Don't be afraid to 'waste' your coverage now. Use it as soon as you get it. If you need more publicity, it's relatively easy to find another reason for the paper to cover you.

My $0.02

Forget about press releases. Establish direct connections with the press now, before you know them. If you say one day "oh, let's get press coverage" and expect it to happen instantly, you don't know how it works.

Also, question the usefulness of getting press coverage. We were on TechCrunch. It sends shockwaves all over the blogosphere for a week, which is nice. But you need to make your users happy. We also were on the front page of smaller, but still national media: got 100 visitors that day (barely measurable and completely insignificant).

I guess my point is that the days where the press would make or break a company are over. Media is too fragmented, too many people get their news from "alternative" media, you can't expect to kill all your birds with one shot.

Don't be afraid to go out and approach normal media too - by far the biggest reaction I received last year from normal media outlets occured after I was interviewed by David Sarno on an LA times blog.

This is especially true if you're a young guy that's trying to build something...the media loves stories about underdogs.

Thanks for that. That's given me more ego points to approach the media with a bit more hope.

But if I go for local press coverage now (which is my only target since my service is local too), what data should I provide them with apart from about the service which is already displayed on the website?

Should I tell them about the current SMS traffic with my service and the number of users or any other info?

Also I was thinking if I could also give her a hint that we could collaborate with them for SMS announcements and stuff like that for contests or polls their newspaper conducts. Should I mention such stuff in the first mail itself or should I go slow with the press. I haven't dealt with the media anytime, but have heard some say that the press guys are really in a hurry always since they have a lot of data to wade thru for interesting news.

Re: collaboration, this is a different discussion than getting some coverage. I would wait until after you've discussed the story, then ask her who you need to talk with at her paper about collaboration - unless they're really small, it's likely to be somebody else - and then get her permission to use her name when calling that other person to introduce yourself.

Good luck!

Before you do that, read her stories and see what kind of stories she's written in the past. That will help you "pitch" her with "what kind of story do you like to tell?"

The reporter is probably not the person you want to talk to about partnering with the paper. After the article is published, you might want to contact her and let her know how much you liked the article. Use the conversation to get the information on who you should contact about your collaboration idea.

Also, what is the collaboration idea? Do you mean selling your services, or giving them away for free to the paper as a way of increasing your userbase?

Also, perhaps sign up to something like Google Alerts for various key phrases that are relevant to your area. When stories/posts pop up that you might be able to add some value/expertise too, don't be afraid to make contact with the authors.

You just have to go out and get noticed.

A Story is something the press will be able to tell. Something that captures the imagination. Prepare that Story in advance of going to that journalist, so that it comes out naturally while you talk to her. It should be inspiring, positive, human, not arrogant, something people can relate to.