In 1944 and 1945, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a series of articles entitled the "Geography of War". These ten articles described where a place was, history, condition before the fighting, and why its geography was important during World War II.
One of the articles, Budapest Stands at the Crossroads of Europe begins with "Budapest, menaced by Soviet forces, is both the capital of Hungary and guardian of its great plains, the natural gateway to Vienna, says the National Geographic Society." These articles show how a geographic organization teamed up with the media to spread the importance of geography to a public hungry for information.
A total of ten Geography of War articles are available from Google News Archive.
When I read these articles one thing I thought of was possible ways geographers could reignite this type of public educational outreach. Dr. Harm de Blij did something similar with Good Morning America by being their geography analyst. Perphaps it is time geographers reach out again to the media. We [geographers] need to be the one initiating and promoting these efforts, though. Please contact me or comment if anyone knows of similar outreach effort to the press currently ongoing.
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