This from the New York Times:

When editors at the New Oxford American Dictionary recently
announced that their word of the year was “locavore,” which means
someone who eats locally grown food, they also became the very
definition of publicity.

In the last few weeks Ben
Zimmer, an Oxford University Press dictionary editor, appeared on
numerous radio shows and on a syndicated public radio program to talk
about the word contest. The selection of locavore also had 25 mentions
in major newspapers like The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Washington Post.

“There
are very few good ways to get publicity for a dictionary,” said Erin
McKean, a lexicographer at Oxford. While publishers can rely on
coverage for new entries in just-published dictionaries, some reference
books go for as long as a decade between revisions. “We are constantly
surveilling the language to see what new words people are coming up
with,” Ms. McKean said.