This article presents reflections on the assumptions, goals and tools used by the district authorities of Podkarpackie Province in their external information policy. The authors have tried to answer the following questions: whether the counties maintain conscious relations with the media, what these relations look like, and also whether the journalists are interested in the issues of self-government (according to local authorities). Moreover, the intensity of the use of selected communication tools - standard and non-standard – has been described. The article has also aimed to determine what tools of external communication will be used by the counties in the future. The conclusions presented in the article were based on the results of a survey conducted by the authors with the heads of Podkarpackie counties in the first half of 2012.