Extra extra extra extra extra extra How to promote your events

TAW isnʼt the only in The American Wanderer way to promote By TAW staff, editor Laurel Parrott and production manager Donna Seline your events

There are many ways The American Wander an average of 1600 words — not as a side note in the to publicize events in (TAW) welcomes your sub- and that’s without headlines, email). Include the byline missions and wants to help photos, graphics and paid (writer’s name) if applicable your local major and promote events throughout advertising. Use your com- in the article under the head- community newspa- all AVA regions. So to help puter software to do a word line. When sending email pers, and organization you help us, remember: count and then cut out the photos or graphics – do not and church newsletters extraneous stuff. If you have imbed them into the article – – many will publish a We want to be fair to all con- doubts or questions about send as separate attach- news brief or calendar tributors and regions. We your article please contact ments. Photos should be in item. Don’t forget only have so much to editor Laurel Parrott at tiff or jpeg format, and under local radio stations. print articles and photos, and [email protected] or 612-521- 1M (170 dpi). Make connections with since we receive up to 100 8650. the local editorial con- submissions for each issue, Send articles to [email protected]. tacts and let them there’s no way to fit them all Since we don’t have space to If you don’t have email know how your event in as submitted. Because of fit in every article as submit- access send to Laurel will benefit their read- space requirements and the ted we cannot guarantee that Parrott, The American ership. Give them all need to be fair we request any article will be printed. Wanderer, 3526 Humboldt the “who, what, where, only one article per club; so As with any other publica- Ave. N, Minneapolis, MN when, why and how confer with fellow club tion, if you want to guaran- 55412. Note that we do not info,” and a contact members before submitting tee a spot, contact AVA for return photos, so send only number with your an article. So keep your arti- paid advertising information. copies of your best one or press release and you cles short — you really can two photos. Include caption may get that local pub- say what you need to say in We prefer email submissions info (who, what, where, etc. licity. Check your state less than 500 words. The (saves postage and time). and who is in what position, shorter the article, the more When submitting via email, left to right if appropriate), newspaper association likely it will make it into an attach your word document and add photo credit if need- website for contacts. upcoming issue. We want to and also paste the text direct- ed. promote upcoming events, ly into the email (in case of but also past events if they software conflicts). In the Remember deadlines; have something relevant to email “subject” line they’re always posted in say to TAW readership. And include TAW, the region TAW on 2. Also note if you have a letter to the edi- you’re covering and article that any changes in the B tor, milestone or just want to title. If there is anything section (events, club talk about your walking important to add to the arti- changes, etc.) must go adventures — then keep cle, i.e., photo captions or through the AVA – we cannot them short and sweet. Each other notes, add that info make those changes. TAW page can only handle directly with the article (and Get the picture?

Sometimes you need to ask folks to stand still so you can Don’t send photos downloaded from a website. take a sharp focused picture. The two illustrations above show you the quality difference between a web photo and a good high resolution photo, needed for publishing in TAW.

Look for shots that show walkers enjoying the beauty or historic value of the area where the event takes place. Watch the background lighting so you don’t lose faces in shadows.

Butt shots aren’t pretty ... no matter whose butt they are! Besides, look how much prettier face shots are! And especially when they’re out of focus. specs — Associated Press style

Just some basic journalism 101 points for you. The points below are just a few from the Associated Press Stylebook. The fol- lowing is a hodgepodge of the most common flaws in submissions to the media. When submitting any kind of press release, you’re going to get a better response from editors when your article, news brief, calendar notice, etc, is in proper Associated Press style. So whether you’re submitting to The American Wanderer or to the New York Times, you’ll look more like a pro- fessional when using these formatting tips:

Format Other stuff

• One space between a period (.) and the next sentence — • Time is usually typed as 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m., not 7:00. always. Major newspapers dispensed with the extra 00s decades ago. And 12:00 noon is redundant, try to use noon or midnight. • Return/enter key: Never hit it at the end of a line unless you are starting a new . • Is it a.m. or A.M. or AM or am? Associated Press says it’s a.m. or p.m. and there is a space between the number and the • Word capitals: The Associated Press standard is only the a.m. or p.m. For example, 7 p.m. is correct. first word and proper words are capitalized. • Dates: Do not include letters in a date. It’s September 17 • Capitals in a person’s title or position: Capitalize formal not September 17th. titles when used immediately preceding the name; otherwise lower case. • Year: there’s no reason to add the year unless you’re refer- ring to some year other than the present. So “the event will be • Don’t capitalize for accent (in note or headline) — a defi- held March 1, 2008” is overkill – if the event is to be held nite no, way too LOUD. It was used in typewriter days next year, say 2009. because there was no other way to accent a word or sentence. Now we can bold or italicize a word to make it stand out • And versus &: “And” should always be spelled out unless more effectively. the ampersand is part of a logo or title, or if it’s a very seri- ous space problem. • Don’t underline for accent — same reason as above. • Numbers: Numbers one through nine (1-9) should always • — the use of a double (--) is no longer neces- be spelled out (one – nine), except when used in currency sary. Instead use what is called an “ dash” (because it is the form or time. Numbers 10 and above should always be in exact width of the capital letter “m” in the typestyle you are numerical form. using). On a Mac you can type the em dash by holding down the option and shift key before typing the dash. The PC also • Numbers starting sentences: Numbers at the beginning of has a keystroke for this function. a sentence should always be spelled out, i.e.: Two hundred people came to the event. • Turn off your word processor’s default tabs and indent settings. This will make it easier for the text to be imported • : spell out an when first used in an arti- into the program. If you want to format your arti- cle (to introduce the reader) and then put the acronym in cle to print a hard copy, do so, but then turn off the defaults parentheses immediately after it. Don’t use an acronym at the before you save it to send to TAW. beginning of a sentence — spell it out or find a way to use it later in the sentence. • When you save your article, don’t assume you know what software your receiver has; when in doubt save it in a couple • Money: Usually a large number like two million dollars forms such as text. This imports efficiently into most desktop would be typed $2 million. Smaller numbers should be publishing programs. At TAW (and most major newspapers) numerical, i.e., $150 or $150.50. Don’t add the cents (00s) as we can accept most software programs except Publisher. Also in $150.00. when submitting via email, paste the document into the email as well as send an attachment — just in case the receiver • Quotes: In almost all cases, quotation marks should be on can’t open the attachment. the outside of like commas (,”) and periods (.”). There are a few exceptions, but the general rule is quotes on the outside. Specs continued on page 4 We also publish other newspapers and we receive hundreds of email press releases each week. To make sure your article doesn’t get lost, put the following in your email subject line: TAW: your region: name of article. For example: TAW:NC:Walking in MN State Parks. Electronic sanctioning and how what you type affects the B Section of TAW One of the things that we have learned over the years of Two names: Instead of Tom & Mary, just use one name. producing printed materials is that you can’t always trust everyone to know correct formats ... so we have to set : Don’t put any periods between the initials. standards to take advantage of the space we have to use (This is more a space saving technique for our lists than without wasting it. So when a club sends in an “grammatically” correct.) Electronic Sanction Request (ESR), their is not always right or necessary. Middle initials: not necessary — takes up space, leave out, : rather than use a , just use a comma and no one cares! space as in any other line of text, i.e., State Park, picnic shelter not State Park — picnic shelter. Abbreviations: Streets and avenues ... abbreviate: St. and Remember: if we have to Capital letters: First letter only ... never totally capitalize Ave., Dr., Rd., Park=pk; High School=HS, etc. re-type something in your list- any words unless they’re an acronym or state abbreviation. ing for TAW, there is a chance All caps take up twice as much space as lower case. In the for error. Put it in correctly to Directions: North = N. etc. events and club listings space is a premium so when you prevent this from happening! type all caps, we have to remove them. Email addresses Phone #: Type just the num- are usually not case sensitive. bers as dashes will not display your number correctly. Picture that! Any changes in the B Section (events, club changes, etc.) must go through the AVA — we cannot make those changes.

Specs continued from page 3 There are a few exceptions, but the general rule is quotes on the outside.

• I.E.: Id est, or “that is,” is abbreviated i.e. and always used with periods. This is used frequently instead of “for example.”

• State abbreviations: Always spell out the full name of the state in an article. Please use the two-letter postal abbreviation in addresses for items in the B Section.

They say one good picture is worth a thousand words • Area codes/phone numbers: Many cities now have mul- ... but what’s a good picture? Quality photographs tiple area codes, and the 10-digit phone number is the should be focused and clear, with easily identifiable norm. Forgo the parentheses for the area code. At the TAW subjects and no background distractions. we’re using dashes. So the TAW number is not (612) 529- For newspaper publishing, digital photographs need 0552, it’s 612-529-0552. to be 170 dpi. When saving the file as a jpeg set the • Using “dots” in phone numbers, i.e. 612.529.0552, compression scheme (“image options” in Photoshop) won’t allow for the phone number to hyphenate over two to “maximum” quality and “large file.” A color lines, so we opted to stay with dashes. (CMYK) photo that has a physical size of 4”x5” and a resolution of 170 dpi will have a file size of approx- A final note: be consistent with all of the above, and keep imately 1MB. your article concise and clear. When you write something, try to think of it from the readers’ perspective — don’t All digital photos sent to TAW should be kept under assume the reader knows anything — and yet readers see 1MB and should be sent in jpeg or tif format. so much more than you would expect.