Backlinks From News Websites: What They Charge and How to Earn One

A news website backlink is a link to your site from a news publisher. Two very different things are sold under that name: an editorial link a reporter adds to a story, and a paid post on a site that calls itself news. This page shows what the second kind charges, using replies to MentionAgent's own outreach, and how to get the first kind.

Two kinds of news links

• Editorial links from a newsroom: a reporter cites your data, quotes you, or covers your company and links to the source. Nobody is paid.
• Paid placements on a site with "News" in its name: a guest post, an "advertorial", or your link added to an existing article for a fee. Many of these sites are tech or business blogs that publish news among other things.

One of the 40 news-titled sites that replied to us, a real estate newsroom, said it doesn't "do link insertions on the editorial side of the house" and passed the request to its sales team for paid, sponsored content. That split between editorial and advertising is the line to look for.

How often news sites ask to be paid

MentionAgent emails site owners on behalf of its users and sorts each reply. We grouped every site that replied between 20 August and 18 October 2026 by whether its homepage title contains the word "News", and counted the sites where a reply asked for money.

The news group is small, so read the gap as a direction, not a precise rate. Our own sales workspace is excluded. For how replies split across all sites, see when a blogger asks for money.

What they quoted

23 of the news-titled sites named a price, 22 of them in US dollars. For those 22 we read each reply and took the cheapest option that placed a link: a guest post, a list slot or a link added to an existing article.

The range ran from $10 to $2,000, with a median of $175. The $2,000 quote was for the fifth slot in a "Top 10" list article. Five of the 22 quoted for a group of sister sites in the same reply, from two sites up to a list of regional titles. The 23rd, a UK site, asked for a £75 publishing fee. Prices outside news are in how much backlinks cost.

The sponsored tag problem

Google's spam policies name this case directly. Link spam includes "Advertorials or native advertising where payment is received for articles that include links that pass ranking credit". Paid links are allowed "as long as they are qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute value".

Of the 23 sites that named a price, 7 told us in writing that the link would not be marked:

• A healthcare technology news site: "$500 for a permanent, sponsored post without the sponsored tag".
• A marketing news site: "We offer dofollow links without any "sponsored" tags."
• A network of five sites: "Articles are not labelled as paid or sponsored".
• A UK construction site: the article "will not be marked as sponsored".
• Two more promised no sponsored label. A seventh shows a visible "Sponsored" note on the page but no rel attribute on the link, which is the part Google reads.

Only one said every post is labelled sponsored. A link sold without the attribute is the kind Google's policy describes, whoever's site it sits on. More in buying backlinks.

Checks before you pay a news site

1. Ask about the rel attribute, not the label. "Sponsored" written on the page is not the same as rel="sponsored" on the link.
2. Ask which site. One reply priced links at $15 across a list of sister sites. Check each domain's traffic and topic yourself; see relevant backlinks.
3. Read the payment terms. Two replies said an article would be deleted if the invoice wasn't paid within days. Others wanted payment up front.

Earning an editorial news link

The real estate newsroom above kept editorial links out of its sales process. To get one, you give a reporter something for a story:

• Original data a reporter can cite. Digital PR examples collects data studies that earned links.
• Expert comment on a story already being written. Top-tier media coverage covers this route.
• A local or trade angle for regional papers and trade press. See how to get featured in the news.
• Existing mentions without a link. If a news site already named you, ask for the link. See unlinked brand mentions.

For the wider picture, start with digital PR.

If you run a news site

The same Google policy applies from your side: mark links in paid posts with rel="sponsored". Google's link attribute guide says to "Mark links that are advertisements or paid placements (commonly called paid links) with the sponsored value." Links to your site come the same way as for anyone else: see how to build backlinks.

MentionAgent finds sites and articles in your niche, finds the editor's email and drafts a pitch, which you approve or send on auto. It doesn't buy links, and every link depends on an editor saying yes.

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