Scaling Quality: How The Seattle Medium Drove 62K+ Views and 2.5× Higher Local Engagement

Industry

Publishers

Challenge

With a lean editorial team and ambitious goals to deepen impact without diluting focus, The Seattle Medium needed a way to scale its coverage and diversify topics without stretching resources thin. The publication was intent on maintaining its high curation standards while meeting the evolving interests of its readership—and doing so in a rapidly changing media environment where audience attention is harder to win and retain.

Results

With Stacker, The Seattle Medium unlocked sustained growth and unusually high engagement— with nearly double the network average per pickup. One-to-one story curation helped the outlet surface high-impact topics driving over 62,000 total views across 277 unique pickups, with certain categories performing 2.5× the average engagement, reinforcing The Seattle Medium’s strength in delivering relevant content to its audience.

Story Example

stacker.com/stories/washington/seattle/most-expensive-neighborhoods-seattle

62,000+

Views

275+

Pickups

“It’s just so simple to be able to reach so many people, and that’s been a huge help for us this year—especially when a couple of our partners have even closed in the last year. It’s been such a difficult media market, and it’s really helpful to know we’ve got this new network we can continue to grow in.”

Josiah Scott

Digital and Social Media Manager @ Seattle Medium

Seattle Medium

Seattle Medium is one of the Pacific Northwest’s leading Black-owned news outlets, serving Black and historically marginalized communities across Seattle. With a small team and a growing digital footprint—including a daily newsletter, push-notification strategy, print edition, and a rapidly expanding app—Seattle Medium needed a reliable way to deliver consistent, high-quality stories that reflected the lived experiences, concerns, and interests of their readership.

Through the LMA Bloom Lab, Seattle Medium was introduced to Stacker’s free publisher wire. What began as a resource for supplemental content quickly became a strategic editorial asset— fueling coverage across every channel while reinforcing the values of community-driven journalism.

Visit Seattle Medium

The Challenge

As a small but mission-driven newsroom, The Seattle Medium serves Black and historically marginalized communities across the Pacific Northwest. With limited editorial resources, they faced growing pressure to:

Publish fresh, high-quality content across their website, app, and newsletter daily
Ensure coverage was hyper-local and culturally relevant
Maintain editorial and visual integrity, particularly around the representation of people of color
Grow readership sustainably—without sacrificing quality

Traditional wire services couldn’t keep up. National syndication lacked demographic nuance, visuals often misrepresented people of color, and stories weren’t tuned to local issues such as auto affordability, housing data, or regional film industry growth.

Stacker became the lever Seattle Medium needed to scale quality journalism without expanding headcount.

The Solution

Rather than a supplemental content feed, Stacker became a core part of Seattle Medium’s content strategy. By syndicating Stacker’s hyper-local stories, backed in data and supported by intentional visuals, the team was able to:

Increase coverage capacity without adding staff
Fill high-value content slots in their daily newsletter and push notifications
Provide their app users with fresh, relevant stories every day
Align content with regional realities and cultural resonance
Improve representation through purposeful photography and storytelling

“Stacker lets us deliver stories that speak directly to our community—backed by data, thoughtfully illustrated, and relevant today. I don’t have to chase down a photo or worry about inaccurate representation.” — Josiah Scott, Digital & Social Media Manager

Stacker helped Seattle Medium move from reactive coverage struggles → sustainable scale with strategic precision, empowering the team to keep up with the news cycle and their mission.

The Results
With Stacker integrated into their daily editorial process, Seattle Medium saw measurable improvements in engagement, content scale, and performance efficiency.

They generated over 62,000 estimated views from 277 stories—with an average nearly double the network average.

The strongest results emerged when content spoke directly to Seattle readers—and aligned with cultural and geographic relevance.

“It's not just useful—it makes our newsroom better. Stories that would have taken days to produce are now available to us daily, and our readers are engaging with them at higher rates than our own content.” — Josiah Scott, Digital & Social Media Manager

📌 – Local Content as Growth Catalyst

The Seattle Medium's local content pulled from the Stacker wire boasts an average number of views that 2.5x higher than their average. It's insights like this that newsrooms can lean on for creating viral moments that catapult viewership, readership, and engagement.

What’s more, Stacker-powered stories have consistently driven newsletter engagement and readership acquisition—fueling both audience growth and retention. April 2024 recorded 24,059 views from just 11 pickups, signaling Stacker content’s role in tapping into trending conversations at the right moments.

For The Seattle Medium, Stacker has become more than a content source— it’s a strategic lever that expands impact, strengthens local relevance, and proves that even lean newsrooms can compete at scale.

Why It Worked

Seattle Medium used Stacker not as filler—but as an editorial accelerator that:

Scaled capacity without hiring
Delivered highly specific content aligned with readership needs
Supported journalism through fact-based storytelling & visuals
Helped attract new readers while serving loyal ones
Brought consistent freshness to their daily newsletter and app

Looking Ahead

As the Seattle Medium continues expanding its multimedia strategy (newsletter + web + push + app), Stacker plays a strategic role in sustaining high-impact content output, particularly around trending, data-backed topics and culturally relevant local narratives.

“We’re a small team, but stories from Stacker help us operate like a larger newsroom—without sacrificing accuracy, representation, or depth.” — Josiah Scott, Digital & Social Media Manager