The easiest way to accomplish this chore is to hire a clipping service. For fees ranging from $40 to $280 a month, the agencies will track down the stories you need in both traditional and Internet media. Clips are usually sent out twice a week, but there is a lag of from one to three weeks. 

Here are six major services. If your company needs to track media coverage, give this list to your sales and marketing department for follow-up.

Bacon's Clipping Bureau, Chicago, IL. Follows 50,000 publications internationally in 33 countries, 3,500 U.S. newspapers (all dailies, plus most weeklies), 6,000 trade and consumer magazines and wire services such as the Associated Press. Can target by state, region, circulation, or type of publication.

Burrelle's, Livingston, NJ. Follows 11,000 U.S. newspapers, 6,300 consumer and trade magazines, English publications in Canada, wire services, Web publications and Japanese economic news. Features TV excerpts. Can target by western or eastern United States, state, city, or circulation size of newspapers.

Luce Press Clippings, New York, NY. Follows 15,000 U.S. publications, including daily and weekly newspapers, consumer and trade magazines and wire services. Features Canadian coverage (for an extra charge per month), international coverage (for an extra monthly per country) and TV extracts from news.

New England Newsclip Agency, Framingham, MA. Follows 1,400 newspapers in New England, plus key national titles like the New York Times. Features daily municipal bid announcements and transcriptions of local TV news.

Magnolia Clipping Service , Jackson, MS. Follows every publication in Mississippi and Alabama, plus daily papers and business journals in Georgia and Tennessee-about 600 in all. Features coverage of top 45 national publications; daily faxes (for an extra fee); and analysis of your coverage versus your competition's.

Allen's Press Clippings, San Francisco, CA. Follows 2,400 newspapers, including papers in 10 western states, plus key national titles. Features a strong focus on labor press via trade journals.

And don't forget services that comb the Internet, including blog sites for mentions of your business. For example, Cyberalert.com. A quick check of online press clipping services and you'll find a variety of companies that can provide comprehensive media coverage so that you know right away what is being said and who is saying it.