By The People, For the People
Editorial Guidelines for Citizen Journalists ■ The Local Paper is a free weekly community newspaper that welcomes the contributions from volunteers. ‘Citizen journalists’ are welcome to send reports and photographs for publication in The Local Paper - in print and online. These reports help the community to stay in touch, and to promote local organisations including sporting clubs. It’s a great way to promote. No money changes hands. There is no charge for the space to promote your organisation’s activites. No money is paid to the volunteer for their words and images. ■ The Local Paper has editorial guidelines for its Citizen Journalists. Names and faces are the key elements to good communication. Be factual and accountable. Avoid expressing opinions in your reports. It is important that the material you submit is verifiable.
Volunteering your services ■ We do not pay for editorial or photographic submissions; we are a community-based newspaper, all submissions are made in goodwill. All photos are subject to editing. By submitting the photos to us, you agree that the copyright of the photos is transferred to Local Media Pty Ltd, and that ongoing permission is granted for the reports and photographs to appear in the its publications, electronically, and in other forms. Contributors are not employees or agents of Local Media Pty Ltd. and therefore have no authority to make statements on the company’s behalf. Insurance coverage is the personal responsibility of honorary reviewers, contributors and photographers.
Telling the story in pictures
■ An important part of modern journalism is to tell our stories, not only in words, but also with pictures. “A picture paints a thousand words”. These days, just about everyone is equipped to take good quality photos with their mobile phones. To have your photos included, it’s as simple as taking the photos, and emailing them to editor@local paper.com.au
● Ash Long, Editor editor@LocalPaper.com.au Mobile: 0450 399 932 Please double-check on the spelling of all names. If you don’t know, please ask. Incorrect spelling exposes the writer and the newspaper to ridicule. Police, Council and Government (Local, State and Federal) stories are usually the province of our Editorial team of journalists. We encourage our Citizen Journalists to focus on club, organisation and community news. We prefer to encourage and foster community volunteers, rather than to criticise them. We prefer a positive approach to our local journalism. We seek to attribute the source of all contributed material. This includes a tagline in all written and photographic reports. All material submitted is subject to vetting and editing by our editorial team. The best reports are simple, direct and unambiguous. They are objectively written and presented. They waste no words on padding.
■ A vital part of telling stories with pictures is to have a named caption with every photo. We need to properly introduce every one in our photos by first name AND surname. We do not publish photos that only give the first name. Seek permission of parents/guardians for the use of images and full names of children aged under 18. ■ We need photos submitted by JPG file, within 24 hours of the event. We are a newspaper, and events that are weeks old are of no interest to our readers. ■ Photos need to be at 300 dpi. Turn the date stamp off. The photos need to be sharp, clear, in-focus. We like photos to be close-up, usually two people per shot. The people need to be close together. ■ No duplicates please: in other words, each person is only to appear in one photo. Any duplicates are automotically dumped. ■ General editorial deadline is 5pm Fridays. Sports editorial deadline is 10am Mondays.