Get Featured in Wicked Local

Space in a local publication goes first to public affairs, emergencies, schools and sports. That leaves little room at Wicked Local for a business owner or professional who sends in a story idea cold, even when the story has a real local tie. With a guaranteed placement, the outlet is confirmed first, you approve every word, and the article publishes on wickedlocal.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 Wicked Local covers

Readers in Massachusetts have plenty of national and international news to choose from. Wicked Local 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.

Stories about people are a natural fit for local news because readers may know the subject, or may walk past the storefront every week. A profile of an owner, a look at a new location, a firm’s anniversary, a fundraiser, a book by a local author: these are familiar formats for a community publication, and they work when they are specific about the place and the people.

Who reads Wicked Local

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

If your customers are local, local news is the most direct press there is. Being featured in Wicked Local 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.

What local coverage in Massachusetts does for you

For most companies, the people who matter most are within driving distance. A feature in Wicked Local speaks to that group directly, because its readers have a stake in what happens in Massachusetts. Coverage there can support word of mouth, give your sales conversations a local reference, and show up when someone in Massachusetts looks for information about you or your company.

Those who ask for coverage in Massachusetts are often professionals whose work depends on reputation in a defined area, such as attorneys, physicians, financial advisers, builders and agents. Event organizers, schools and hospitality venues are common as well, along with national brands that are launching a new location in Massachusetts.

Out-of-area companies and longtime locals face the same test: is there a reason for people in this community to care? For a newcomer, it may be jobs, a new location or a service not offered nearby. For an established name, it may be growth, history or community work. Either way, specifics carry the story.

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.