Best practices for tracking your media coverage

There are several options that enable you to follow your press releases in the media:

Google Alerts (https://www.google.com/alerts) for all mentions in the media.

Bacon’s Newspaper & Magazine Directory: The grand-daddy of media directories, Bacon’s lists thousands of magazines in hundreds of vertical markets, from amusements to industrial to optical to parenting, including computer publications. The publicity checker gives media information on 17,000 magazines and newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. It is published annually in October, and sells for $270. For an additional fee of $270, you can get editorial calendars for computer and general business press. The Radio/TV Directory, which sells for $270, includes over 9,000 radio and 1,300 TV station listings.

Bacon’s Clipping Bureau, 332 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60604
1-800-621-0561, 312-922-2400

The International Publicity Checker, also available for $270, lists 11,200 business, trade and industrial publications and more than 1,000 newspapers in 15 countries in Western Europe. On the negative side, these directories don’t provide positioning statements or expanded mastheads.