Get Featured in The Detroit News

The Detroit News 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 detroitnews.com inside the window written into your scope, usually one to two weeks. It is a real article on the site that you can put in a proposal, a deck or a profile.

What The Detroit News covers

Readers in Michigan have plenty of national and international news to choose from. The Detroit News 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 Detroit News

A local audience is small compared with a national one, and far more relevant to a local business. Readers of a publication like The Detroit News live, work, shop and vote in the community it covers in Michigan. Many of them are deciding where to spend money, whom to hire and which organizations to support close to home.

That matters for anyone whose work depends on local reputation. Real estate agents, advisers, physicians, attorneys, contractors and restaurateurs all win business through familiarity and word of mouth. A story in The Detroit News adds to both, and it can be shared on your site, in your office, in proposals and across your social profiles.

What local coverage in Michigan does for you

A business that serves Michigan benefits from being seen where people in Michigan already get their news. A feature in The Detroit News 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 Michigan 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 Michigan and want to introduce themselves to the community.

You do not need a big announcement to be local news. You need something real: an opening, a milestone, a new offering, a community effort, a personal story with roots in the area. What matters is that the details are accurate, the local link is plain, and the story tells readers something they did not know.

The angles below are where we begin. One clear angle, backed by real details about your work in the community, makes a better local story than a list of everything you offer.

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.