MARREN: Newspaper interaction 101

Columns

October 4, 2009

By Tim Marren<br><a href="mailto:tim.marren@lockportjournal.com">E-mail Tim</a> The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Sun Oct 04, 2009, 12:29 AM EDT

My column runs the gamut week to week. Sometimes it’s about my wife, sometimes it’s about my dog — sometimes they both make an appearance.

There’s sports columns and political columns, but sometimes I overlook the obvious: a column about the newspaper.

When a former boss of mine first suggested that I start a column as part of the editor role, the pitch was that this space each Sunday could or should be a place to explain newspaper-type things.

Why we covered a story the way we did. Promotion of new features. Solicitation of Advisory Board members. You get the idea.

I’ve done that from time to time, but it’s been a while. It hit me Friday when I participated in a media panel as part of the Niagara Expo at the Conference Center in Niagara Falls when most attendees that posed questions had simple inquires like how to submit press releases.

So I thought that would be a simple, yet helpful column idea for everyone to consume.

Submitting notice of your event, whether it’s still to come or has already happened, is easy.

E-mail is best. For the purpose of this column, if you have something you’d like to submit, send it to me. I’ll find what person can use it from there. My e-mail is tim.marren@lockportjournal.com.

While e-mail will get our attention fastest and get your event in more easily, you can still fax or drop off or mail. Fax is 439-9239. Drop off and mail is 170 East Ave., Lockport, 14094.

This all seems really elementary, but it’s useful information that people may not realize.

Photos are great. Submit as .jpgs and do so with as large a file as possible. It’s better for reproduction in print. Also, send the .jpg as an attachment and not embedded into a Word document. If none of this is making sense, call me, I’ll explain what a .jpg is.

Send your press release as an attachment and pasted into the body of a e-mail. It makes it easier to quickly scan what the release is about. That way if it’s something we will print or cover, we know right off the bat. If it’s trash, we can easily hit delete.

As far as the composition of your press release, give us the who, what, where, when and why as early on as possible. Once we see that, we’ll know whether it’s something we’ll cover, send a photographer, have you cover and send to us or just trash. Give us the gist of what’s going on as early in the release as possible.

Also, if it’s newsworthy or locally relevant, explain why or how. There’s lots of times where we just don’t get what the event means to us. If there’s a local tie-in, let us know. It may not be as obvious as you think.

Give us time. Send releases three to four weeks in advance. Any longer is too long and just a week before an event is way too late. So if you do the math, calling the day of an event, or even the day before, gives you such a little chance for coverage.

If you’d like coverage, make you pitch in a timely manner, with good information to get us started and get you scheduled. Be polite in your request, knowing that you may not get a front page story, but if we can cover your event, you’ll get something.

Tim Marren is the managing

editor of the Lockport Union-Sun

& Journal. Contact him at Tim.Marren@lockportjournal.com or 439-9222.

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