At The Coastal Buzz, we believe readers should always understand the relationship behind the stories they read.
That’s why when you see the words “Buzz Partner Feature” at the top of a story, it means the business or organization featured is a paid member of The Coastal Buzz’s Buzz Partner program.
Buzz Partners help financially support The Coastal Buzz and our mission to spotlight the people, places and possibilities that make our communities special.
But being a Buzz Partner does not mean purchasing our opinion.
What a Buzz Partner Feature Means
A Buzz Partner Feature is an editorial-style story about one of our paid Buzz Partners. These stories may introduce you to the people behind a business, explore how an organization began, highlight what they do, share their connection to the community, or tell another part of their story we believe readers may find interesting.
Buzz Partner Features are clearly identified because we never want readers wondering whether a financial relationship exists.
If you see “Buzz Partner Feature,” there is a paid partnership between The Coastal Buzz and the featured business or organization.
That’s our promise of transparency.
What Buzz Partners Cannot Buy
Becoming a Buzz Partner doesn’t give a business control over The Coastal Buzz.
Partners cannot purchase favorable opinions, rankings, awards or placement on a supposed “best of” list. They cannot pay us to criticize a competitor, and they don’t determine what we say about other businesses or organizations.
They are supporting our work and receiving opportunities to have their stories told.
There’s a difference, and we think our readers deserve to know it.
What About Other Stories on The Coastal Buzz?
Not every business, nonprofit or person you see featured on The Coastal Buzz is a Buzz Partner.
Far from it.
We regularly tell stories because we believe they’re worth telling.
That might be a local business opening its doors, a young person accomplishing something remarkable, a nonprofit making a difference, someone who has quietly served their community for decades, or simply a story we believe deserves more attention.
We also receive news and information from public relations firms, businesses, nonprofits and community organizations. Those submissions may be published at our editorial discretion and do not automatically represent a paid relationship.
When a financial Buzz Partner relationship exists, we’ll tell you.
Why Have Buzz Partners at All?
Because local storytelling takes resources.
The Coastal Buzz is building a different kind of local media platform, one centered around Possibility Journalism and the people, places and possibilities of Metro Savannah and the surrounding communities.
We don’t use a paywall. Our stories are available for everyone to read.
Buzz Partners are one of the ways we’re building a sustainable business that allows us to keep doing that.
Their support helps give us the ability to tell not only their stories, but also stories that may never generate advertising dollars at all.
The longtime gymnastics teacher who has quietly poured into generations of children.
The teenager doing something extraordinary.
The volunteer nobody thought to interview.
The small nonprofit changing lives without a large marketing budget.
Those stories matter too.
Our Promise
We believe advertising and editorial storytelling can coexist when the relationship is clear.
That’s why we’re not going to hide our partnerships behind vague terminology.
Buzz Partner Feature = Paid Partnership.
When you see those words, you’ll know.
And when you don’t see them, you shouldn’t assume someone paid us to tell the story.
It’s one small part of a much bigger promise we’re making as The Coastal Buzz grows:
Be transparent. Protect the trust of our readers. And keep finding stories worth telling.
The Coastal Buzz
People. Places. Possibilities.