The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) held a media seminar for non-profit organizations last month, enticing 20 area leaders of advocacy organizations and print and TV reporters.

The panelists were veteran journalists genuinely interested in a partnership with organizations to better serve the public. Their basic advice: Do not lie to reporters. And cultivate relationship with reporters who cover your issues, and their editors, too. The advice from Washington Post local editor Emilio Garcia-Ruiz: Be a news source, and reporters will return your calls.

Jennifer Abella is deputy copy chief for the weekly Food, Home, Health, Travel and Weekend sections of Post. She’s also the AAJA D.C. chapter community liaison this year, and she organized the two-hour event. She urged non-profits to use the listings. Groups can have a wide reach–“and it’s free.”

Elizabeth Lee is a reporter and media consultant with over 12 years of experience in broadcast journalism. She covered post-Katrina news, the Columbia space shuttle tragedy and the implosion of Enron.

Among her advice to get in the news: Return a reporter’s phone calls and emails immediately. Also: Be on time for an interview, speak in layman’s terms, and have facts and figures available “to demonstrate your credibility.” Avoid holding the interview “in a conference room, it looks boring on the screen.” Better: Choose a room with plants and paintings.

Sommer Mathis is editor-in-chief of DCist, Washington’s popular local news and entertainment blog, and has written for the Post, WTOP and The Guardian. Read the Web site’s readers’ section: “You’ll get a sense of who the readers are,” she said.

The panel distributed media tips, including some from Amy Orndorff, listings editor of the Post Weekend section: “Know the deadlines. Weekend’s deadline is 10 days before the day of the publication. A good rule is to send announcements a month in advance.”

“Don’t forget the basics. It sounds obvious, but frequently, The Washington Post receives event announcements missing one of more of the following: summary of the event, day, time, address (really!), phone number, Web site and admission prices. This is basic information that any publication or member of the public would require.”

Another Orndorff tip for Event Listings information or press releases: Include the text in the e-mail itself, aside from the Attachment. Also: “(A)lthough it’s great to have tons of information, keeping a press release simple helps.”

Other tips: 1) Know the publication–does it print events similar to yours?–and tailor your press release to fit the kind of information and format it uses; 2) E-mail or call to confirm that your e-mail was received, and that all the needed information was included; 3) If your event sells out, inform the publication–publications “won’t want to tell people to go to something that is already full.”

Limit pictures to two, and e-mail a high-resolution picture “that includes credit and caption information.” The caption refers to “who’s in the photo, what event it was, where and when was it taken and by whom,” (photo credit).