HOW TO:
TELL US YOUR NEWS OR SUBMIT EVENT PRESS RELEASES
The Avondhu is your newspaper. We always want to hear about news and events taking place in your area.
Follow these handy tips to submit your news and events.
GIVE US THE KEY DETAILS
• Name of your event
• Full address of the event
• Day of the week and date of the event
• Start & finish time
• Best time for photographer to be around, eg: from 9pm to 10:30pm
• What's happening?
• Why is it happening?
• How is it happening? (if relevant)
• Who should we contact? Please give us their name, landline, mobile and email address.
TOP TIP: Give us the details of a second contact to ensure we can contact someone easily about your event.
HOW TO FIND THE RIGHT PERSON
• Reporters' names and contact details can be found by viewing our 'Meet The Team' page
• Send your press release by email, fax or post to the relevant reporter at least two weeks before the event.
• If you wish to make a follow-up phone call make sure it is not on deadline day!
• Try to include any details/ideas for an advance photo.
• Make sure the contacts on your email can be contacted during office hours in the days following the arrival of the press release in the newsroom.
HOW TO REQUEST COVERAGE ON THE DAY
Hopefully your press release will have done the job.
Call the reporter/newsdesk two/three days before the event to ask if they need any more info (and to double check whether your job has been fitted into the diary).
Offer the mobile number of a contact at the event on the day so the photographer does not have to waste time tracking down someone in charge.
Ask who to contact if your event is cancelled due to weather so as not to waste the photographer's time by turning up at an event that is rained off.
TOP TIP: Have some perfect picture ideas up your sleeve ready for when the photographer arrives, involving people/children who have already agreed to have their pictures taken.
HOW TO TELL US WHAT HAPPENED
If a photographer cannot attend, it is often the case that someone involved with the event will have a decent digital camera with them and get one of the organisers to take some snaps.
NB: You must make people aware their photos will be sent to the newspaper. You will need full names and a brief description of what they are doing for captions.
Sometimes a reporter will attend your event, other times they will phone up afterwards for details. Be ready for a phone call the next day requesting names of winners (if relevant) amount of money raised etc.
TOP TIP: Photos should be a minimum of 300dpi at postcard size (6"x4") - for hints on what makes a good event picture, check out the pages of the newspaper for photos of similar events.
REMEMBER:
Weekend photo diaries always have more job requests than it is possible to carry out. All children (U16) have to have parental permission to have their pictures taken. Newspapers always require full names of anyone in a picture. Editors are reluctant to run the same prepiece every week. - if you want coverage over several weeks have a new angle ready for each advance story.
blog comments powered by Disqus