Make Your Community Shine Through National Earned Media in 2025

Just a month into the new year, the national earned media landscape is already shifting faster than most of us can keep up with our New Year’s resolutions. As journalists cover the economy, policy changes, and related industry trends daily, let’s be honest – sometimes, it’s a little bit daunting. The good news is that it’s possible to break through the cycle and tell a special story about your community, state, or country. While there isn’t one template for every type of news outlet or beat, here are a few general tips to keep in mind to help your community’s story stand out in the year ahead.

1. Who are your champions?

In 2025, reporters would still like to hear from individuals who have a special story, and it’s not necessarily based on the person’s title or years of experience in their profession. Consider your neighbor who moved from a large city to your small metro and is active in the community; someone who is feeling the impact of policy decisions but found a sense of belonging in your city; an intern who worked their way up in a local company and is re-skilling employees; or perhaps a person who has a unique job, like an artificial intelligence master for agriculture.

Food for thought: Who are the most interesting people in your community, and why?

2. How does your story resonate with readers who don’t live in your community?

National earned media will continue to report on industry-specific trends, particularly how companies are evolving with technology and policy. Artificial Intelligence, life sciences, and manufacturing are three examples. When economic developers are ready to spotlight business investments, one of their first instincts is to tell a story about job creation because that’s what economic development efforts are designed to do. Job creation details are great for local, regional, and state business reporters. For a national hook, particularly if the company hasn’t opened its doors yet, consider the wider impact story on Americans or international readers. What does the company do, and how does it impact the national reader or viewer? Does the company improve supply chain efficiencies, or will it help make a consumer product cheaper?

Food for thought:  How does economic development in your community impact people everywhere else?

3. What can you offer to reporters that is visual?

Journalists are eager to write about emerging technologies, such as eVTOL air taxis, drone innovation, and robots that are solving complex problems, for example. These are highly visual examples of innovation. When thinking about your city, state, or jurisdiction, consider four or five examples of visual storytelling that could make a TV segment come together, especially for future-forward topics like vehicle enhancements, air technologies, and rare earth materials. Does your university have a laboratory that is hard to find somewhere else?

Food for thought: If you hosted a national nightly news show, what are the coolest things a camera can film in your jurisdiction?

As you navigate a fast-moving and ever-changing news cycle in the year ahead, continue to think about your community champions and innovation as if you’re watching it on TV through the lens of someone living outside of your community. You have a story to tell, and it’s a matter of finding those gems! If you’re ready to consider a strategic communications program with national earned media, get in touch with Senior Director, Economic Development Public Relations, Brittany Borsanyi at Brittany.Borsanyi@aboutdci.com.