1. Start with Stewartville’s actual geographic scope
Stewartville is recorded as a city in Olmsted County, Minnesota. A local legal-news plan should preserve that relationship rather than treating Stewartville, Olmsted County, the wider Minnesota market, and any metropolitan area as interchangeable. A story involving a Minnesota statute may be relevant statewide. A court decision, agency action, crash, or enforcement event may have a narrower relationship to Olmsted County or Stewartville. The city’s population estimate is useful for identifying the municipality being served, but it cannot establish that readers will search for a topic or that a page will generate an inquiry.
Recommended approach
Bring a written service-area map to the consultation. Separate Stewartville from Olmsted County and from any broader Minnesota coverage. Ask which story types can be tied accurately to each area, and require every proposed page to use only the geographic scope supported by the underlying story and the firm’s actual practice.
