Scottie Rodgers, NCAA assistant director of the Division I Women's Basketball Championship

Bring in the media for a luncheon during every sports season. While media members may attend to learn about one particular sport, provide them with game schedules and notes for every sport in that season.

Offer the local newspaper a pre-written feature each month that rotates through women's sports and men's Olympic sports. "Use an ambitious student or grad assistant to help you so you don't end up overloading yourself. But that way the community becomes aware of different sports and you can get more grass-roots support. If people know when your soccer games are and they like soccer, they will come," Rodgers said.

John Schael, athletics director at Washington University (Missouri)

Visit personally with sportswriters from your local newspaper or television stations. At Washington University (Missouri), athletics administrators take the sportswriters to lunch and talk with them about the school's athletics programs. "We invite them to games and try to treat them special when they do come. We've also had a guest coach program, where we let one sit on the bench with us," Schael said.

Mary Jo Kane, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota and professor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, school of kinesiology

Be sure to emphasize the athletics excellence of your female athletes and highlight their competence. "Promote the women the same way you promote the men. Athletics excellence puts people in the stands and keeps them coming back for more," Kane said.

Take advantage of the promotion opportunities available this year, which is the 30th anniversary of the passage of Title IX. "If you're looking for a 'hook' to promote your women's sports this year, that's a great one," Kane said.

Mike Ferlazzo, a former longtime sports information director and now senior news services manager at Dick Jones Communications, a firm that assists colleges and universities with their public affairs work, particularly in the area of national media relations

Understand differences in the men's and women's games in the same sport, such as basketball, for example, and know how to accentuate the qualities of the women's game by providing appropriate highlights and statistics, such as steals or three-point shots in basketball.

Don't let a "no," even accompanied by some derogatory comments, keep you from pitching a good women's sports story. "The editor may just be saying 'no' to this women's story or possibly to the timing of the story, but not to all good stories involving women athletes," Ferlazzo said.

Sell human-interest angles. "If you've got a career record holder in a sport, that might be a nice feature story for the local media and the athlete's hometown media. But if you've got a career record holder in a sport who also has a 'human-interest angle' -- like being a successful rodeo rider on her family's ranch in the summer -- then the national media just may be interested, too. Be aware, this needs to be more than simply performing community service with her team on campus," Ferlazzo said.

Use the men's teams to your advantage for coverage of women's teams. Plan preseason luncheons and events together. Encourage the scheduling of doubleheaders. "Particularly at the small college level, doubleheaders generally generate better fan support and also more media interest because of the ease in coverage," Ferlazzo said. "Sometimes, even the most staunch media opponent of women's sports might be lured into giving proper respect to female athletes and teams if they come to cover the men's game and become captivated with a dramatic women's contest in the opener."

Ray Begovich, assistant professor in the Pulliam School of Journalism at Franklin College and a former newspaper reporter

Randy Sarvis, director of public relations at Wilmington College (Ohio)

Be open to using the public relations resources of your college or university. When its women's basketball team advanced to the elite eight of the Division III tournament this year, Wilmington College (Ohio) received assistance from its public relations department. Small schools or those with young or new sports information directors can benefit from extra hands on deck, especially when teams advance in a national tourney or someone sets a national record.

Pitch a local connection and provide customized press releases. Wilmington -- which is about an hour from Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus -- had players from those communities on its nationally ranked team. The public relations staff wrote different press releases for each city that emphasized players from that area.

Don't be afraid to do something unusual once in a while. "For a release that made reference to the fact that the team was 'on fire,' I made each release city-specific, and then burned the edges of the paper. I think that charred release got quite a bit of attention," Sarvis said.

Judith Jenkins George, professor of health and physical performance at DePauw University

To better alert the next generation of journalists, consider contacting the journalism department at your institution. Offer to be a speaker in an appropriate class.

Keep an eye on your own school newspaper. If the coverage is imbalanced, you could contact the faculty committee that oversees it and play a role in educating its editorial staff.

Have athletics banquets with both genders at the same time and invite the media. Give out most valuable player awards there for each team and have profiles and photographs of those student-athletes who were honored available to the media.

Produce equitable media guides. Don't put your entire media guide budget into one or two men's sports. "If we do football first class, we should be doing that for one of the women's sports as well. Look at the media guides and see if there's fair representation. If there's not, it's just another way of showing the female student-athletes that they're not important," George said.

Jane Gottesman, co-editor of the book "Game Face" and a former editor, journalist and researcher

Be sensitive to the fact that journalists can be accused of having an agenda. Sell them a good story; don't try to sell them a good "women's" story or try to appeal to them for equity. At the same time, know who's sympathetic to you.

Know who the gatekeepers are in the media you deal with regularly. They may be editors or senior writers.

Write personal letters, both to gatekeepers and reporters. Write gatekeepers letters supporting what they've done and complimenting the writers you've liked.

Don't take it personally if someone is short with you or if they don't use the story. They may be harried that day or simply not have room for something.

-- Kay Hawes