How to Get Featured in the News

To get featured in the news, give one reporter a story their readers need now (news, data, or a local angle) before it is public, and start with local and trade press rather than national outlets. Below: the four kinds of "featured", what makes a story, a pitch you can copy, and a guide for each big publication.

The four kinds of "featured"

Every "featured in" logo on a startup's homepage came through one of these doors. Knowing which one you are trying to open decides who you contact and what you send.

Readers can usually tell the four apart. A sponsored post is labelled. A contributed column carries a byline and a short bio. Earned coverage is the only one where a journalist chose you, which is why it is the one that moves reputation, and the one this guide spends most of its time on.

What makes a story, not an ad

The single most common reason a pitch fails is that it describes the company rather than a story. "We launched a new product" is an announcement. A reporter needs a reason their readers should care today. The usual reasons:

• It is new and it is first. A launch, a funding round or a result that nobody has reported yet, offered to one outlet before the others.
• It is data. Numbers you have that nobody else does: a survey, your own usage records, prices you have collected. Reporters quote data because it makes their story harder to dispute.
• It explains something in the news. You are the person who can say what a change means for a specific group.
• It is a trend with examples. Your company is one case of something bigger, and you can point to others.
• It is a person. An unusual founder, customer or employee whose story carries the piece.

If your pitch does not answer "why now, and why this reporter's readers", it is an ad, and it will be read as one.

The pitch itself

Short, specific and sent to one person. The shape that works for almost every outlet:

1. Subject line that is the story, not your company name. "[Number] plumbers surveyed: why [surprising finding]" beats "Press opportunity: [Company]".
2. One sentence on why this reporter: the piece of theirs it follows from.
3. Two or three sentences of the story, with the most surprising fact first.
4. What you can offer: an interview, the data, photos, a customer who will talk, an exclusive or an embargo date.
5. Nothing attached. Link to the details; attachments from strangers get filtered.

A version you can adapt for a local or trade reporter:

Subject: [The story in one line: what happened, to whom, where]

Hi [Name],

You wrote about [their recent story] last [week/month]. A related one from [town / industry]: [the story in one sentence, most surprising fact first].

[Two or three facts: numbers, dates, who is affected.] [Why now: the event, deadline or change that makes it timely.]

I can offer [an interview with the founder / photos / the full data / a customer who will talk], and it's yours first if you want it. Details: [link].

Thanks,
[Name, role, phone]

Our media pitching playbook and pitch templates go line by line, and startup PR without an agency covers the planning around a launch. One follow-up after four or five working days is fine. A second one rarely helps.

Local newspapers and TV

Local news is the most underrated route because it is the least glamorous. Local reporters cover a fixed patch, they need stories every day, and a local business doing something new is exactly what they are there to report. The competition for their attention is a fraction of what a national business reporter sees.

What local desks respond to:

• A local angle on a national story. A new law, a price change or a trend, and what it means for people in your town, with you as the person who can explain it.
• Local numbers. Local hiring, a second location, a milestone reached with customers in the area.
• An event with pictures. TV in particular needs something to film: a launch, a community project, a demonstration.
• A human story. Why you started, who you employ, what problem in the community you solve.

Almost every local newspaper and station publishes a news tip address or form on its contact page. Use it, and also find the one or two reporters who cover business or your neighbourhood and email them directly. Our media list guide shows how to keep track of who covers what, and the press release submission guide covers when a formal release helps and when it is just noise.

Trade press and niche blogs

Between local news and the national business press sits the layer that most businesses should spend most of their effort on: the trade publications, industry newsletters and independent blogs your customers actually read. A mention in the blog every dental practice manager follows will send more of the right people than a paragraph in a national outlet, and it is far more attainable.

We can put numbers on "attainable" because this is the outreach MentionAgent runs every day. Across 18,849 blogs and niche sites pitched on behalf of MentionAgent customers between March and September 2026, 7.3% sent a human reply and 2.7% said yes or started negotiating. The yes rate fell as the site got bigger: sites with a Domain Rating of 0 to 9 said yes 4.2% of the time, and sites at DR 70 or above said yes 1.1% of the time. The big names answer, but they are the ones most likely to say no or quote a price.

The practical reading: a feature in a national outlet is one yes that you cannot control. Mentions across 20 relevant niche sites are 20 small yeses you can plan for, and each one is also a link and a citation that search engines and AI assistants read. The two are not either-or, but most businesses have them in the wrong order. Our guide to collaborating with bloggers has the full dataset behind those numbers.

Guides by publication

The big national outlets each have their own doors, and several have paid programmes that look like editorial from the outside. These guides cover each one's newsroom route, contributor route, lists and paid products, using the publication's own pages as the source:

By profession: PR for interior designers and PR for architects cover the design press, where most titles want unpublished, exclusive projects.

Watch out for "guaranteed" features

Search this topic and you will be sold to. We checked the top Google results for 20 "get featured in" and "pitch" searches on 23 September 2026: a firm advertising "guaranteed" features ranked on 12 of the 20 pages, and one firm alone on 10. Another 58 of the 186 results were Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn and similar threads of people asking each other, because the publications explain their process on a contact page and little else.

A newsroom does not sell articles, so a guaranteed feature usually comes through a side door: a contributor who publishes under the outlet's brand, a sponsored section, or a press-release syndication page. Entrepreneur and Forbes Councils forbid their members from selling coverage (Entrepreneur ends the membership; Forbes can remove the content), and Business Insider's code of ethics says it does not accept payment from the subjects of its articles. If you pay for visibility, pay the publication for a clearly labelled sponsored slot.

What to expect, and when

Coverage is lumpy. A pitch to a local reporter can turn into a story the same week; a feature in a national magazine can take months from first contact, and many never happen. A realistic sequence for a business starting from nothing looks like this:

• Month one: build the list of local reporters, trade publications and niche blogs that cover your customers. Pitch the ones with the clearest fit.
• Months two and three: the first local and trade pieces run. Each one is proof for the next pitch, because reporters check whether anyone else found you interesting.
• Month four onwards: pitch national outlets with a real story and the coverage you already have. Apply to the lists you qualify for.

Throughout, keep the mentions coming from the layer you can plan for. That is the part MentionAgent automates: finding the niche sites in your market, writing to the person who runs each one, and handling the replies, so the national pitch is one effort among many rather than the whole plan.

Mistakes that end the conversation

Mass-mailing a press release. A release blasted to hundreds of addresses reads as spam to each of them. Pick the reporter, then write to them.

Pitching the outlet instead of the person. "Dear editor" at a national publication goes nowhere. Every beat has a name attached; find it.

Offering the same exclusive to three outlets. Reporters talk to each other, and the one who finds out will not take your next pitch.

Asking to see the article before it runs. Journalists do not give sources copy approval. You can correct a factual error after publication.

Buying a feature and presenting it as earned. If a placement was paid for, anyone who looks closely can usually tell, and the publications that forbid it can remove the content or end the contributor's membership. The digital PR costs guide covers what legitimate paid options cost.

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