The Upstate Media List is an independent resource intended to provide a directory of media resources in Upstate New York. The guide will be updated whenever possible with the most up-to-date links and resources.
How Regions Are Defined
As anyone in Upstate New York will tell you, there are no actual boundaries to define where Upstate New York begins, or where Downstate ends. Within the state, there are historically accepted regions that define the culture of New York.
Many people from New York will identify as living in regions like the North Country, or the Finger Lakes, or Western New York. While there are official New York State designated boundaries that define each region, you’ll find that each department in the state uses a different definition. For example, the city of Ithaca is included in the Southern Tier according to the Empire State Development economic council, but Ithaca is instead included in the Finger Lakes according to the tourism bureau, I Love NY.
To further complicate the regional boundaries for a media list, many areas are served by larger markets. Many Albany area television stations will serve news to the Adirondacks, like many Buffalo news stations will serve news to the western portion of the Southern Tier.
There is no perfect way to divide the state into regions, particularly when it comes to media and journalism. The regional definitions used in the Upstate Media List have been taken from the Exploring Upstate blog. The location of the outlets in this list will be based on the outlet’s business address, which may differ from their target market.
How Categories Are Defined
With the advent of online publishing technology, the way that journalism outlets define themselves has changed dramatically. While one particular business may have been a newspaper, that outlet might now be exclusively online.
Still, some outlets publish content by radio broadcast, which is later published as a podcast, and followed up by an online article.
There are perfect ways to define some media outlets, therefore this directory has made an attempts to find appropriate categorization wherever possible.
But, it’s probably not going to be perfect.