How Stacker’s Local Storytelling Helps Brands Reach New Readers and Publishers | Earned Media

For brand marketers and content strategists seeking reach, credibility, and engagement, local media remains one of the most trusted and effective ways to connect with readers. But tapping into local news at scale while maintaining editorial integrity has traditionally been a challenge. The vast local news landscape, technical hurdles, and creating stories that truly resonate with hundreds of disparate state and metro audiences have all made tapping into this audience a challenge for brands.

That’s where Stacker Local comes in. This product, purpose-built to bridge the gap between brand storytelling and local newsrooms, helps brands distribute high-quality stories across Stacker’s network of thousands of local media outlets—reaching new audiences with content that informs, engages, and builds trust.

It’s part of our broader mission: to support local journalism by delivering newsroom-ready stories that are informative, well-researched, and relevant.

What is Stacker Local?

Stacker Local is a storytelling and distribution solution designed for brands that want to build meaningful connections through content that reaches readers where they live.

Stacker Local leverages a proprietary tech stack and proven journalistic tactics to transform data insights into stories across 50+ states and 385+ metros. Once published on our platform, it becomes available to our network of 4,000+ news publishers, including local and regional media outlets in all 50 U.S. states and Canada. These publishers choose the stories that align with their editorial calendars and community interests—meaning your story reaches readers who are genuinely interested, without pay-to-play placement.

What are the benefits of Stacker Local?

Stacker Local has proven to deliver significant impact for brands across several focus areas:

• Hundreds of publisher pickups per story: stories are republished across news outlets in every state with widespread geographic diversity. Local stories unlock new segments of our network that prioritize local angles, with the typical local series reaching 400+ pickups.
• Boosted readership reach: deep engagement helps the typical local series reach 2x the readers of comparable national features
• High reader trust: local media readers place more trust the content they encounter on their community’s news site compared to national outlets
• Turnkey, tech-assisted production: Stacker Local can transform existing partner stories into new local angles to extend the impact of storytelling or provide brand partners with brand-new local series to help tap into this growth space.

Why Local Matters—For Publishers and Brands

Local newsrooms are stretched thin, facing the dual pressures of limited staff and high demand for coverage. Stacker Local supports these publishers by offering well-researched, localized stories at no cost that help fill content gaps while adhering to high editorial standards.

At the same time, brand partners benefit from a content strategy that doesn’t just live on their own websites or in social media feeds. Stories gain new life on local news sites across the country—earning organic engagement and brand visibility in trusted contexts.

This approach ensures stories are seen, read, and appreciated by readers, whether that’s sports, travel, education, small business trends, or hundreds of other impactful and newsworthy topics. 

As we look ahead, our vision for Stacker Local is simple but ambitious: to become the connective tissue between local audiences and companies that want to reach readers by offering local insights. By empowering local newsrooms and amplifying impactful storytelling, we believe we can help create a healthier, more collaborative media ecosystem—one that benefits publishers, readers, and brand partners alike.

Sam Gross is the Co-Founder and VP of Content at Stacker, where he leads editorial strategy, newsroom product development, and helps turn data into stories for thousands of news publishers. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Sam also advises local newsrooms through LION Publishers, serves on the boards of Shasta Scout and The Children’s Agenda, and is a board member at the West Side YMCA. Originally from Rhode Island, Sam is passionate about journalism, startups, and building tools that strengthen local news and storytelling.

Featured Image Credit: Photo Illustration by Stacker // Canva