 'Clever Communications', which carries lots of case studies of 'what worked for me' and best practice for PRs: http://www.scribd.com/doc/17742826/Clever-Commu….

Rachel Beer and Jon Waddingham's “Not for profit Tweetups” are great spaces where charity PRs and digital media types come together to share success stories and good practice, and talk about relationship building with journalists, bloggers and so on.

Twitter has also helped me have a better rapport with journalists and bloggers, and journalisted.com is an amazing free resource for 'doing your homework' and being targeted about who and where you are pitching stories.

Haste and lack of internal resources (in terms of physical people working in PR) does make you cut corners, sure – but there's a plethora of bloggers like yourself, meet-ups, and schemes that are helping to link PRs and journalists together and get us talking. Thanks for posting. Rob