Get Featured in Daily Press

Being local does not make Daily Press 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 dailypress.com inside the window written into your scope, usually two weeks. It is a real article on the site that you can put in a proposal, a deck or a profile.

What Daily Press covers

What does a local news publication cover? Whatever matters to the people nearby. For Daily Press, that means news for readers in Virginia: the kind of reporting on local government, business, schools, roads, real estate, events, sports and community life that larger outlets leave alone. A story earns its place by being relevant to the area, not by being big. Its reporting is published at dailypress.com.

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 Daily Press

The readership of a local news publication is concentrated where the publication is. For Daily Press, that is a community in Virginia. 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 Virginia does for you

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

Those who ask for coverage in Virginia 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 Virginia.

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.