Harnessing the Power of Newsjacking with Featured's Local TV Integration

Harnessing the Power of Newsjacking with Featured's Local TV Integration

David McInnisDavid McInnis
3 min read

Featured revolutionizes PR strategies by integrating U.S. local TV stations into its platform, enabling PR teams to craft timely pitches through their Newsjacking feature. This new capability connects stories to local audiences, enhancing community relevance and trust.

Found this article helpful?

Share it with your network and spread the knowledge!

TLDR
Quick Summary for Different Perspectives

  • Gain PR advantage by using Featured's Newsjacking to quickly connect with local TV stations and pitch stories before competitors.
  • Featured integrates 'Find TV Stations' with Newsjacking, allowing PR teams to locate stations, draft pitches, and stay within one workflow.
  • Featured enhances local journalism by helping PR professionals deliver community-relevant stories, making local news more representative and engaging.
  • Did you know 65% of Americans sometimes get local news from TV stations, viewed as more trustworthy than national brands?

Revolutionizing PR with Local TV Integration

In an era where capturing the essence of local storytelling is pivotal, Featured emerges as a trailblazer in public relations by incorporating U.S. local TV stations into its AI-driven platform. This strategic enhancement empowers PR teams to seamlessly leverage the art of Newsjacking, swiftly identifying and responding to breaking stories within their clients' spheres of influence. The integration is designed to streamline the process of drafting pitches to local news desks, ensuring that the stories resonate with the community from the outset.

The innovative Find TV Stations feature operates within the same chat environment as Newsjacking, providing a cohesive workflow that simplifies the task of identifying the stations covering a client's market. By setting up Newsjacking with specific city markets and beats, users can effectively engage with local audiences. When a story card emerges, it becomes a straightforward process to inquire about the relevant TV stations in a particular market, such as "Find TV stations in New York." The capability to draft pitches directly from a station card, emphasizing the local angle and identifying a spokesperson ready for on-camera appearances, is a game-changer for PR professionals.

Enhancing Community Relevance and Trust

Local news outlets play an indispensable role in shaping community narratives, with a substantial portion of Americans relying on them for up-to-date information. According to the Pew Research Center, 65% of Americans occasionally turn to local TV stations for news, highlighting the medium's reach and influence. The 2026 Digital News Report corroborates this, with 56% of U.S. respondents rating local TV news as the most trustworthy, surpassing national counterparts.

Amidst a backdrop of declining local TV news employment, as reported by the RTDNA/Newhouse survey, Featured's integration offers a lifeline. By providing access to 1,757 U.S. TV stations and 470 newsroom contacts across 195 markets, the platform ensures that PR teams can forge meaningful connections with local journalists actively seeking stories that impact their communities.

Empowering PR Professionals with AI

The crux of Featured's offering lies in its ability to amplify stories that matter, aligning with the findings of Muck Rack's State of Journalism 2026 survey. A staggering 78% of journalists emphasize the importance of pitches that directly affect the audience's community, yet only 16% typically receive such pitches. Featured bridges this gap by equipping PR professionals with tools that not only identify relevant local angles but also facilitate immediate engagement with local TV stations.

Brett Farmiloe, Founder and CEO of Featured, aptly captures this sentiment, stating, "Every national story has a local version, and the local news desk usually wants it the same day." By maintaining an extensive database of station contacts, including news desk emails and phone numbers, Featured ensures that PR teams are well-equipped to respond to breaking news with precision and relevance.

In a world where the dynamics of news dissemination continue to evolve, Featured stands at the forefront, offering a platform where stories can be effectively tailored to resonate within communities. As PR professionals seek to navigate the complexities of modern media landscapes, Featured's integration of local TV stations represents a crucial step in bridging national narratives with local realities. The ability to start free, without the need for a credit card, further underscores Featured's commitment to accessibility and empowerment for all users. For more details, visit featured.com.

David McInnis

About David McInnis

David McInnis is the Founder of Newsworthy.ai, a news marketing platform that helps organizations amplify their stories and reach wider audiences. Previously, he founded PRWeb, where he transformed the newswire industry by pioneering distribution strategies in the era of Search. Today, David is once again at the forefront of innovation—this time rewriting the rules for how AI reshapes the news experience.

View all posts by David McInnis →