Caledonian-Record Partners with Clear View Advantage To Elevate Local Businesses Online

Local storytelling meets digital strategy: New program helps small-town businesses get seen, trusted, and found online.

ST. JOHNSBURY, VT, UNITED STATES, September 23, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Every business has a story.
Too often those stories don’t make it online.
In today’s digital-first world, the “word of mouth” that sustained local businesses for generations can’t reach beyond the borders of our small towns. These businesses enjoy the hard-won trust of longtime customers, but remain invisible in search results.
A new partnership between The Caledonian-Record and Clear View Advantage, the Littleton-based firm founded by online reputation strategist Amanda McKeen, is designed to change that. Together, the two have launched Clear View Spotlight—a program that helps overlooked businesses gain visibility and trust in a search-first world.

Bridging the Gap Between Reputation and Visibility

Amanda McKeen knows the stakes. After years of leading high-profile online reputation campaigns for executives and brands across the country, she began to notice a troubling reality closer to home: local businesses with decades of community trust behind them were nearly invisible online.

“A first impression is no longer made when someone walks through the door,” McKeen says. “It’s made in the instant a search result appears—or doesn’t.”
That disconnect—between the stories people tell in person and the ones search engines surface—costs businesses opportunities every day. Clear View Spotlight aims to close that gap.

How Clear View Spotlight Works

Clear View Spotlight combines The Caledonian-Record’s reach and storytelling tradition with Clear View Advantage’s expertise in online visibility and reputation management. Participating businesses can choose from packages designed to meet different needs and budgets, and include:

Custom Feature Articles – Full-length stories crafted from a business’s own voice and published on caledonianrecord.com (outside the paywall, and indexed on Google).
Multi-Channel Reach – Depending on the package, stories may also appear in print, in the daily email newsletter, on the website homepage, and across social media.
Search Visibility – Every feature is optimized for discovery, helping businesses show up when potential customers search.
Ongoing Impact – Packages like Steady Spotlight and Momentum Builder include multiple articles and monthly recaps so businesses can track their visibility over time.
All Spotlight stories are clearly labeled as sponsored content, ensuring transparency while still providing the same quality of writing and visibility readers expect from The Caledonian-Record.

Businesses don’t just buy space—they go through a curated process. Every application is reviewed for fit, prioritizing businesses that serve with integrity, respect, and community values. Once approved, owners complete a short Q&A or strategy call. From there, Clear View Advantage drafts their story, provides a round of revisions, and delivers a feature designed to shine online and across channels.

“The Caledonian-Record has been documenting the stories of our community for centuries,” says publisher Todd Smith. “This partnership allows us to tell those stories in a way that also drives real business results. It’s about honoring tradition while embracing the tools our region’s small businesses need to thrive today.”

More Than an Ad

Clear View Spotlight isn’t a traditional advertising package. It’s a program built on credibility and connection. For many businesses, the challenge isn’t the quality of their work—it’s the visibility of their story.

“Visibility signals readiness,” McKeen explains. “When people search online, what they find shapes whether they choose to engage. Our role is to make sure they find the right story—the one that reflects the business’s real-world reputation.”

Why It Matters Now

The North Country and Northeast Kingdom’s economy depends on small businesses across every sector: tourism, trades, healthcare, education, and local manufacturing. But if potential customers can’t discover them online, they spend elsewhere.

McKeen likens it to a patchwork quilt: “Each business’s online presence is a square. Strong, visible squares create a pattern people want to wrap themselves in. Too many gaps, and dollars drift away.”
Spotlight helps close those gaps by making trusted local businesses more discoverable—on the page and in search results.

A Local Solution with a Personal Mission

For McKeen, this program is about more than digital strategy. After years spent helping national clients manage their online reputation, she founded Clear View Advantage in Littleton — bringing big-league expertise home to small-town businesses that are too often overlooked.

“Our towns are full of businesses worth finding,” she says. “Spotlight makes sure their story shows up where it matters—so the customers searching can discover the trust locals already know.”

A Call to Local Businesses

Clear View Spotlight is now open to businesses across the region. The mission is simple: ensure every business’s story is not only told, but also seen.
“This is about more than marketing,” McKeen says. “It’s about protecting the lifeblood of our communities. If the businesses that keep our towns running every day can’t be found online, we all lose. Spotlight helps make sure they’re visible, trusted, and ready for the future.”

For more information about participating in Clear View Spotlight, visit www.clearviewspotlight.com.

Amanda M McKeen
Clear View Advantage LLC
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