It's easy for any charity to be overwhelmed by the difficulties of getting media coverage. Every publication seems to be full of stories just as interesting as your own- but someone else's is covered not yours. One simple approach is to focus not on what you have to say but on who you want to say it to. The journalist relationship is just as important as the story itself. The good news is that any charity can adopt what I call the 'big five' approach.

The idea is simple- who are the five (or ten for larger organisations) most important journalists for your organisation? These might be the cub reporter on the local paper, the relevant correspondent on a trade publication, or a correspondent on a national newspaper. Having identified these five people work out what you know about them. Who in your organisation currently has the best relationship with them? What stories do they currently write about? What has each written about your organisation? As you gather the information make a table of what you know about them: their contact details, their interests, where they live, what they write about, when you last met them and so on.

Once you have the list- make sure you sit down and use it once a month. See who might go for a coffee with which journalist on the list, which of the five might be right for an invitation to an event. Give them a call to ask whether a story you are thinking about might be relevant to them. In short manage the relationship with them to maximise the benefit for you and your organisation.

Joe Saxton is chair and founder of CharityComms. In his day job Joe is driver of ideas and co-founder of specialist research consultancy nfpSynergy