See Which Superstars Are Making Headlines In 2025

Several of Alignable’s 2025 Local Business Person of the Year winners are attracting a lot of acclaim and landing in local (or national) headlines. 

These magnanimous networking superstars have earned local, regional, and national media attention, teaming up with our PR Department to rack up 1,600+ placements so far. 

These standout entrepreneurs followed a simple formula:

• Downloaded the "Swiss cheese" press release template from the media kit we provided to all winners
• Completed all details and filled in the blanks on the press release template
• Discovered the names and emails of local media contacts via ChatGPT, Google, or LinkedIn searches and sent their tailored, personalized releases with a nice note to their news contacts, and/or 
• Hired a PR release distribution service to send the news to hundreds of outlets across North America.

🏆 Featured Press Stars -- Check Them Out!

While there's still time to get your news out if you were a local 2025 winner -- since it's still 2025 -- the following awesome folks got a jump-start on the process already. 

And they're reaping the rewards. 

Here's a list of media superstars (and their coverage) that I've uncovered over the past few months. If I missed anyone, please email me and I will add you to a future update. 

• Melissa Levine, 2025's Local Business Person of the Year in Northbrook, IL, and founder of Sweet Melissa Media, scored a stunning two-page cover feature in Northbrook Living (June 2025). 

  • Her photos, story, and brand were center stage. Check out the magazine cover here. 

    • Isn't this fantastic local publicity? How fun is that?
    

    
    

• Melinda Hartline appeared in The Alachua Chronicle before making it onto MSN.com, the fifth largest news site in the U.S., and one of the biggest syndicators in the world. 

  • This placement proved that great local buzz can spark national interest. 
  • Not only is this great news for Melinda -- this is encouraging for everyone else reading this, too. What happened here also can occur with many others who land a compelling local story.
  

  
  

• Stephanie Hines and Madhu Chadha landed Associated Press release coverage via a PR distribution service, amplifying their awards nationwide, landing at least 40 additional placements each. 

  

  
  

  

• Maria Wirth was featured in Lehigh Valley Business, a major Pennsylvania business outlet. You can see her here in a photo with many other Pennsylvania winners -- at an award party she spearheaded and coordinated. She is an awesome party planner and Ambassador who goes above and beyond -- and it shows! Maria is also among our Top 20 in N. America, and our Top 50 Women in 2025. 
  • This story was just awesome to behold. Great job, Maria! 
  • Want to see the full feature? Go here.

• John Petros was profiled in The Lowell Sun, elevating his local reputation as a go-to expert. John tells me he expects to appear in a magazine, too, and we'll include that coverage when it's officially published. 
  • Terrific work, John! 
  • By the way, John is another outstanding Ambassador.

• Dr. Janet Olivares was spotlighted in an online feature written by KXLG Radio's News Director Steve Jurrens in Watertown, South Dakota -- her original hometown. 
  • Dr. Janet is also among our Top 20 N. American winners, our Top 50 Women, and was the state winner in California this year. 

• Geoffrey Kent has appeared in over 100 media outlets through a syndicated release. His coverage includes a story on Q92.3 Lifestyle News, which spotlighted his Philadelphia-area win and Top 50 national ranking.

  • Geoffrey also just wrote and published a very impressive new book, which we've featured in a few events -- with more coming up. 

  • Almost all of Chapter 16 showcases the wonders of networking on Alignable. 

  • Check it out on Amazon.

• Judy J. Pinegar was recognized in The Loomis News as Loomis’ 2025 Business Person of the Year, earning strong local visibility through her Alignable win and press kit submission. 

• Judy Herrell was featured in The Reminder and BusinessWest.com recently for her win in Northampton, MA. 

Finally, Brian Gregory landed in The Globe and Mail and 400+ other outlets using his own PR distribution service. 

He has offered this service as a discount to many winners of the contest who request it. Reach out to him on his profile if you're interested in getting his help. 

More Awesome Media Stars

Several other stellar contest winners have been featured in the press so far this year including: Steve Levinson, Jason Madsen, Danielle Bernock, Dan Hughes, Alan Melton, Mike Gross, James Jacobs, Lynne Black, Elizabeth Diable, Michelle Coyle, Craig Wolfson, Janice Debo, Tara David, Stuart Aldrich, Kimberly Ocampo-Shah, and Mike Robinson.

I'll be showcasing their coverage more in the coming months as we collect it from our monitoring service. 

Wondering How You Can Land Coverage, Too? 

For any of the 4,750 winners who haven't used their press kit yet and haven't distributed their releases yet, your news is still "fresh" and topical, as long as it's pitched by the end of October.  

However, the sooner you get the news out, the sooner you can reap the rewards of coverage, which, for some, is even more substantial than the visibility they gained during and after the contest across Alignable. 

If anyone has any questions about this process, I will be covering more media relations tips and other information in various webinars for Premium members and Smart Connect events for all winners.

In fact, I just completed a training for Premium members. (If you want the recording of that, reach out to me at chuck@alignable.com.)

Our next Winners' Circle Smart Connect event is in July. Be sure to sign up for it if you won locally this year -- as I'll share more advice during that session, too. 

Thanks so much for reading and please give all of our winners who've received press coverage a great shout-out in the comments!