Get Featured in The Oklahoman

Local reporters have to choose from a long list of community stories every week, and a business announcement rarely tops that list. Getting The Oklahoman to cover your opening, milestone or project on your own usually means repeated pitching and a lot of waiting. A guaranteed placement works differently: it is arranged with the publication before any writing starts, you sign off on the draft, and it goes live on oklahoman.com within a window stated in writing, 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 Oklahoman covers

Every community has stories that never reach a national outlet: a new clinic, a restaurant changing hands, a nonprofit campaign, a planning decision, a team’s season. Local news publications exist to report them. The Oklahoman is one such publication, serving readers in Oklahoma, and its coverage, published at oklahoman.com, is built around what is happening in its own area and who is involved.

Local publications favor concrete detail over big claims. Where is it, when does it open, who runs it, what does it mean for the neighborhood. A story that answers those questions plainly reads like news. That applies equally to a family business, a medical or legal practice, a charity, a festival or a company arriving from elsewhere, and it is the standard a feature should meet.

Who reads The Oklahoman

Who reads local news in Oklahoma? Residents who want to keep up with their community, owners watching the local market, professionals looking for referrals and partners, and newcomers learning the area. The Oklahoman writes for that readership. Its audience is defined by location, which means a story there reaches people who can actually visit, call, book or attend.

Recognition close to home is often worth more than attention far away. A feature in a local publication gives an owner, a professional or an organizer something concrete to share with customers, donors, members and referral sources. It also gives people who look up your name a news story from your own market to find.

Reaching readers and customers in Oklahoma

Local trust is built close to home. When The Oklahoman covers a company, readers in Oklahoma see it in a setting they know, alongside news about their own communities. That context helps with customers who prefer to buy nearby, with partners who want to work with established local names, and with anyone in Oklahoma who checks your background before reaching out.

Demand comes mostly from businesses with a physical presence in Oklahoma: shops, clinics, firms, studios and venues that want more people nearby to know them. It also comes from entrepreneurs raising their profile ahead of a local launch, and from companies headquartered elsewhere that are hiring or opening in Oklahoma.

The question every local reader asks is simple: what does this have to do with here? A good feature answers it in the first lines. That can be an address, a hometown, a local client base, a community project or a new service for residents. Everything else in the story builds on that connection.

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

• Nothing new. A local story needs a reason to run now, such as a date, a change, an event or a recent result.
• Missing details. Without a location, a description of what you do and a clear timeline, a feature reads as generic and local readers move on.
• Claims that cannot be supported. Local readers know the area and will notice exaggeration, and we only write what is accurate.
• A story with no people in it. Community news is about neighbors, so a feature needs an owner, a team or a client perspective.