Senior Account Executive

Working at a Cincinnati marketing communications agency, we often find ourselves pitching stories to reporters- some are with local/regional publications, other are with national outlets and even sometimes, they are with international and/or online outlets.

Reporters don’t always have it easy and the work is far from glamorous, but it seems as though reporters for local outlets have it the hardest. The hours can be rough, the newsroom is dirty and there’s the ever-present threat of being replaced by robots. Personally, I think the worst would be when you’re so low on the totem pole that you’re the guy tapped to go stand by the salt pile before a blizzard (“Well, the winds are really picking up here, and the snow is coming down hard. I spoke to the salt pile manager, and he says they’ll have trucks running all night to keep the roads clear”), or the guy tapped to go stand on the dock that’s probably about to be ripped away by a Category 3 hurricane.

So here are three reasons why I love local news:

1.     It’s local. They’re going to tell me what time I need to show up for the Oktoberfest chicken dance, how Buttermilk Pike is now closed due to a major syrup spill and a singing/dancing traffic man will give me the lowdown on the interstates. (Seriously, these have all been local news headlines in Cincinnati at one time or another).

2.     When you travel, the local news provides extraordinary insight into the area’s culture, interests and just plain weirdness. And that’s way more interesting than the national news telling us about the latest ridiculous antics by Kim Jong Un. For example, there’s this little tidbit about a chicken. In Maui. That caused a power outage. At the airport.

3.     Which leads me to the VERY BEST REASON TO LOVE LOCAL NEWS: This. All of this. Read it and laugh. And laugh and laugh and laugh. It’s wonderful.