Search for a way to buy an article in the Chicago Business Journal and you will find almost everything except an answer: the journal's own stories, executive profiles, companies celebrating coverage they earned years ago, and offers for other Chicago publications entirely. Nobody explains the route itself. This page does. It sets out whether your company can be published in the Chicago Business Journal, what the article actually is, who it fits, how publishing works step by step, what decides the price, and the one email that starts it.
The short answer: yes, your company can be published in the Chicago Business Journal
Yes. Your company can be published in the Chicago Business Journal through a paid, labelled article placement in the Chicago edition. This is not pitching a story to a journalist and hoping it survives the news meeting, and it is not a placement on a lookalike Chicago website trading on a similar name. It is a specific article, in this specific journal, reviewed by the journal before it is published, and permanent once it is live.
We hold a placement arrangement covering this journal, so the route is open and defined. You do not need a PR firm on retainer, a reporter's favor, or a news event to point at. You need a company with a story worth an article, and one email to us. The sections below give you the whole picture before you decide: what the article gets you, what it looks like, who it fits, how publishing works, and what it will not do.
Ready to put your company in the Chicago Business Journal?
Send us your company name, your website, and the story the article should tell. You get a fit confirmation and your individual quote back by email.
uzairasad@pressfeature.orgOne email starts it. No form, no obligation.
Picture it: your company name in the journal your lender checks
Picture the moment your company is being evaluated. The banker reviewing your loan file, the general contractor shortlisting subcontractors for a major bid, the prospective client comparing your firm against two rivals, each of them opens the business journal they trust for this market and finds your company's name inside it, as a published article. The questions get shorter. The proof is sitting in front of the person asking.
That is what a placement in the Chicago Business Journal is bought for. You also walk away with durable assets: the live link you forward inside proposals and credit applications, and the journal's name in the "As Featured On" row of your own website. Consumer coverage says people have heard of you. An article in Chicago's business journal says the business community you borrow from, sell to and partner with has you on its own pages, and it stays live every time that checking moment comes around again.
Why the Chicago Business Journal, specifically
The Chicago Business Journal is the online business journal for this market, an online-only edition on bizjournals.com/chicago read across Chicagoland's finance, manufacturing, logistics and professional services community. These are owners, executives, lenders and firm partners reading their own market's journal as part of the working day, following who is growing, who is winning work and who matters.
The journal's Book of Lists is the standing local reference its readers use to find employers and prospects, which tells you exactly how this audience works: they check. The market beneath the journal needs no selling. Chicago hosts 30 Fortune 500 headquarters, second in the United States, and ranks first among US metros for corporate expansion and relocation. Its labour force is roughly five million workers, and no single sector exceeds 13 percent of the region's output, with manufacturing, professional services and finance each contributing tens of billions. Amazon is the city's largest private employer and O'Hare is a top US port by trade value. A diversified economy that size means your next client, lender or partner is very likely reading the same journal.
The supporting figures sit honestly underneath. Our outlet directory records the business journals' platform at a Domain Authority of 91 with 7.8 million monthly organic visits across the journals' site. Those are the platform's figures, not a claim about the Chicago edition alone. The benefit was never raw reach. It is reach into the room where Chicago business decisions get made.
What a sponsored article in the Chicago Business Journal actually looks like
Precision matters here, because vague offers are where buyers of journal placements get hurt.
The article is a full article page inside the Chicago edition on bizjournals.com. The city is named and fixed before you pay anything: your article runs in the Chicago Business Journal, not in an unspecified journal somewhere in a network. It is labelled as paid content under the journal's rules. The journal reviews the article before it is published, so nothing goes live unreviewed. Once published, the placement is permanent. It does not come down at the end of a campaign window, because there is no campaign window attached to it.
The article links to your company, and those links follow the journal's paid content rules and carry sponsored attributes. A plain editorial dofollow link is not part of a paid placement, and a seller who promises you one from a business journal should be asked hard questions about what they are actually selling.
Two clarifications protect you from common confusions. This journal is online only; there is no print edition, so anyone describing a print placement in it is describing a different publication. And the article is not a Book of Lists entry. The Book of Lists is the audience context that makes the journal valuable, not a product bundled into your placement.
One city, one edition: why the Chicago edition is the whole point
The journal's site hosts dozens of separate city business journals, each with its own readership of local decision makers. A placement is bought in one named edition, and the edition is the product. Your lenders, clients and competitors read the Chicago edition. An article in another city's journal, however fine that journal, does nothing for the checking moment in your market.
This is where domain wide offers fail their buyers. A seller who quotes one flat arrangement for "the business journals" without naming your city is selling a slot in a system, not a presence in your market. Here the market is chosen by you, confirmed before payment, and printed in the article's home: the Chicago Business Journal. One more separation matters in this market specifically: Chicago has more than one business publication with a similar name, and the FAQ below untangles them. Readers weighing several markets can find the wider picture in The Business Journals guide, which covers how the city journals work as a family of choices. The buying decision, though, is always one city at a time.
Who this is built for, and who should skip it
This placement is built for Chicago-area B2B companies whose next big yes comes from another business: professional services firms, finance and insurance companies, manufacturers, logistics operators, commercial real estate firms, and any company whose next client, lender or partner reads this journal. It also fits companies outside Chicago that want a Chicago business journal name in their proof set, because Chicago is a market the rest of the Midwest measures itself against.
It does not fit a purely consumer business chasing foot traffic, which needs its customers' eyes rather than the business community's. It also does not fit anyone expecting a single article to deliver instant sales by itself. A journal placement compounds credibility across every deal that follows it, and it should be bought with that horizon. If you are comparing outlet types before deciding, our guide to which news outlets accept sponsored content walks through the fit honestly, and the New York Business Journal guide shows the same product in the country's largest market.
How publishing works, step by step
Step 1: Email us. Write to uzairasad@pressfeature.org with your company name, your website, and what the article should say. That email is the entire application.
Step 2: Fit confirmation and your quote. We confirm your company and topic fit the journal, and you receive your individual quote for the Chicago edition. The factors behind it are in the next section.
Step 3: The article. You supply the article, or we arrange the writing for you. Either way it is prepared for the journal's review.
Step 4: Journal review. The journal reviews the article before publishing. Nothing about your company goes live in its pages unreviewed.
Step 5: Your live link. The article publishes in the Chicago Business Journal, and the live link is yours: for proposals, for your site's press row, and for every checking moment from then on.
Your protection, in full, before you pay anything: payment is in full in advance, and if the article does not go live, you receive a full refund, in writing.
What decides the price of a Chicago Business Journal article
There is no printed price for this placement, and the reason is structural, not tactical. The price is decided by the market edition chosen, by the article's scope and whether you supply it or we arrange the writing, and by the placement specifics of your article. A single flat, domain wide fee cannot price that honestly, because it pretends a Chicago article for your company is the same object as an article in any other city for any other company. It is not, and the quote should not pretend otherwise.
So every placement is quoted individually, by email, with no obligation attached to asking. Our guide to how much a sponsored article costs explains the factor model behind business journal quotes in full. What matters at this step is simple: the figure you receive is the figure for your company, your article, and the Chicago edition, and the refund protection above stands behind it.
The honest limits, and how to start
The limits, in a few lines. The article is labelled paid content; it is not editorial coverage and it is not the journal's newsroom endorsing your company. It guarantees no search ranking, no traffic figure and no clients. What it guarantees is the thing itself: a permanent, credible article about your company in the journal Chicago's business decision makers read, published under the journal's own review.
If that is the asset your company is missing, the next step is one email. Write to uzairasad@pressfeature.org with your company name, your website, and the story the article should tell. You will receive a fit confirmation and your individual quote. Our services page covers the wider picture of what we arrange; this placement begins with that email. Readers in the country's other great headquarters market can also see how the Dallas Business Journal guide handles the same decision there.
Start your Chicago Business Journal article
One email with your company name, your website, and the story to tell. Your fit confirmation and individual quote come back by email.
uzairasad@pressfeature.orgFull refund in writing if your article does not go live.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to publish an article in the Chicago Business Journal?
No printed price exists, because placements are quoted individually. The factors are the edition, the article's scope and production, and the placement specifics. One email to uzairasad@pressfeature.org returns your exact quote, with no obligation.
Can I pay to get featured in the Chicago Business Journal?
Yes. A labelled paid placement is a real route, separate from earning editorial coverage by pitching news, and the labelling is what keeps it legitimate and durable.
Who reads the Chicago Business Journal?
Chicago-area owners, executives, lenders and firm partners across finance, manufacturing, logistics and professional services, reading their own market's online business journal as a working habit.
How do I submit an article to the Chicago Business Journal?
You do not submit to the journal directly. You email us, we confirm fit and quote, and the journal reviews the article before it is published.
Is the Chicago Business Journal the same as Crain's Chicago Business?
No. They are two different Chicago publications. Crain's is a separate print title with its own programmes. This page is about the Chicago Business Journal on bizjournals.com/chicago, and a placement arranged here lands in that journal only.
What is the difference between advertising and a sponsored article in the Chicago Business Journal?
An ad is a banner or box that disappears when the campaign ends. A sponsored article is a full, permanent article page about your company, labelled as paid content, that readers can find and forward long after it publishes.
Does a sponsored article in the Chicago Business Journal include a link to my website?
Yes, the article links to your company. Links follow the journal's paid content rules with sponsored attributes, and no plain editorial dofollow is promised.
How do I get into the Chicago Business Journal Book of Lists?
Listings are the journal's own research product and are not sold with an article. The article puts your company in front of the same readership that uses the Book of Lists, and is not itself a listing.
Disclosure: PressFeature sells article placements in the Chicago Business Journal, and this page is our own marketing content, published to explain the placement honestly. Platform figures cited are from our public outlet directory. Published October 2026. Last reviewed: October 2026.