What Is a Press Release?
A press release is an item submitted to the newspaper to announce an upcoming event or other happenings within Lincoln County. Please note that a press release is not the same as an article, which is written by a reporter.
Guidelines for Press Releases
The following are guidelines for press releases that are considered acceptable for print by The Lincoln County News:
- All press releases must relate to people, places, organizations, etc. in (or related to) Lincoln County.
- The date, time, and location of an event should be made clear within the first paragraph of the press release.
- Press releases should be kept as short and to-the-point as possible. There is no hard limit, but a good guideline is 500 words or fewer.
- Photos may be included. Please send the highest resolution photos available and make sure to supply a caption for the photo with the names of anyone pictured in the order in which they appear.
Guidelines for Submitting Press Releases
The following are guidelines for submitting press releases to The Lincoln County News:
- The press release deadline is 5 p.m. on the Monday before publication (The Lincoln County News is printed on Wednesday mornings). We make every effort to get as many press releases in as possible, but due to space constraints, there is no guarantee of publication. The sooner a press release is submitted, the more likely it is to appear.
- Press releases can be submitted via the contact form or by sending an email to info@lcnme.com. Please attach all press releases in a Microsoft Word compatible format (.doc, .docx, etc.) or paste the contents into the body of the email. PDFs, especially PDF images (such as scanned documents), are discouraged.
- Photos should be sent as email attachments in .jpg format with the press release. Please do not embed images in the Word document or email. This can make the images difficult to extract and can result in loss of image quality.
- Please include the caption for the photo either in the Word document or in the body of the message. The caption should describe the action in the photo, include the first and last names of everyone in the photo in order from left, and include the place and date where the photo was taken. If the photo does not have a caption or the caption lacks sufficient information, the photo may be discarded.
- Confirmation of receipt via email is given upon request. Please do not send duplicate press releases. If in doubt, call us at 207-563-3171 or send an email to info@lcnme.com to ask if we received it.
Why Didn’t it Print?
Can’t find your press release in the paper? There are a few reasons why it may not have printed:
- Past Deadline: If the press release was submitted after the deadline at 5 p.m. Monday, it is not likely to appear.
- No Lincoln County Connection: If a press release does not relate to Lincoln County in some way, it will be rejected.
- Email Malfunction: At times, we simply do not receive emails due to connection issues or other uncontrollable circumstances. The best way to ensure a press release has reached us is by asking for confirmation of receipt. We will email you back as soon as we see your press release to let you know we received it. Please keep in mind that it may take a few hours to receive confirmation, and that anything sent over the weekend may not be confirmed until Monday.
If you have any questions, please send an email to info@lcnme.com or call us at 207-563-3171.
