The Monroe Times wants to run more local news.
But we need your help.
You will be seeing a concerted effort by this newspaper to bring more local news to the pages of the Monroe Times.
We will ask our schools to send news and photos to us or bring it to our attention. We are making a plea to all clubs, civic organizations, local youth groups and club sports. This is what we're asking: Please send us your news.
Whenever you have youth bowlers going to state, please send us their names and/or a group photograph of them. When your child's Scout troop goes camping, please send us a group photo of those kids and their adult leaders. All we ask is for accurate information and a photo that is of good enough quality that we can reproduce it.
How do you get it to the newspaper?
In our office, we have a news clerk, Mary Zierold. Her email address is newsclerk@themonroetimes.com. Please send an email to our news clerk with your information. You can attach a jpeg photograph that should be between 500k and 1mb in size. This photo should be accompanied by a note regarding the "who, what, where, when and why" of what you are letting people in the community know.
In addition to this, everyone in the photograph should be identified from left to right, with their names spelled correctly. Please include in the note a phone number where we can call you if we have a question about the item.
If you have news about a nonprofit group that needs to get in the newspaper before a certain date, we will work with you to get that item in the paper on time.
What will we accept?
We want information about the good things in your lives. Did somebody graduate from Army Basic Training? Is your father about to turn 100 years old? Did you win an award at work? Is your child on the dean's list at college? Did your local high school class hold a reunion and you took a photo of those who attended?
If you can answer yes to these questions, you have news you can send to the newspaper.
We'll run it.
You may be asking, "well, I can see readers sending news to the paper, but what are their reporters doing?"
It is almost impossible for the local newspaper to know about a great feature story, or a chance for a wonderful local photograph unless we stumble upon it. We'd much rather have someone email or give us a phone call.
We send reporters to cover the courts. We cover the police department and sheriff's department. We do our job to protect the people's right to know important information about local government. What we don't always hear during these endeavors is about a local man who bowled a 300 game or a woman playing cribbage who scored a 29 while playing with friends.
So, by you sharing your good news with us, we can identify more local stories that our reporters can cover and establish more local contacts. Your Monroe Times, which just won 18 Wisconsin Newspaper Association Awards in the most recent state Better Newspaper Contest, will become an even better newspaper.
There may come a time when we receive something that we can't run. This may include anything that may be considered advertising or a photograph that lacks the quality to appear in print. Usually if you have a photograph that's already poor, the newspaper cannot do anything to the photograph that can make it better for print. It is important that we receive a crisp, bright, large photograph for reproduction. Also, we can't receive a 10mb or 15mb photograph over email: The file size is too large and it will bring our email server to a halt.
Even if we come across these circumstances, we will do what we can to work with readers about receiving news and helping them get more items in the newspaper.
Also, if you wonder, "Why did this club appear in the paper and my child's club didn't?" The answer is likely as simple as the photograph with your child in it was not submitted. We will print all the news that's fit to print and we can see a couple of pages on a regular basis that we'd like to turn into more locally-based news.
We are actively seeking this news and look forward to being a community partner to enliven your Monroe Times. We will continue on this mission on a daily basis.
- Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.
But we need your help.
You will be seeing a concerted effort by this newspaper to bring more local news to the pages of the Monroe Times.
We will ask our schools to send news and photos to us or bring it to our attention. We are making a plea to all clubs, civic organizations, local youth groups and club sports. This is what we're asking: Please send us your news.
Whenever you have youth bowlers going to state, please send us their names and/or a group photograph of them. When your child's Scout troop goes camping, please send us a group photo of those kids and their adult leaders. All we ask is for accurate information and a photo that is of good enough quality that we can reproduce it.
How do you get it to the newspaper?
In our office, we have a news clerk, Mary Zierold. Her email address is newsclerk@themonroetimes.com. Please send an email to our news clerk with your information. You can attach a jpeg photograph that should be between 500k and 1mb in size. This photo should be accompanied by a note regarding the "who, what, where, when and why" of what you are letting people in the community know.
In addition to this, everyone in the photograph should be identified from left to right, with their names spelled correctly. Please include in the note a phone number where we can call you if we have a question about the item.
If you have news about a nonprofit group that needs to get in the newspaper before a certain date, we will work with you to get that item in the paper on time.
What will we accept?
We want information about the good things in your lives. Did somebody graduate from Army Basic Training? Is your father about to turn 100 years old? Did you win an award at work? Is your child on the dean's list at college? Did your local high school class hold a reunion and you took a photo of those who attended?
If you can answer yes to these questions, you have news you can send to the newspaper.
We'll run it.
You may be asking, "well, I can see readers sending news to the paper, but what are their reporters doing?"
It is almost impossible for the local newspaper to know about a great feature story, or a chance for a wonderful local photograph unless we stumble upon it. We'd much rather have someone email or give us a phone call.
We send reporters to cover the courts. We cover the police department and sheriff's department. We do our job to protect the people's right to know important information about local government. What we don't always hear during these endeavors is about a local man who bowled a 300 game or a woman playing cribbage who scored a 29 while playing with friends.
So, by you sharing your good news with us, we can identify more local stories that our reporters can cover and establish more local contacts. Your Monroe Times, which just won 18 Wisconsin Newspaper Association Awards in the most recent state Better Newspaper Contest, will become an even better newspaper.
There may come a time when we receive something that we can't run. This may include anything that may be considered advertising or a photograph that lacks the quality to appear in print. Usually if you have a photograph that's already poor, the newspaper cannot do anything to the photograph that can make it better for print. It is important that we receive a crisp, bright, large photograph for reproduction. Also, we can't receive a 10mb or 15mb photograph over email: The file size is too large and it will bring our email server to a halt.
Even if we come across these circumstances, we will do what we can to work with readers about receiving news and helping them get more items in the newspaper.
Also, if you wonder, "Why did this club appear in the paper and my child's club didn't?" The answer is likely as simple as the photograph with your child in it was not submitted. We will print all the news that's fit to print and we can see a couple of pages on a regular basis that we'd like to turn into more locally-based news.
We are actively seeking this news and look forward to being a community partner to enliven your Monroe Times. We will continue on this mission on a daily basis.
- Matt Johnson is publisher of the Monroe Times. His column is published Wednesdays.
