Do you have to be the face of your local newsletter?
Short answer
Someone does. People trust people, so a local media brand needs a real person in town on Instagram and in the room. It doesn't have to be the founder. I front only my business-facing brand. My local newsletters are fronted by local people, and for a local operator, personal brand mostly means showing up at chamber meetings.
I did a call with a guy who said: I don't like to leave my house, I don't want to do anything on social media, I don't like meeting people, but I want to do a local newsletter. I told him that doesn't make any sense.
"Why do you want to be the face of the local community media if you don't want to put yourself out there? They're kind of at odds with each other."
Why does a local brand need a face?
Because that's how trust gets earned. Build the audience and the trust, and over time you find things you can do with it beyond selling ads. The creator angle, the human angle, is how you get there: be the real person in town that people know. People can also meet you at events and know you're not AI.
Local operators are creators in the same sense national B2B creators are. People trust people. We just do it locally, which is rarely discussed.
Does it have to be the founder?
No. I don't want to be the face of my local consumer brands. The only brand I want to front is the business-facing one, where I talk to operators and media companies. Local readers want someone from their town. Business buyers are buying my judgment and track record.
I'll admit that's in tension with my own belief that a human face matters locally. The answer is to put a local person in front. A plumber I run Meta ads for hired a young woman who appears in the Instagram videos, writes the newsletter and even does some sales.
Do I have to post videos every day?
No. For a local operator, personal brand is showing up at chamber meetings, not being on camera every day. Join one or several chambers and go to all their events. That's where owners hang out, and this model runs on relationships.
When you do post, it's less scary than you think. A local Instagram page isn't YouTube. You're already niched down, and it still might reach 200,000 people.
Is it worth it if I'm not a natural?
I wasn't. I didn't post until the last couple of years, and the payoff in opportunities has been large. Put yourself out there as a smart, interesting person doing interesting things, and things come to you.
Answered by TJ Larkin. From consulting calls and Local Media HQ podcast conversations in 2025 and 2026. Last updated .