Top 10 Publications in Illinois for Backlinks and Coverage: Illinois, known as the ‘Prairie’ state, has a strong history of local journalism to keep Illinoisans up to date on the latest news and happenings in their state. For local companies or brands (as well as PR agencies) based in Illinois who have a new product or service that they want to promote, securing press coverage in local publications can be both extremely valuable in terms of creating awareness and reaching the right target audience, but it can also provide valuable SEO benefits, by way of securing backlinks from these Illinois publications.
We have identified the top 10 publications in Illinois for achieving press coverage and backlinks to help you promote your business. As well as unique visitor figures, we have included the domain authority (DA) for each publication’s website, as well as some insights on how journalists from each publication like to be pitched, and what kind of stories they like to receive from companies or public relations agencies.
1. http://www.chicagotribune.com/
chicagotribune.com is the online publication operating under The Chicago Tribune, published daily and based in Chicago, Illinois. The website features breaking and general news, sports, business updates, entertainment, etc. It gets over 1.9 million monthly visitors and domain authority of 93.
2. http://chicago.suntimes.com/
Chicago.suntimes.com is a news website for Chicago Sun-Times, a daily newspaper that is distributed in Chicago, Illinois. It covers, sports, entertainment and business updates. The website gets over 500,000 unique monthly visitors and has a domain authority of 90. Journalists here at the Chicago Sun-Times are generally great when it comes to including backlinks in their articles when sharing press releases, and they’re friendly over the phone too!
3. http://www.dailyherald.com/
dailyherald.com is an e-newspaper under The Chicago Daily Herald, a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois. The website covers news, sports, business updates and more. It attracts over a million unique monthly web visitors and has domain authority of 84. While this publication features press releases focused in Chicago, they also share articles about the surrounding towns such as Cicero, Evanston, Naperville and Aurora.
sj-r.com is an online publication operating under State Journal-Register, a daily newspaper based in Springfield, Illinois. It covers news, sports as well as entertainment updates and many more. The website gets more than a million visitors on a monthly basis and has domain authority of 73.
5. https://www.pjstar.com/ pjstar.com is the online version of Peoria Journal Star, a newspaper that serves Peoria, Illinois. The website features sections such as news, art and entertainment, sports, etc. it gets over 500,000 monthly visitors and has domain authority of 73. If we request a backlink from journalists here at Peoria Journal Star, they typically include one in the article within 24 hours.
pantagraph.com is an online publication that belongs to The Pantagraph, a daily newspaper based in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. The website covers news, sports, entertainment and more features. It attracts more than 500,000 monthly visitors and has domain authority of 68.
7. http://www.news-gazette.com/
news-gazette.com is an online publication operating under The News-Gazette, a daily publication that is based in Danville, Illinois. The website covers local and national news, sports, business updates and more. It attracts 3.5 million unique monthly visitors and has domain authority of 68.
nwherald.com is the Northwest Herald’s online publication. The newspaper is published daily and serves Crystal Lake, Illinois. Sections covered by the online publication are news, sports and event updates and has domain authority of 67. The journalists at Northwest Herald are also always friendly on the phone!
thesouthern.com is the online version of The Southern Illinois, a daily publication that is distributed in Carbondale, Illinois. The website covers local news and sports and attracts more than 500,000 monthly visitors with domain authority of 66. We’ve found that journalists at The Southern Illinois typically prefer to be contacted with press releases via email, as compared to over the phone.
10. http://www.daily-journal.com/
daily-journal.com is the online version of Kankakee Daily Journal, a daily publication based in Kankakee, Illinois. The website features news and sports sections. It attracts more than 50,000 unique monthly visitors and has domain authority of 61.
Check out our previous article on the top publications for backlinks in Massachusetts.