Local news is the job of finding the angle a reporter would take on your business and writing the pitch that gets it in front of them. It takes the Skill shape and fits in one sitting: about an hour to gather your facts, run one prompt, and edit the pitch into something you would sign. You give the AI a plain list of what is true and new at your business, plus the outlet you want to reach. It gives back three possible story angles, ranked, and a short pitch email for the strongest one. You check every fact, find the right reporter yourself, and press send.
- Shape
- Skill
- Sitting
- one sitting
The shape: Skill
This job is a Skill because the hard part is a way of seeing, not a pile of work. Most owners think their business is not news, because to them it is just Tuesday. A reporter looks at the same facts and asks different questions: what changed, why now, who nearby is affected, and what is unusual for this town. A chat model is good at asking those questions of a list of facts, quickly and without the owner's blind spots.
That means there is nothing to set up and nothing to connect. You need the AI you already pay for, a plain text list, and the name of one outlet. It also means the result is only as good as the facts you hand over. The AI does the reframe. It does not do the reporting, and it should never be allowed to fill a gap with something that sounds true.
Save the brief below once, and you have the Skill for good. The next time something changes at your business, paste the same brief with the new facts, and you will start to see the angle yourself before you open the chat.
What you give the AI
Write these down in plain sentences before you open the chat. Short and true beats long and polished.
- The business in two lines: what you do, where you are, and how long you have been there.
- What is new: every change from the last six months, even the small ones, such as an opening, a move, a renovation, a new service, a new hire, a milestone year, or a change in ownership.
- What is coming up: any date in the next four to eight weeks, such as an event you are hosting, a season you are preparing for, a class, a ribbon cutting, or a sponsorship.
- The local ties: the neighborhood, the school, the team, the charity, the street, and the other businesses you work with, by name, because reporters cover places.
- One number you can stand behind: years open, jobs completed, or people trained, taken from your own records only and left out if you cannot prove it.
- One person to quote: usually you, with one line in your own words on why you started or why you made the change.
- The outlet: the name of the paper, newsletter, station, or business journal, plus three recent headlines about local businesses copied from its site so the AI can match the tone.
- What you have for pictures: a storefront, the team at work, or the before and after of a renovation, because reporters ask.
That is the whole input. If the "what is new" list is empty, the honest answer may be that there is no story this month, and that is fine to hear.
What comes back
Paste this brief into the chat, then fill in the three lines at the bottom with your notes. It works the same in ChatGPT or Claude.
You are an experienced local news reporter who covers small businesses
for the outlet named below. Read the facts about this business.
Step 1. List three story angles a reporter at this outlet might actually
write. For each angle give:
- a headline written the way this outlet writes headlines
- one sentence on why it is news now (the change, the date, or the local tie)
- who a reporter would want to interview
- what photo would run with it
Rank the three from strongest to weakest and say why in one line each.
Step 2. Write a pitch email for the strongest angle to one reporter.
If no reporter name is given below, write [NEED: reporter name].
Rules:
- under 150 words
- the news in the first sentence, no greeting paragraph
- use only the facts given below; if a fact is missing, write [NEED: ...]
instead of guessing
- no superlatives, no "proud to announce", no "excited to share"
- offer an interview and photos, and write [NEED: phone number] for the number
- a subject line under 10 words that reads like a headline
Step 3. List every factual claim in the pitch so the owner can check each one.
Outlet: [name]
Recent headlines from this outlet: [paste three]
Facts about the business: [paste your list]What you get back is three short angle cards, one pitch email of a screen or less, and a checklist of claims. The checklist is the part most people skip, and it is the part that keeps you out of trouble.
If none of the three angles feels right, say so in the chat and ask for three more from a different direction: the people, the place, or the timing. Two rounds is usually enough. More than that, and the problem is the facts, not the prompt.
How to judge it
You can reject a bad result in about a minute. Read the angle cards first, then the pitch, then the checklist.
A bad angle sounds like an ad. "Local bakery offers delicious bread" is not a story; "Bakery that started at the farmers market signs a lease on Main Street" might be. If you could swap your business name for a competitor's and the headline still works, the angle is too generic.
A bad angle has no "why now." Every good local story answers why this week and not last year. If the AI cannot name a change, a date, or a local tie, it is guessing.
A bad pitch buries the news. If the first sentence is about how much you love your community, cut it and move the news up.
A bad pitch invents. Watch for numbers you did not give it, awards you did not win, a "first in the city" claim you have not checked, and quotes from people who never said them. Any [NEED: ...] markers are good news: the AI admitted a gap instead of filling it.
A bad pitch is too long. If you have to scroll, a reporter will not.
A bad pitch does not fit the outlet. A neighborhood newsletter wants the human story and the address. A business journal wants the investment, the jobs, and the plan. A TV station wants something to film. If the pitch would read the same to all three, ask the AI to rewrite it for the one you chose.
What stays with you
The facts are yours. The AI does not know when you opened, what the renovation cost, or whether you really are the only one in town who does this. Check every line on the claims list against your own records before anything leaves your outbox.
The reporter is yours to find. Read the outlet, find the person who covers local business, and get their address from the outlet's own contact page or a recent byline. Do not trust an email address the AI suggests; it will happily produce one that looks right and bounces.
The relationship is yours. A reporter who calls back wants a real person who answers the phone, knows the details, and is easy to work with. Be ready to talk the same day, have photos you own the rights to, and get permission before you offer up a customer, an employee, or a partner as part of the story.
The send button is yours, and so is the follow-up. Send one pitch to one person. Follow up once, a few days later, with something new. Then let it go and try the next angle or the next outlet.
The coverage is never yours to control. A reporter may take a different angle, leave out the part you cared about, or not run it at all. That is how earned coverage works, and it is why it counts for more than an ad when it does run.
Which outlet to start with
There is a real choice here, and the right first pitch is usually the smallest outlet that your customers actually read.
| Outlet | What it usually wants | Best fit for |
|---|---|---|
| Neighborhood newsletter or local blog | The human story, the address, the opening date | Openings, moves, owner stories, community events |
| City or county newspaper | A change that affects people nearby, a clear date | Milestones, expansions, local hires, public events |
| Business journal | Investment, jobs, growth, the plan for next year | Second locations, ownership changes, new services for other businesses |
| Local TV or radio | Something to film or hear, a timely hook | Events, seasonal work, anything visual or hands-on |
Start with one row. Run the same facts through the brief again for a second outlet only after the first one has had its few days.
An editorial example
This is an invented business, used only to show the method.
Say you run a one-bench shoe and leather repair shop in an older downtown. Your "what is new" list says you took on an apprentice from the local high school's trade program, you started repairing work boots for a nearby construction crew, and you turn fifteen in November.
The AI's three angles might be: the apprentice and the trade the town almost lost; the fifteen-year mark with a look at how downtown changed around you; and the boot repair as a quiet answer to buying new every season. It would likely rank the apprentice first, because it has a person, a school, and a reason it is happening now.
Your edit: you check the year you opened against your lease, you ask the apprentice and the school before naming either, and you rewrite the quote so it sounds like you. Then you send it to the one reporter who covered the downtown storefronts last month. Whether it runs is up to them. The pitch was ready in an hour.
After the pitch goes out
A pitch takes an hour, and the facts you gathered for it are worth more than one email. The same list of what changed is the raw material for a month of posts, a line on your profile, and a story on your own site. Our guide on turning one finished project into a month of local marketing shows how to stretch it. If a milestone feels like bragging, read using small wins as content without overselling. And if the story does run, being named on a local news site is one of the things that helps search and AI answers find you, which we cover in what small businesses should publish for more AI mentions. For more jobs you can finish today with the AI you already pay for, see the full DIY marketing list.
Of every job on this list, social media is the one that comes back every week, and Boomp is software that does that one for you. See ten posts made from your website, free
