David,
We/they have been working on doing so for well over a year. However, there are legitimate journalistic reasons why this has not yet occurred. First, some major national magazines, such as National Geographic, have already done a story on WNS, so are not particularly interested at the moment. NG frequently does cave pieces, but not "puff" pieces on organizations like the NSS. Second, in discussions with several magazines, they regard themselves as having high journalistic standards, and thus would not accept a commissioned piece, or one with an advocacy angle. If they decided to do a story, they will assign a writer, and then seek in put on a story from a multitude of sources. If you read through some of the longer, more substantial pieces on WNS, you'll see they cite numerous people with various viewpoints. The NSS and caving community has been included in a number of those, but not enough. I've spoken with dozens and dozens of reporters and other writers over the years about WNS, caving, the NSS, etc., but they usually boil down lengthy interviews to a sentence or three - no matter who you are.
For this reason, I write the pieces for the NSS publications, and we post them and attempt to circulate them as widely as possible. It's also the reason we've just posted a short, two-page, background piece on the NSS and WNS for anyone to use and share with their local media or if you give a talk at your local library, for example. We're trying to get that out there by whatever means we can. That piece is available here:
http://www.caves.org/WNS/The%20NSS%20and%20WNS%20final.pdfAs an alternative, we've even explored buying space in a national publication and publishing our own piece. These are called "advertorials" in the trade, and generally looked down upon by writers and readers alike as not good journalism. Serious writers consider these to demean their reputations, and the major national magazines editorial boards avoid them. They are expensive, too, and the choice we've made is not to go that route.
There are many ways the NSS could be improving its publicity - even simple things like getting press releases out for grant awards, conservation projects, book publications, grotto formations, etc. This should be regular and sustained. That takes work and serious volunteer hours. When press releases are sent out, people must be readily available for the media to contact and confirm or elaborate on stories. Not every release gets picked up, but sometimes they are national, sometimes regional, and sometimes local. Many papers are looking for material, and, if it's there, it'll get picked up. Over time, the NSS (or any entity doing this in a sustained manner) will be looked at as the "go-to" place for information on caves and caving. Many of us "think" the NSS should be in that position now, but the lack of a sustained effort for many years means many, if not most mainstream media outlets don't know of us.
Frankly, I think it would take some intense up front work to develop a media mailing list and a structure for NSS news items to be sent out from the NSS office. The PR committee, or Chair, or designated editor, or PR person, needs to vet materials from the various NSS internal organizations for accuracy, grammar, and consistency with NSS policy, and then push the "send" button. Materials can come from pretty much anywhere. For example, the Safety and Techniques Committee could issue a press release that it has a new WNS decon video. Quick and simple - contact Aaron for more info. The Conservation Section (Val Hildreth-Werker) could issue a press release citing the number of volunteer hours NSS members put in for federal agencies last year. The San Francisco Bay Chapter of the NSS could issue a press release saying it cleaned up XYZ Cave, and the PR committee could add a paragraph saying this brings the total number of NSS grotto conservation projects to 57 for the year. The Board could issue a press release announcing the results of the elections. Every issue of the Journal should be accompanied by a press release. The publication of these studies is news, and should be treated as such. Etc., etc., etc.
We do virtually none of this now. I think you get the picture - many people generating material, sent out through a central point for consistency.
Getting out of this hole will take years, in my opinion, but we need to start somewhere. So, go download the document above, carry it around with you, use it when you talk to your media, your Congressman, your garden club or scout troop. If each of us does that, we can begin to build our presence back up. No one's going to do it for us, but us.
Hope that provides some perspective.