We appreciate hearing from our readers. If you have a story idea, please send it in the form located at this link. If you’d like to send a press release, please review the following tips for an effective press release before sending it to us:

Put the basic information – 5 W’s & H – right at the top. (Who, What, Why, Where, When & How).

Make it clear that it’s local, including in the subject line of an email.

Don’t write a long press release. Anything over a page is probably too much. We will likely boil it down to a few paragraphs anyway, unless it’s worth something at length, in which case we would write it ourselves.

We rarely do stories about new products or services being offered by an existing local business (unless the product is being produced locally or there’s some fascinating element to the new offering).

It’s always good to make a phone call or send a follow-up email asking for confirmation that the release has been received. We probably get 1,000 emails a day in the newsroom among all of us (not an exaggeration), so it’s easy for things to get overlooked or accidentally deleted.

Visit this link to submit your story idea.