Problem solved: Advance Media New York set up a new website in Central New York State, with the goal for it to be a news resource and recruitment brand to draw new people to move to the region and persuade residents to stay there. A key topic area is the affordability of the real estate in the area, and in order to be able to fully cover it, ThisIsCNY.com leverages automated real estate content, specifically lists of all homes sold, published by school district.
“We don’t have to spend any time in real estate transactions reports pulling and organizing this info ourselves. It’s nice to be able to present the real estate information this way, which aligns with how many people search for homes and places to live.”
Managing Editor Amy Bleier Long
Local news publishers in the US subscribe to United Robots’s automated real estate texts and lists because they need unique local content on a topic relevant to their readers. The real estate content covers recent sales and comes in the form of lists (most expensive, best deals etc) and articles about single house sales. It is what we call informational reporting, i e it doesn’t require a trained journalist to produce – but it’s still of real value to locals. (More about how local newsrooms use the real estate content here.)
When Advance Media New York news site Syracuse.com started publishing automated real estate articles in their real estate section back in 2023, it was exactly because they wanted to provide readers with even more geographically unique content – at a volume and regularity which could not be produced manually.
House prices in preferred school districts
About a year later, Advance Local NY realised they had an additional and even more specific use case for the automated real estate content. Their title ThisIsCNY was set up to be a news resource and recruitment brand to draw new people to move to the region and persuade residents to stay there. It includes sections about business, real estate, careers and schools – as well as guides to local shopping, sports, nature, art galleries, parks, etc.
For the real estate section, the CNY team saw an opportunity to supplement the reporter written content with automatically generated monthly lists of all house sales – published by school district. CNY editor Katrina Tulloch explains: “Part of helping people decide to move to Central New York is to provide examples of what other homes are being sold in the area at various prices. That helps them make their own decisions about buying and selling in CNY.”
The amount of traffic to the real estate posts is limited, as the site is still relatively new and the intended audience is targeted. However, the team views the real estate content as an important part of the larger value proposition of the site. Says Managing Editor Amy Bleier Lon, who edits the monthly lists: “We don’t have to spend any time in real estate transactions reports pulling and organizing this info ourselves. It’s nice to be able to present the real estate information this way, which aligns with how many people search for homes/places to live.”
Shorter editing process
Amy says that, as the CNY team and United Robots have worked together, the editing process has become quicker: “United Robots has been open to making adjustments based on our use of the content, such as adapting to AP style, refining it to ensure they’re only grabbing residential sales, or changing the range of sale prices culled to knock out properties that aren’t really representative of the sales in that district, e g a fire-damaged house being sold as is. I am no longer checking every address, but I pick some at random in each article or if the price seems off, I will look those up. United Robots working with us on these tweaks has made the overall editing process smoother."
Senior Data Specialist & Developer Mike Dupras project manages Advance Media New York's collaboration with United Robots. He comments:
"Our experience at Advance Media New York with United Robots has been overwhelmingly positive. They have a truly “white glove” approach to working with us as a client and managing and iterating the services they provide us. They are quick to fulfill requests, open to customization, and seem eager to learn from us and our experiences with their products to continually improve them."
Read more about our hyperlocal real estate content and how it drives revenue for local news.