Get Featured in The Tribune (San Luis Obispo)

Being local does not make The Tribune (San Luis Obispo) easy to get into. A community newsroom has limited reporters and limited hours, so stories about businesses, practices and organizations often wait behind news that has to run today. With a guaranteed placement, the outlet is confirmed first, you approve every word, and the article publishes on sanluisobispo.com inside the window written into your scope, usually one week. It is a real article on the site that you can put in a proposal, a deck or a profile.

What The Tribune (San Luis Obispo) covers

Readers in California have plenty of national and international news to choose from. The Tribune (San Luis Obispo) 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 The Tribune (San Luis Obispo)

The readership of a local news publication is concentrated where the publication is. For The Tribune (San Luis Obispo), that is a community in California. 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.

Local coverage carries a kind of weight that advertising does not. When neighbors read about a business, a practice or a cause in their community’s news publication, the name becomes familiar and easier to choose. For companies entering the market from elsewhere, it is a way to introduce themselves to the area in a setting locals already read.

What local coverage in California does for you

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

Those who ask for coverage in California 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 California.

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.

We start by choosing one of the angles below. Most businesses and practices have two or three that would work, and the best choice is usually the one with the clearest local connection and timing.

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.