How to Get Featured in Forbes and Other Top Publications

There are three ways your name ends up in a major publication. Only two of them can be bought, and most of this industry works hard to blur which is which.

This guide sets out all three, what each one actually requires, and the questions that tell you what a provider is really selling. It is longer than it needs to be if all you want is a pitch, and about right if you are deciding where to spend money.

What a feature actually does

Be precise about this, because unrealistic expectations are what make people feel cheated later.

Press coverage changes what a stranger finds when they check you out. That is the mechanism. Everything else follows from it.

Somebody gets your name from a referral, a search, or a conversation. Before they commit, they look you up. What comes back either builds confidence or creates doubt. A business with a website and nothing else looks unproven, whether it is or not. The same business with two or three published features looks established.

Same company, same work, different first impression.

That is worth real money, because it operates on every prospect who checks you, permanently, without ongoing spend.

What it does not do is generate enquiries by itself. One feature will not make your phone ring, and anybody promising that is describing something that does not happen. Press makes conversations easier. It does not start them.

Route one: earned coverage

A journalist decides your company is worth writing about, and writes about it.

This is the most valuable form of coverage and the only one nobody can sell you. It carries the weight of an independent editorial judgement, which is precisely why it cannot be purchased.

What it requires: genuine news. A funding round, an acquisition, unusual growth, a credible position on something already in the news, or a founder story with a real hook. Plus either a relationship with the right journalist or a pitch strong enough to survive without one.

What it costs: time, and a great deal of it. Journalists receive hundreds of pitches a day and answer very few. A pitch that lands is usually the twentieth attempt, not the first.

When it works: if you produce real news regularly, this should be your main channel. Most businesses do not, which is why the other routes exist.

If a provider guarantees you earned coverage in a named publication for a fee, they are describing something else. Ask them what.

Route two: lists and awards

Publications run ranked lists and award programmes. Appearing on one carries genuine weight, because there is a selection process behind it.

What it requires: meeting the criteria, and applying inside the window. These have deadlines, eligibility rules and judging.

What it costs: usually an entry fee, sometimes nothing, occasionally a great deal.

The limitation: you cannot schedule it. Entry windows open when they open, and you either qualify or you do not.

Worth pursuing if you genuinely qualify. Not something to build a plan around when you need coverage by a particular date.

Route three: a placed feature

An article is written to your brief, you approve it before anything happens, and it is placed through the publication's commercial channels.

What it requires: a budget and a story worth telling.

What you get: predictable timing, guaranteed publication, a permanent indexed article, and control over what it says.

What you are not getting: a journalist independently deciding you are interesting. That distinction is the whole thing, and a provider who is vague about it is doing you a disservice.

This is the route we sell. We say so on every outlet page, in our guarantee policy, and here, because the alternative is a client discovering it later and concluding they were misled.

The distinction the industry avoids

Almost all guaranteed press placement, from almost every provider, is contributor content in some form. That means an article published by an outlet but written by somebody outside its newsroom.

The problem is not that contributor placement exists. It is real, permanent, indexed, and it carries the masthead's recognition. The problem is being sold it while being allowed to believe it is something else.

You will hear about "editorial relationships" and "our media connections" and be left to conclude that a journalist chose you. Ask the direct question instead:

"Is this newsroom coverage or a placed feature?"

A straight answer either way is a good sign. Hedging is not.

Choosing publications

The instinct is to chase the biggest name available. That is usually wrong, and understanding why saves a lot of money.

Recognition and relevance are different things. Tier 1 publications like Forbes, Bloomberg and USA Today buy you recognition from strangers who have never heard of you. Tier 2 titles, including trade and regional press, buy you relevance with the specific people who can actually become customers.

If you sell to accountants, a feature in an accounting trade title reaches more of your buyers than a national business piece does. The national outlet reaches vastly more people, almost none of whom can purchase from you.

The useful question is not "what tier is this." It is: would my customer recognise this publication, and do they read it? If yes to both, it is worth having. If no to both, no label saves it.

Most businesses that get real value from press use both: one recognisable name for the strangers, and coverage in whatever their buyers actually read. The first opens the door. The second closes the deal.

One more thing worth knowing: some of the largest platforms are distributors rather than publishers. Coverage on MSN, Yahoo Finance and Apple News usually arrives through syndication from a partner publication rather than a newsroom writing about you. It is real and useful, and it works differently from an original placement.

What a feature needs to actually land

Whichever route you take, the pieces that work share four things.

A real angle. Not "look at me." Something a reader would care about if they had never heard of you: a pattern you have seen, a position on something contested, a result with a number attached.

Genuine substance. Your actual expertise or results. Trade readers and editors both spot filler instantly, and generic thought leadership fails badly in front of people who know the subject.

The right outlet. Matching the publication to the audience you need, rather than to the logo you want on your website.

Writing that reads like the publication. Clean, specific, and not an advertisement wearing a headline.

What it costs you

Every route costs something. Being clear about which currency you are spending is most of the decision.

Earned coverage costs time and consistency. It is free in money and expensive in attention, and it only compounds if you stay with it for months.

Lists and awards cost entry fees and patience.

Placed features cost money and buy you certainty. You know the publication and roughly when.

If you have time and no budget, make yourself a useful source and answer journalist requests quickly. It works, it is slow, and almost nobody sticks with it long enough to find out.

If you have budget and no time, a placed feature does in weeks what pitching does in months, with the honest caveat that it is a different product.

Questions to ask any provider

Five, and the answers should come immediately.

"Is this newsroom coverage or a placed feature?" The one that matters most.

"Which publications specifically, by name?" A provider who cannot produce a list is selling distribution, not placement.

"Do I approve the copy before it runs?" You should. Anything else creates a problem that cannot be fixed after publication.

"Will it carry a label, and what will it say?" Sponsored, branded and partner content all mean roughly the same thing. Not knowing is an acceptable answer. A confident promise of unlabelled editorial from somebody who cannot explain how they arranged it is not.

"How long does it stay live?" Coverage that vanishes in six months is a complaint arriving in seven.

Where we sit

We write features to your brief, you approve every word, and we place them across our network. We do not sell newsroom coverage, because nobody can.

We also say which publications we cannot reach. Our UK page names The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, the FT and the BBC. Our Australia page names the AFR and the ABC. Our Canada page names The Globe and Mail and CBC. Those are earned coverage only, from us or anyone.

That is an odd thing to publish on a sales site. We do it because the alternative is a client finding out later, and a client who feels misled is worse for us than a client we never had.

The short version

Three routes exist. Earned coverage cannot be bought at any price. Lists and awards can be entered but not scheduled. Placed features can be bought, and they are real, permanent and useful provided you know that is what you are buying.

Choose publications your buyers actually read rather than the largest name available. Expect easier conversations, not a full inbox.

And ask the two questions that matter: is this newsroom coverage or a placed feature, and which publications by name. Between them, they tell you almost everything about who you are dealing with.

If you want to know which titles fit your business, tell us who your customers are and we will tell you what they read. Our publications page lists everything by name if you would rather look first.