Get Featured in Richmond Times-Dispatch

Local reporters have to choose from a long list of community stories every week, and a business announcement rarely tops that list. Getting Richmond Times-Dispatch 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 richmond.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 Richmond Times-Dispatch covers

Local news is the layer of journalism closest to where people live, and Richmond Times-Dispatch works at that level for readers in Virginia. A publication of this kind typically follows town or city decisions, neighborhood changes, new businesses, schools, local sports, community events and the people behind them. National outlets rarely get to these stories, which is exactly why local publications exist.

The tone of local news is direct and practical. Readers want to know what is opening, what is changing, who is behind it and how it affects them. That makes room for stories about a business reaching a milestone, a professional bringing a new service to the area, a nonprofit meeting a need, an event worth attending, or a resident with an achievement the community would want to hear about.

Who reads Richmond Times-Dispatch

Who reads local news in Virginia? 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. Richmond Times-Dispatch 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.

For a local business or practice, that makes a Richmond Times-Dispatch feature a way to be seen by the people most likely to become customers, clients or patients. It is also a credential you can show: local news coverage tells prospects, partners, lenders and landlords that your work is known in the community you serve.

What local coverage in Virginia does for you

Coverage in Richmond Times-Dispatch reaches people who live and work in Virginia, which is where most local buying decisions are made. Readers tend to give more weight to a business they have seen in a publication from their own area. When a customer, landlord or potential partner in Virginia looks up your name, a local feature gives them something familiar and credible to find.

Typical clients include owners of family businesses, founders of growing local companies, authors and speakers with roots in Virginia, and leaders of community organizations. Regional chains and out-of-state firms expanding into Virginia also seek local coverage so that their arrival is explained in a publication residents already read.

Stories in a community publication work best when they sound like news about a neighbor. That means a clear subject, a location, a timeline and a human being readers can picture. Owners and professionals who can say what changed, when, and who benefits locally are already most of the way to a strong feature.

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

• No local connection. If the story could run unchanged in any town, readers of a community publication have little reason to stop on it.
• Sales copy presented as news. Readers come for information about their community, so a list of offers and slogans reads as out of place.
• Vague claims. “Best in the area” and “top-rated” mean little without something a reader can verify, and everything we write must be true.
• Too many messages. One opening, one milestone or one person, told clearly, is stronger than a tour of every service you provide.