Guidance Available On Submitting Articles To InsideNPS

Guidelines on how to submit articles to InsideNPS – both for its many specialized pages and for the front “news” page (home page) – have been prepared and are now available on the web.

Although the guidelines were actually released and posted last May, not many people are aware of their availability. They can be found at any time by going to the links on the green bar at the top of the home page, then clicking on “InsideHELP,” then clicking on “InsideNPS Submission Standards.” They are available in both Word and PDF format. You can also click on the “More Information” link below to go directly to that page.

Prospective contributors should also be aware of the following key points regarding production of the front page:

Annual Cycle – Submissions for consideration for the front page are at their highest from mid-spring through mid-fall. During that period, there is often competition for space, particularly for the lead position. During the winter months – mid-fall through mid-spring – the reverse is true. Submissions  are down and there’s often a real need for lead stories. This is a good time to run ‘soft’ stories – articles of Servicewide interest that are not time sensitive.

Daily Production – InsideNPS is set up so that the front page is prepared a day ahead of time and rolls over at midnight. The editor works part-time, generally preparing a page on the morning before it appears, then checking again that evening for late-breaking news. Example: An edition set for Tuesday is prepared on Monday morning, then revised again on Monday evening. A last minute check is then made early on Tuesday morning, with any important updates added. It is therefore important to get time-sensitive articles to the editor a day ahead of time, and very helpful to also let him know that an article is coming even earlier – particularly during the busiest months of the year.

Daily Revisions – Although a given day’s front page can be revised at any time, studies have shown that most NPS employees read InsideNPS first thing upon coming to work and usually don’t check it again later in the day. By late morning Eastern time, therefore, most of the NPS has read a day’s edition, irrespective of time zone. It’s therefore better not to update a page after it appears, but post the story on the next day.

Lead Stories – The lead story is the strongest story for a given day and can be either a time-sensitive news story or a general interest story. It should, however, be of Servicewide interest and/or consequence – stories of only parkwide or regional interest therefore are less likely to be selected. InsideNPS is a national publication, so stories of local or regional interest don’t work in the top position. A lead story also needs to have a good photo (see the next bullet).

Photos â€“ Because of the way InsideNPS is currently configured, photos for lead stories must be horizontal. Vertical images work okay in all other stories, though. A selection of two to four images for each candidate for lead story would be appreciated, together with captions and credits (both often missing). Although the editor re-sizes images and reduces their “weight” (number of bytes), efforts to keep from sending multi-megabyte images are always appreciated. They’re okay on a LAN, but can take a lot of time to download – plus Lotus Notes storage space – when functioning as a remote.

Story Length – Stories of all kinds should be no longer than a half dozen paragraphs (job announcements even shorter), as indications are that readers don’t spend a lot of time reading InsideNPS articles. Think of the front page of InsideNPS as the “USA Today” of the National Park Service. Keep the article brief and to the point, and employ links to other sites with more information for those who’d like to learn more.