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Submitted stories must 'measure up'
An important notice to all submitters of all Darien youth sports stories
Apr 21, 2008
In order to newly maximize space in the sports section the Sports Department is requiring that all youth sports submissions be cut down to a bare minimum length from this point forward, please.
The bare minimum has a maximum length of roughly 150 words. That’s the new limit for Little League, youth hockey, basketball, football and the rest.
Most submitted stories have been right on target in length, so this adjustment is not
going to be such a great big deal. But adjustments will need to be made where applicable.
Submissions of more than 150 words, roughly, will be either returned to sender for further chopping down, or edited down, tenderly as possible, to fit the new requirement.
The goal in all of this is to continue to run every submission we get. And we get, and are happy to continue to run, lots. As always.
The Darien Times has in all likelihood run more and longer youth sports submissions, and gladly so, than any home town paper in the nation, and will strive to do so still.
But for now, verbal shortcuts are needed. Bear with us. It will pay off and right away.
What you need to do
To be considered for publication story submissions need to kindly take the following earnest requests to heart:
1 — Include a player’s full name on first mention, then only write the player’s last name on all further mentions of that same player. Do this with all players mentioned.
2 — Have the team names and final score clearly stated at the top of each story.
3 — Begin all stories with the essential information you would like to get in on the game, including any scoring, defensive statistics, mentions of key plays. Get all of this in early, in the first several paragraphs. And say it with very few words.
4 — And most importantly, include only the essential details of what happened in the game, all other non-essential details will be subject to deletion.
Also, we will accept one submission consisting of one game story only, per team, per week. Choose your best.
These new strict requirements were made necessary by the clash of having limited space and having to find a way to include as many submissions as physically possible, when as tends to be the case, receiving youth sports content sufficient to fill much of the entire sports section each week.
Note: this announcement is 469 words in length, so submissions must be, roughly, less than half this measurement in column inches.
Team pictures: we will run every Darien based team picture submitted, but only following the end of the season. Action shots are welcome all year long.
Thanks — your help is much appreciated and shall be reciprocated in kind.
Send your youth sports submissions to: sports@darientimes.com
THANKS VERY MUCH FOR YOUR HELP
Steven Buono
Sports Editor
The Darien Times
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers