More than ever, there is a need for community groups to get their news to the public and for the Lake Placid News to publish important news for its readers. When newspapers have less local news, citizens are less informed, and the health of communities begins to deteriorate.

In the digital age – with the eyeballs of Americans glued to their mobile phones – people are still turning to their hometown newspapers for local news – old-school, in-depth reporting, photos from community events, updates from civic organizations, businesses and schools, and milestones about their friends and neighbors.

Yet not all the community news is making it into our newspapers, and that needs to be addressed.

For more than 15 years, we’ve noticed an alarming trend; people today are relying too much on social media – particularly Facebook – instead of local newspapers to get their news out to the public. While using social media is a valuable communications tool, it is nowhere near as effective as a local newspaper – traditionally used as a clearinghouse for all the community’s news.

This reliance on social media has damaged both community newspapers and organizations. It has caused a disconnect between the two, and the result is that citizens are less informed because they are only getting bits and pieces online rather than broad coverage in their local newspapers.

Training is the solution. In order to solve this problem, we need to train people how to effectively write and distribute high-quality press releases. And we mean everybody: nonprofit people, artists, educators, librarians, government officials, business owners, sports coaches, farmers, health care officials, environmentalists, etc. All these people make up a community. By reconnecting with them and getting their news into the newspaper, it truly becomes a community newspaper again.

Last year, Lake Placid News Editor Andy Flynn offered a free press release writing workshop to businesses and nonprofit groups. We had 11 people attend, and it was a great success. But this was just the beginning. We’re looking to offer more press release workshops in all the Olympic Region communities, including the towns of Keene, Wilmington and Jay, and we hope you will attend.

We would like to see our Olympic Region communities strengthened by reconnecting with the Lake Placid News, but we can only do that by improving the communication process between the two. As simple as it may sound, the best tool to use – the common link that binds us together – is the press release.

Please, send us your news.

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SUBMIT YOUR NEWS

The Lake Placid News invites all civic groups, clubs, community organizations and businesses to submit their press releases, event photos and calendar items for inclusion in your local newspaper.

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WHAT to send

Send press releases about your news or events using a standard press release format:

– Media contact: name, mailing address, phone number and email address.

– Date of release

– Body of text: basics of who, what, where, when, why and how

– A person to contact for more information, including phone and email address

– Caption and photo credit for attached photos

– Do NOT send flyers or posters and expect us to write the press release for you.

– WORD COUNT: Maximum of 500 words

– PHOTO SPECS: Jpegs @ minimum of 300 ppi at 6 inches wide (1-4 MBs). Horizontal photos work best. Make sure they are color and in focus. As a rule, NO cellphone photos, please.

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HOW to send it

– We prefer to receive releases by EMAIL.

– EMAIL: Send by copying the text and pasting it DIRECTLY into the message (no links or attachments). Send to news@lakeplacidnews.com. Do NOT send press releases as PDFs.

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WHEN to send it

– Deadline: 5 p.m. Monday

– LEAD TIME: Try to send press releases at least two weeks prior to the event date.

– PRINT DATE: Newspapers are dated Friday, but they are on news stands on Thursday.

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WHO to send news to

– Send to LPN Editor Andy Flynn, news@lakeplacidnews.com, 518-523-4401

– Send calendar items to both Andy Flynn (news@lakeplacidnews.com) AND to Brittany Proulx (bproulx@adirondackdailyenterprise.com).