Get Featured in Billings Gazette

Being local does not make Billings Gazette 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. 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 billingsgazette.com within a window stated in writing, usually one week. It is a real article on the site that you can put in a proposal, a deck or a profile.

What Billings Gazette covers

Readers in Montana have plenty of national and international news to choose from. Billings Gazette 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.

Business and community stories sit comfortably beside civic news. A local publication is where readers expect to learn about a new restaurant, a practice adding a location, a contractor finishing a visible project, an artist’s exhibition or a company setting up in the area. The writing is plain and factual, the local connection is stated early, and the subject is someone or something readers can find nearby.

Who reads Billings Gazette

The readership of a local news publication is concentrated where the publication is. For Billings Gazette, that is a community in Montana. 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.

Why coverage in Montana matters

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

Those who ask for coverage in Montana 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 Montana.

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.