If you are thinking of submitting an article to the Lansing Star please take note of these brief guidelines. We do accept articles and columns from volunteer writers, and press releases that are written as a news story. We do not accept announcements of events as stories. What We Accept
The Lansing Star's beat is Lansing, NY including the Town and Village of Lansing. But we also cover Ithaca and Tompkins County, especially in our Business and Entertainment sections. Please keep this in mind when submitting items to us. We will rarely feature an item as a story if it is not about Lansing people, places, and organizations, or Tompkins County businesses, theaters, galleries, etc.
Please do not confuse news stories with announcements. We will not run an announcement on our content pages.
We have reasonable advertisingrates for announcements. However, if you are planning an event we do accept stories about it. We prefer to cover events that have already occurred, but if there is a news-worthy story about the preparation of an event we may consider running it.
Newspaper Stories
Calendar Events
For All Stories
Stories must be a minimum of three or four short paragraphs. Maximum size equals about two pages in Word. All stories have a small square picture at the top. If possible send one that can be sized by us.
Tell about Lansing people, places, organizations or events
Make the first paragraph the most interesting to draw readers to read the rest
Tell who, what, where, when, why and how
Include a picture or two if you can
Avoid hype (don't use exclamation points!!!) and advertising language
When referring to people use their full name the first time, and then only use their last name. Exceptions: use first names for children below teenage, and use first names if your story has two people that share a last name
Include quotes if you can
Do not merely announce an event
Do not ask for a response from readers
Do not "speak" to people you are reporting on. For example do not thank people or offer congratulations.
Write in the third person. DO: "The team clobbered the competition." DON'T: "We killed them in the 9th inning."
Don't use ALL CAPS in any words except acronyms (like TCCOG). And when using acronyms spell out the full title with the acronym after it in parentheses. Example: 'Board of Education (BOE)'
Spell out numbers below 10. Otherwise use numbers 23, not 'twenty-three'.
For Sports Stories
Always include the game score and the season score.
Spell out numbers below 10 (except in scores). Otherwise use numbers 23, not 'twenty-three'.
Use full words, not abbreviations. Don't use @ for at
Don't ask the reader for something, and don't congratulate the team (DO: 'The next game is at home on June 29th' DON'T: "Come support the team on June 29th'
Tell about upcoming events
Include a date, time and place
May announce times, places, ticket prices, etc. within reason
Must be local, in or near Tompkins County
Note: Please enter calendar events yourself. This is a free, moderated service. Once entered there will be a delay until a moderator can approve the listing to go live.
Entering your events in this way gets them seen faster than e-mailing them to us.
If a press release is submitted in the form of a news story (see guidelines to the left) we will consider it for publication.
We are a small newspaper trying to survive by selling ads to provide quality local news to our readers, and 'gimmes,' or announcements of events or programs that ask for a reader response, compete with our ad sales, therefore we are unable to publish these releases.
We do offer our free events calendar (above) and a very reasonable paid announcement option for non-profits (see below).
Paid Announcements
Announcements by non-profits and municipalities can be placed in content areas (where news stories are) for $10 a week.
Examples are job openings, municipal or public meetings, or items for sale.
These are clearly labeled as "paid."
Deadlines The deadline for each Friday issue is Wednesday midnight for columns, and Thursday noon for sports stories. Exceptions may be made for late breaking news and sports at the editor's discretion.
Press Releases Press releases in the form of a news story as defined above may be used in the content pages with attribution to the submitter or their organization. Always assume we want pictures, especially with arts (including theater) releases.
Press releases that are announcements will not be used -- please enter them directly in our Events Calendar.
Materials are accepted or rejected at the sole discretion of the Lansing Star staff. Occasional exceptions to these policies do not imply a change of policy. Please do not ask for exceptions.
Note: The Star has a program for volunteer writers of all ages who are interested in reporting stories or writing columns.
The Lansing Star's beat is Lansing, NY including the Town and Village of Lansing. But we also cover Ithaca and Tompkins County, especially in our Business and Entertainment sections. Please keep this in mind when submitting items to us. We will rarely feature an item as a story if it is not about Lansing people, places, and organizations, or Tompkins County businesses, theaters, galleries, etc.
