Article and Photo Submission FAQ

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The Kansas West Connection is the Kansas West Conference newspaper, which is published 10 times a year. The December/January issues is published in December. The July/August issue is published in July.

When should I submit an article or information to be published in the "Kansas West Connection” newspaper?
Deadlines for submitting articles and information for upcoming issues are published on page 2 of every issue of the newspaper. Generally, deadlines are the first Monday of the month, excluding January and August. The publication date is two weeks after the deadline for article submissions.

How do I write an article?
Articles for submission should be "newsworthy,” of interest to people throughout the Kansas West Conference and reflect the mission of the conference: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

Suggestions for article subjects include local churches’ outreach efforts and helping ministries.

Remember to include a descriptive headline.

Be sure to cover the basics of writing an article:

Who: Who was involved?
What: What happened or what was the event?
When: When did it happen?
Where: Where did it happen?
Why: Why did it happen? What was the purpose?
How: How did it happen or what was the nature of the event?

Briefly state the main point of story somewhere in the first paragraph, i.e.: Members of Anytown United Methodist Church decided to tutor children in the latchkey program at the Anytown elementary school as part of the church’s outreach ministry.

Be sure to identify who wrote the article.

Use spell-check functions, but also proofread.

Check the spelling of all names used in the article.

Be as specific as possible. Include dates, numbers and names.

Be accurate and verify your information.

If people would be interested in learning more, provide a phone number and e-mail address, if applicable, for a contact person at the end of the story.

All submissions are subject to editorial review.

How should I submit an article or information to be published in the Kansas West Connection newspaper?
The preferred method for submitting information, articles and photos is to e-mail them to the editor at scooper@kswestumc.org by the submission deadline, usually the first Monday of each month, excluding January and August.

Articles and information should be sent as a Microsoft Word document attached to the e-mail or as text within the body of the e-mail.

Hand-written articles and information will no longer be accepted due to time constraints and limited staffing.

Nearly every church in the Kansas West Conference has internet access and e-mail, which can be utilized to submit information and photos. Using a dial-up connection may require sending the material in several e-mails. E-mailing submissions ensures greater accuracy and saves considerable time for the Connection staff, increasing the likelihood that your material will be published.

All submitted articles are subject to editing.

What are the requirements for photos to be published?
We prefer digital photos, which produce better quality print pictures. Please do not alter or edit the original digital photo. Cropping and retouching digital photos lowers the quality.

Send the original photo file as an attachment to your e-mail. If you have several photos, you may need to attach each photo to separate e-mails, depending on your internet connection. For more information on how to e-mail original photo files, see E-mailing Photos for Publication Submission.

Do not compress or reduce the size of the photo files when e-mailing.

Do not insert your photos within your article or within the body of the e-mail.

Do not use a photo-sharing program, such as Kodak Easyshare. These programs automatically reduce the file size. Although the photos look good on a computer screen, they will not be print-quality photos.

Information to include with photos:

Identify the people in the photo from left to right;
Provide the name of the person who took the photo.

What not to send:
We are not able to use pictures that were produced by ink jet printers, the most common type of home printer. Ink jet printers produce tiny dots of color to render pictures, making them unusable for professional publication. This also applies to pictures that were scanned from ink jet-printed photos.

Other photos we are unable to use:

Photos cut from newspapers or magazines
Photos taken with Polaroid cameras
Cell phone photos
Postcards
Photos from church directories

May our church republish articles from the Kansas West Connection in our newsletter?
Yes, however, use bylines as they originally appeared and note that the article originally was published in the Kansas West Connection. For example: This article was originally published in the November 2008 issue of the Kansas West Connection newspaper.