Library: Private Companies: Local companies

Local companies

It doesn't matter if a firm is large or small; local companies are usually well-covered by the local press. Coverage is generally more in-depth and ongoing than what you may find in the national sources. Newspaper and periodical articles can provide extensive and varied types of information on companies--for example, historical background, new ventures, marketing campaigns, analysis of financial situations, and biographical profiles of key executives. Remember that news comes in all forms. Be sure to check radio and television news in addition to newspapers.

American City Business Journals Articles from the 40 local business newspapers published by American City Business Journals. [Including the Kansas City Business Journal]. Sometimes it's possible to obtain hard to find information on companies located in a region that were not available anywhere else. Issues—going back decades in some cases—can be freely searched via an advanced Google search, allowing you to pinpoint, link and then view the full text of previously published articles on whatever company (or other topic) you are currently researching.

Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window

There is an important technique that involves searching in newspapers, and especially databases that support an "at least" connector, like Nexis Uni. Let's say you wanted to find information about your company's main competitors specifically in newspaper articles. You can command the system to retrieve articles where the name of the company appears at least five times, and the truncated form of the word, competitor, occurs one or more times. Limiting your query in this manner practically ensures that the search yields articles that discuss the company.

In Nexis Uni, the search screen would look like this:

Regional Business News This link opens in a new window
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Provides full text for more than 80 regional US and Canadian business publications (including titles from Crain Communications). Coverage 1985-present. Updated daily.

Radio locator Links to webpages and audio streams of private and public radio stations around the world.