Get Featured in Windsor Star

Being local does not make Windsor Star 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 windsorstar.com within a window stated in writing, usually four to six weeks. It is a real article on the site that you can put in a proposal, a deck or a profile.

What Windsor Star covers

Windsor Star is a local news publication serving readers in Ontario. 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 Windsor Star

A local audience is small compared with a national one, and far more relevant to a local business. Readers of a publication like Windsor Star live, work, shop and vote in the community it covers in Ontario. 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 Windsor Star 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 a presence in Ontario is worth having

It is easy to treat Ontario as an extension of a larger market, but buyers there pay attention to their own press. Coverage in Windsor Star meets them where they read. It supports local credibility, helps nearby customers and suppliers recognize you, and gives anyone in Ontario who researches your company a relevant result. For a company from outside the country, that local footing takes time to build otherwise.

Those who want visibility in Ontario are often businesses serving several provinces, from manufacturers and builders to software companies and clinics. Entrepreneurs and executives building personal reputations are also common. So are foreign brands that are entering the Canadian market and need local recognition.

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

• 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.