Get Featured in The Buffalo News

The Buffalo News is a local news publication, and local newsrooms tend to run on small staffs with more story tips than they can follow. Pitches from businesses usually lose out to public meetings, breaking news and school sports, however good the story is. 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 buffalonews.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 The Buffalo News covers

The Buffalo News is a local news publication serving readers in New York. Publications in this category report on the things that shape everyday life in a community: local government and public services, schools, business openings and closings, development, public safety, weather, sports, arts and events. The coverage is defined by geography. If it happens in the area or affects the people who live there, it is a potential story.

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 The Buffalo News

A local audience is small compared with a national one, and far more relevant to a local business. Readers of a publication like The Buffalo News live, work, shop and vote in the community it covers in New York. 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 The Buffalo News 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.

Why coverage in New York matters

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

Those who ask for coverage in New York 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 New York.

You do not need a big announcement to be local news. You need something real: an opening, a milestone, a new offering, a community effort, a personal story with roots in the area. What matters is that the details are accurate, the local link is plain, and the story tells readers something they did not know.

Before drafting, we identify the strongest of the angles below. Owners often overlook the story behind the business, such as why they started or whom they serve, and it is frequently the one readers remember.

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.