Many years ago, in another life, I worked as a reporter covering towns, cities, murders, fires, bodies in lakes, and organized crime. I even assumed roles and wrote about them in what was then called participatory journalism.

In a string of about six months, I played a department store Santa, Spiderman, pumped gas during the fuel crisis, and even competed in a typing contest with some of the best secretaries in the area, a very humbling experience for a "hunt-and-pecker" like me.

I loved journalism, never thought twice about doing anything else for years. In fact, in the days before I landed my first newspaper job, I was so desperate to find work that one night a bunch of us from the school newspaper bought drinks for a guy we met in the city who said he was a "'porter for the New York Post." All of us were a bit tipsy so when he told us what he did, we thought he was a real-live RE-porter. We were wrong. He was a porter. Ahh, to be young and stupid again.

Fast forward to the present. Here I am running my own business, cursing the guy on the city desk for not listening to my pitch for a story on my company -- and he's with the paper I had worked for! I would have been his superior even!.

Just a few years ago, I was that guy on the desk, taking phone calls from business owners who thought their companies deserved ink. On the other side now, I am as humbled as I was when Smokin' Mary from IBM clocked 120 words per minute in that typing contest.

It's not easy to get publicity. I guess that's why companies hire agencies to do the pushing. I've already tried and failed to move steely editors and reporters with phrases like: "Hey, I've been where you are man and I know that you guys have to put up with a lot of *&%$$#. But I have a real story to tell." This wouldn't wash, no matter who I was. I am now on the other side, taking a number like everyone else who demands an audience with the Fourth Estate. And I'm not worthy!

Take it from me, editors and reporters have basically seen and heard it all many times over. They're about as jaded as veteran cops. They want you to give them ammunition. They want to be able to go to their supervisors and talk about "a great story," one where the lead practically writes itself, and the headline screams to be read. "Ex-Journalist Opens Own Business" just doesn't cut it.

Media types need a hook, something that no one else is doing, or something that they have never reported before. Colorful, eccentric or reclusive CEOs often get press simply because they're not like everybody else. Likewise, anything that has to do with the Internet eventually gets some press, especially if the owners are still in junior high school.

Marketing is a bizarre animal. Most products are 90% marketing, 10% substance. Unless you understand that, you can waste your time developing the greatest widget on earth. Remember the Pet Rock?

So before you pick up the phone and dial the city desk, make sure you come bearing gifts. Every father or mother thinks their child is the best. The same applies with your business. You and a gazillion others are out there fighting for the same thing. Step back, make yourself look different, and you'll improve the odds. And, Buddy -- do yourself a favor. Think about how your pitch sounds to someone who has heard it all.

George Giokas is the president and CEO of StaffWriters Plus, a specialty agency that places writers in temporary and permanent positions with corporate and other employers. It also provides editorial consulting work. His database includes 2,500 writers and editors specializing in more than 60 categories. His Web site is located at www.staffwriters.com, and you can E-mail him at george@staffwriters.com.