Get Featured in The Charlotte Observer

The Charlotte Observer is a local news publication, and local newsrooms tend to run on small staffs with more story tips than they can follow. Pitches from businesses usually lose out to public meetings, breaking news and school sports, however good the story is. With a guaranteed placement, the outlet is confirmed first, you approve every word, and the article publishes on charlotteobserver.com inside the window written into your scope, usually three to five days. It is a real article on the site that you can put in a proposal, a deck or a profile.

What The Charlotte Observer covers

Readers in North Carolina have plenty of national and international news to choose from. The Charlotte Observer does a different job. Local news publications concentrate on a defined area and report what is going on inside it, from civic affairs and the local economy to community events, schools, sports and the arts. The common thread is place: each story matters to someone nearby.

Local reporting treats a community as a set of people and places with names. In that setting, an opening, an expansion, an award, a new hire, a charity drive or a new service is news, provided it is told with facts. Owners, professionals, nonprofits, event organizers and creative people with a local tie are all familiar subjects of this kind of coverage.

Who reads The Charlotte Observer

The readership of a local news publication is concentrated where the publication is. For The Charlotte Observer, that is a community in North Carolina. Its readers include longtime residents, families, local employers and employees, community leaders and neighbors who follow local affairs. They read with attention because the news concerns places they know and people they may have met.

If your customers are local, local news is the most direct press there is. Being featured in The Charlotte Observer puts your name in front of people in your own market and gives you a news story to use in marketing, on your website and in conversations with prospects. For out-of-area companies, it signals a commitment to the community.

Why coverage in North Carolina matters

A business that serves North Carolina benefits from being seen where people in North Carolina already get their news. A feature in The Charlotte Observer places your name in front of nearby customers, suppliers and referral sources who can act on it without leaving the area. It also adds a local reference point for anyone in the state who researches you before making a call or signing an agreement.

Coverage in North Carolina is commonly sought by service businesses, restaurants, medical and legal practices, real estate professionals, contractors and nonprofits that depend on local customers. It also suits companies from other states that are opening an office, a store or a franchise location in North Carolina and want to introduce themselves to the community.

Local news runs on specifics. A story that says a clinic opened on a named street, hired locally and offers a service the area lacked will hold a reader. A story that says a company is passionate about excellence will not. Before anything is written, the facts, the place and the timing need to be clear.

Before drafting, we identify the strongest of the angles below. Owners often overlook the story behind the business, such as why they started or whom they serve, and it is frequently the one readers remember.

What weakens a pitch

• A national message with a town name added. Local readers can tell when a story was not written with their community in mind.
• Jargon. Industry terms that work in a trade magazine lose a general local audience, so plain language serves the story better.
• Overstated community ties. If the connection to the area is thin, say what is true and build the story on something else.
• Everything at once. A feature that tries to cover history, services, awards and future plans together leaves readers without a clear takeaway.