How to Get Featured in the National Post

The National Post is a Canadian national daily covering news, politics, business and opinion. It is a real newsroom staffed by working journalists, which is both why a mention there carries weight and why it is difficult to earn.

What the National Post is

A national newspaper with a general readership, publishing news reporting, political coverage, business, culture and a prominent comment section.

Its reporting is written by staff journalists and freelancers commissioned by editors. There is no contributor programme you can join to publish yourself, and no fee that converts into a news article.

What its newsroom covers

National stories. Federal politics and policy, the economy, courts, culture and the arguments the country is having with itself.

That focus is the filter. A national daily asks whether a story matters to readers in several provinces at once, so an announcement about one company in one city rarely clears the bar on its own. What clears it is when your business is evidence of something larger: a policy working or failing, a sector shifting, a cost being passed to consumers.

It also runs a great deal of comment and analysis alongside straight reporting, which means there are more ways in here than at a pure business title — but each one goes through an editor.

The comment route

Newspapers of this kind generally run opinion sections that accept submissions from outside the newsroom, and this is the most realistic door for most founders and experts. It is editorial, unpaid on both sides, and decided by an editor.

What works is a genuine argument on a subject you have standing to discuss, written tightly and offered while the debate is live. What does not work is a company profile with an opinion headline stuck on top. Editors see that immediately.

Standing matters as much as the argument. If you run a logistics business, you can credibly write about trade rules and freight costs. You cannot credibly write about monetary policy because your marketing plan needs a byline.

What makes a pitch work

• One clear point. Say it in the subject line. If a journalist cannot see the story in ten seconds, it is gone.
• Evidence they can check. A number, a document, a named source. Assertion alone gets nothing.
• The right person. One journalist who covers your subject beats a list of fifty addresses, and the list is likely to get you filtered.
• Timing. News is perishable. The same point is valuable this week and worthless next month.
• Availability. Answer the phone. Reporters remember the source who was reachable at four in the afternoon on deadline.

What you cannot buy

Editorial coverage. Advertising and sponsored content exist and are labelled, and they are legitimate products when you know that is what you are buying. A news article about your business is not for sale.

Newswire distribution is a third thing again. A release pushed through a syndication service may appear on various news sites in clearly non-editorial areas, and it is sometimes resold as though it were a national newspaper feature. It is not the same product and it does not read the same way.

If someone offers you a guaranteed National Post feature, they are describing something they do not control. Ask them plainly whether it is a reporter's piece, a paid placement or a wire release, and treat any vagueness as an answer in itself.

What we do

Digital Networking Agency develops the argument or the story inside your business, builds the press record that makes a national pitch credible, and places clients in publications where we have real reach. You approve every word before anything goes out.

We are also straightforward about limits. We do not sell national newspaper placements, and we will tell you when a title is a goal to build toward rather than a near-term target.

Frequently asked questions

Can you pay to be featured in the National Post?

Not for editorial coverage. Advertising and sponsored content are separate, labelled products.

Is an opinion piece easier to land than a news story?

Often, yes, but easier is not easy. It still needs a real argument, genuine standing to make it, and timing. Most submissions are declined.

What if my story is only regional?

Then pitch it regionally first. A strong feature in a city paper is worth more than a national pitch that never lands, and it builds the record that makes a national pitch plausible later.