Submitting news to the News Bureau

Not all information originating on campus is news, but each request for coverage will be evaluated for its potential interest to various news organizations as well as "Inside Illinois" and "Postmarks" readers.

Timing

It is never too early to notify the News Bureau, but it can be too late.

The News Bureau needs to receive information as early as possible. In emergencies, we must act immediately. With other news, time is required to gather information, notify news media, and let them develop and find space or airtime for the story.

Process

Once writers have identified news on their beat, they discuss with editors the best way to disseminate the news. These may include

• A news release
• Telephone calls or letters to reporters or editors
• Visits to news outlets
• Accompanying faculty and staff to professional meetings or to meet reporters
• Photos

News releases are created in the same manner that the news media create stories, with one added step: a final check by the source to ensure accuracy. Our steps include

• Interview appropriate faculty and staff and review written source material
• Discuss content, target, and timing
• Write a draft
• Edit material - done by the director and associate director of the News Bureau
• Return to sources for check
• Make final revisions
• Copy and distribute news release

The News Bureau coordinates release timing with faculty and staff, to avoid jeopardizing an article's publication in a professional journal or a presentation at a professional meeting. In addition to serving faculty needs, such coordinated timing often creates greater news coverage by providing a current news hook for the story.

Our contacts

To provide the best service to campus constituents, the News Bureau maintains a variety of distribution lists

• Local media
• Regional media
• Statewide media
• National and international media

The News Bureau also maintains information on which topics are of most interest to which journalists.

By agreement with the journalists on our distribution lists, we do not share their names or contact information. We do, however, maintain a list of the web sites of local media outlets for your convenience.

Style and publication information

Writing news releases in journalistic style reduces the need for changes by the news media. Periodicals may publish a release with little change, cut it to one paragraph, or expand it to a longer story. They may edit it into a different style or even rewrite it entirely. Some may publish it immediately, while others use it weeks or months later or file it as background and contact the source years later. In any case, the News Bureau cannot, and should not, control what the news media do with a release.

 

Please contact us if you have any questions.