Here’s What I Think of My Local Press After Two Weeks of Publishing
My Local Press offers a place for independent journalists to publish and share local coverage from their town or region. This website presents an opportunity and experience in professional journalism for talented reporters who have the skill but not the means.
I first learned about My Local Press through Indeed.
From there, I was prompted to make an account on their website as a journalist. There’s an entire checklist of things you need to do to become verified before you can publish anything. Most of the tasks are relatively easy, but I had to quadruple-check this site’s credibility because it asks for your SSN in order to generate your W-9 tax form.
Yes, My Local Press is a legitimate website.
You won’t find a million reviews or anything like that since this is a startup, but the few things I did come across during my search checked out. Someone who’s outright trying to scam you would play it on the down low. These people are attempting the exact opposite. After everything I’ve seen, it’s giving real startup company that’s genuinely trying to lift itself up off the ground.
My Local Press has featured articles on EIN Presswire, The Columbus Dispatch, The Des Moines Register, and other reputable sites. There’s a face to the name. Two names, actually. With different faces. They have YouTube videos with guides on how to get started. I’ve encountered my fair share of scamming attempts, and this is not scammer behavior.
You need to be “vouched for” before you can post.
My Local Press requires a “vouch” from a real person as a way to filter out unqualified writers. I was worried that I wouldn’t be vouched for just because I don’t know anyone else on the website, but I happened to log back on one day to see that hurdle already crossed. I think one of the co-founders may have personally looked over my request to get the ball rolling. I guess if you need to be vouched for, try sending me a message! Let’s talk.
Journalists need a membership to get paid.
I didn’t find this out until a couple of days prior to writing this because I never encountered any issues. I was able to use every feature and get paid just fine without having to sign up for a paid membership. That’s when I noticed a special message at the top of the page saying that my membership is basically grandfathered in because I’m one of the first members to sign up. Otherwise, journalists will need to pay a monthly membership fee of $12 to get monetized. Basically, it’s like Etsy for journalists.
My first payout was $7.20.
I had two subscribers by the time I received my first check. You can set the price for your subscriptions starting at $3. I bumped mine up to $4 because I’m unhinged beyond control (good luck taming this wild beast). Now I’m at five subscribers, and one of them just so happens to be one of the co-founders. Being an early bird sure has its perks.
Important note: You need to turn on your subscription fee manually, or else anyone can read your articles for free.
All payments are made through Stripe, which was another factor that sold me on My Local Press’ credibility. Having a well-known third-party service in the mix makes for more digital breadcrumbs.
My Local Press provides a bunch of tools for a genuine article.
Start up a draft, and you’ll find everything you need to create an authentic piece. You have separate sections for the main title, sub-headlines, and the story itself. You can assign a geo-location and category. I personally like the fluidity of the photo management system.
Each component is paired with a brief explanation for those who are unfamiliar with some of the tools and their uses. It’s like having a thorough guide or walkthrough as you go without the pesky pop-up tutorials of starting a new file on a video game.
Some things require a bit of coding, but even those parts are easy to manage. Photos are inserted using {{these things}}, but you can upload your photos and choose them from a drop-down so the code is inserted for you right where you want it. Selecting text and inserting a link will encase your words in brackets followed by a [url] prompt that’s already highlighted for you. All you need to do is paste your link, and that part is done. You don’t need a degree in computer engineering to figure this out.
Here are the stories I’ve written so far:
Here are the categories you can write about:
Lifestyle
Livestock
Lost Pets
News
Obituaries
Opinion
Outdoors
People
Politics
Real Estate
Science
Sports
Technology
Traffic
Travel
Weather
About Town
Agriculture
Announcements
Art
Banking
Business
Careers
Community
Construction
Crime
Development
Dining
Education
Entertainment
Featured Citizens
Government
Guides
Health
Humanity
You can also create your own custom category if none of these fit the bill.
Here are your options when choosing a type of piece:
Reporting
Opinion
Review
Essay
Photo essay
Announcement
Something else
The co-founders of My Local Press take feedback seriously.
People I pitch my stories to would reach back out to me saying that they couldn’t understand how to subscribe to my feed. Well, that’s the whole point now, isn’t it? Apparently clicking on the “Subscribe for $4” button would take them to the membership page meant for journalists. Seeing options for “Free” and “Premium” memberships would lead them to believe that they may have to sign up for a My Local Press membership on top of my personal subscription fee.
I put in a feedback report and got an answer back the same day. They immediately fixed the problem by having the subscription button lead to the Stripe payment page instead of the journalist membership selection page.
Important note: Members who report bugs get a 30-day free premium membership. This didn’t apply to me, though, since my premium membership is already locked in.
Do I expect My Local Press to replace my full-time job? Not at all, although that would be nice.
I work a full 40 hours at a casino handing out uniforms. My freelancing is something that I do on the side, so making even a few bucks out of this is considered a win in my book. My subscribers are already increasing (albeit slowly) after just two weeks, so we’ll see where it goes.
Most importantly, I’m having a lot of fun. I’m typically a shut-in, so putting myself out there has been quite the experience. I’ve had my BA in Mass Communications Journalism since 2017, but I’ve only ever leaned into the marketing industry since graduation. This is my first time actually tapping into the journalism side of my education, and it’s been very enlightening.
Bottom line
It’s new, the kinks are still being worked out, and I’m not getting paid a grip as of now. But I see the potential, and I’m enjoying this bit of experience. So I’ll gladly keep going for the time being.