Much of our newspaper is filled with stories written by our journalists, regular weekly, biweekly and monthly columns written by our columnists, and photos taken by our two photojournalists. To fill the gaps in between, we run press releases submitted by you, our readers.
We run press releases to promote nonprofit and free events around the community, announcements of programs, tips for community members, promotions of concerts, performances and musical acts, and more personal content like the announcements of births, graduations, engagements, weddings, promotions, new hirings and retirements.
If you include a photo, make sure the photo is at least 1 megabyte so that the photo is crisp and clear when we publish it. If the photo is only a few hundred kilobytes, we’ll likely ask you to resend a larger one. Please don’t Photoshop the image nor add text. Just send the photo as you took it with your digital camera or smartphone. Most phone cameras nowadays shoot images well in excess of 1 megabyte and the technology has advanced in recent years to easily produce a usuable photo.
You can email all of these press releases and photos to us at editor@larsonnewspapers.com and we’ll make sure they get where they need to go.
Recently, one of our readers questioned the source of a press release we printed. All press releases, i.e., the material without a reporter’s byline, e.g., “By Ron Eland/Larson Newspapers” at the beginning or with attribution at the end aka “— Larson Newspapers,” are submitted by the organization the press release is about.
These organizations and government agencies generally include a website and contact information at the end so curious readers who want to learn more can contact that organization or agency.
Sometimes our staff will come across a press release that prompts a news story or photo assignment, so be sure to include plenty of details and contact information so our reporters can contact you or our photojournalists can attend and shoot the event.
We also rely on our readers to provide us with news tips. The best way to send us a news tip is via email so we have a digital record of our correspondence and can forward these where they need to go for follow-up.
Keep in mind that journalists are not law enforcement. If you are reporting a crime, contact local law enforcement first, then contact us and provide us with the documents you’ve filed, the name of the investigating officer or prosecutor and a case number. We have very limited ability to investigate alleged crimes, only those where there is some record, like a police report, indictment or documentation.
We run letters to the editor from all sides of the political spectrum and letters that disagree with our editorials or public officials’ statements. You can certainly address previous letters and editorials, but direct your commentary on the letter’s content, not the author.
No personal attacks. Letters can address points made in other letters, but cannot attack the author’s character or person nor allege criminal behavior, which is libelous. Defamation, slander and libel are not protected speech under the First Amendment.
Elected officials are public figures, inseparable from their office. The rules are looser because they operate in the public rather than private sphere. Criticism of elected officials is fair game because criticism of their actions is directed at the chair they occupy, not them as a person.
Even so, remember that ranting against a politician doesn’t win readers to your side like a logical analysis about an elected official’s behavior does.
Letters must be 300 words or less. If letters are a little bit over, we’ll cut them to fit, but if letters are more than 400 words, we ask the authors to cut them and resubmit.
Letters must include the author’s name, home street address and phone number, in case we have a question. We only print the author’s name and hometown at the end of the letter.
No anonymous letters will be published, ever. Those go right into the recycle bin and our readers don’t see your views. Anonymous letters only waste postage. If you spend the time writing to us, have the courage to put your name on the letter.
Letters citing facts must have supporting documents. If you include statistics, always attach the documents or website links to it so we can double check your data.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
Guidelines for press releases can be found on our How to Submit a Press Release page.
For more tips, click here to visit our Press Release Tips page. This page is especially useful if you have never written a press release before.
For business press releases, click here to visit our Business Press Releases page.
