Small paper editorial guidelines

I'll vouch for TrooperBari's first post on this thread re: submitted photos. Consistency, consistency, consistency.

Take the pulse of the community to decide what's appropriate to run, and what's just a can of worms. Consider local golf submissions, and even local bowling agate, along with youth/rec sports. But try to get *them* to do the work on submissions (come up with a clear style, a clear policy, and a clear expectation of what/when/how they need to submit info/photos. If they can submit it electronically, all the better. Usually, that's a helluva lot easier for you to convert to your system than typing in a bunch of cutlines, agate, etc. Ideally, all you will have to do to is plug submitted content into the system and do your normal work getting the paper out.)

But you need the community's help to do this. So ask for it. Don't ever be too proud to ask for it. The easier you can make your job, the happier you'll be. And the better you do your job, the happier they'll be. It just takes a little effort. Community sports aren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be.

And I'll add another mantra: Don't. Make. Promises.

Don't make promises to any parent, any coach, any reader, any caller ... anybody. You never know when your space is going to dry up, when something's going to come up that takes precedence, when you're going to have to make an editorial/executive decision that causes something else to get put off. If you make a promise, the best you can hope for is to keep it. Anything less is a disappointment for them, and a major hassle for you. There are too many variables in this job to be making outside promises. Don't make promises.

The rule on submitted photos, or anything else that can be considered advance/untimely, is "first come, first serve." Can't stress that enough. Again -- again! -- no promises.

Be cordial on the phone, tell them you'll make every effort to get it in as soon as you can, and tell them directly that you can't make any guarantees on a run date for their photos. If you're organized enough to make it possible that you can call them the day before their photo runs (again, don't make promises -- only do this when it's already set to go, and you're the "buck-stops-here" decision-maker), you'll get all kinds of love from (most of) the people who submit photos. (There are always bad apples.) But trust me, the credibility it will build will save your ass when something else comes up. (Because something else always comes up, eventually. It's newspapers; it's sports. It's inevitable.)

And as someone else said earlier, don't publish your policies on what runs or when. Make them clear, make them consistent, but don't publish them. (Exception: You can -- and should -- publish policies on submission *guidelines*. Like the bullets in Troop-B's post. Especially the last one.) You'll never know when you need to change your policies, and you don't want to have to waste time explaining why to readers, who don't need to know. Keep your policies in-house.

Good luck!

 

Odds are, you have a "school news" page somewhere.

If the cheerleaders, dance team, drill team, band, flag team, winter percussion team, spring woodwind team or anyone else comes to YOU with information, kindly say "I'll pass this along to our school news editor."

If they're a cheer parent, they'll fume for a bit, but they'll get over it.

 

Absolutely no team photos.

Info on camps, etc., should be submitted by e-mail or hard copy, not over the phone.

Submitted e-mail results (swim meets, road races, etc.) have to follow a certain style. Otherwise you spend more time cleaning them up than you would typing them in in the first place.

We don't run any big fish/big deer/big bear shots. I suppose we'd make an exception for Bigfot.

You're the boss. Stick by your guns.

 

I've found success with:

We'll run damn near anything in agate.

No team photos. This will be a hard precedent to break if previous sportseds allowed it, but emphasize that it's an industry standard.

Briefs are a good way to placate the youth sports legions, but consistency is a challenge. If Team A makes it into a brief, teams B-Z will expect same. Beware.

 

Veritas +10

 

I actually got to use that one today... "Go ahead and send me your karate story, but I can't make any promises..."

I had a chat with the community editor today and she's been longing for something concrete as well. We're going to write up a draft over the weekend and present to the ME next week.

Many thanks, and any other suggestions are welcome...

 

Cadet -- At the risk of having my hat handed to me on this board, I would say that you ought to do as much as you possibly can given your space and staff limitations. By that, a newspaper ought to look for ways to get stuff in the paper as hard as it looks for ways to keep it out sometimes. I like whoever said run just about anything in agate, and it does help if you have a community sports page you can put everything on. There is, of course, no way the Miami paper could run every youth sports score in town. But if you work for a community newspaper, then that kind of news on some level is your stock and trade.
Consistency is the right thing to do. But you have to explain to people, as has been said, that you cannot promise everything is going to run and you have to let them know that you reserve the right to edit or otherwise prepare for publication anything that's submitted.

 

Very good point, David.

I am very much aware of the "Local with a capital L" philosophy of community journalism. I'm not looking to necessarily exclude things (I'll run a big ol' fishing picture if it's a slow day), but more how to handle the insane situations that people come to us with.

For example, Soccer Mom sends team pic and blurb about her kids in a 3v3 tourney. I run the brief but not the pic due to space. I get an email whining that we didn't run the picture, and can't I just reprint the article with the picture? And can I do it on Sunday?

Stepping around her ego for a moment, I want a policy that backs me up when I tell her I can't run the same article twice and photos are not guaranteed to run.

Part of this stems from the fact that, as a young woman, I need as much help as I can get. People are more likely to question or second-guess me, and having an established policy that I employ consistently will help my credibility.

 

Cadet --
PM me a copy of your policy as well, if you would.
I've got one I've been working on, but it's been on the back burner since I don't plan to run it until fall, but it would be good to compare notes with someone.

 

You're leaving out karate?

"Daniel-san, show me sand floor."

 

Cadet has heard this, but I'll repeat it for everybody ...

A suggestion for a situation like this is a) the old "reserve the right" rule. Just explain that you did your best to put the information in the paper -- and you did do that -- but did not have room to run an extra photo. Cut it off there. If they want to complain about your (lack of) space, direct them to the production department. No sports person ever makes the call on space. ...

But then, b) to rebuild the rapport, suggest to her that (depending on your paper's submitted photo policy) that she can send a team photo and you can run that with the other submitted photos as soon as you can. (Or if she sent enough cutline information with the original one, you can offer to use that.) Again: no promises, no guarantees.

Unless she's totally unreasonable (definitely within the realm of possibility!), she'll be cool with that and appreciate you making the effort to get it all in the paper. As D-Poole said, get as much in as you possibly can every time. But that's a creative way to get around a situation where you have to pull the photo and run the brief instead.

 

Wise words. Your last graph is basicall all the guideline needed.