Submission Guidelines
Contributing material
On occasion, W&M News will publish contributed stories from various university programs, departments, graduate schools and research partners. If selected, those stories will be run under the byline of the contributor, along with their association/department. Contributed pieces will be edited for clarity, grammar, sense and adherence to W&M News’ modified AP style.
Contributed video and photography will be reviewed by editors to ensure it adheres to university style and branding guidelines. If the content meets requirements, the channel for distribution will be determined by the editorial staff.
Alumni
Story ideas about alumni should be submitted to University Marketing, which operates the W&M Alumni Magazine as well as a news blog and the W&M Alumni (@wmalumni) social media accounts. W&M News often runs articles produced by University Marketing, and W&M News may write articles about alumni in the case of breaking, national news.
Awards
W&M News reports on several campus-wide awards presented by the university each year: the Duke Award, Aceto Award, Thomas Jefferson Teaching Award, Thomas Jefferson Award, Thomas Jefferson Prize, Monroe Prize, Botetourt Medal, Carr Cup, Thatcher Prize, Graves Award and Sullivan Awards. Additional W&M-specific awards may be considered for coverage, but generally, W&M News does not cover awards presented by departments, graduate schools or other campus units (such as student organizations) due the volume of such awards.
National or statewide awards presented to faculty, staff or students by external organizations may be covered by W&M News, depending on the significance of the awarding organization and award itself.
Conferences
William & Mary’s academic departments and schools often host conferences on campus. W&M News may consider coverage of such conferences if they include sessions that are open to the public and are of general interest. If coverage is planned, it will either be a story ahead of the event or after it – but not both.
Events
Members of the W&M community are encouraged to submit events to the W&M Events Calendar. Several local news outlets also host online events calendars that may be used to promote campus events that are open to the public.
Because W&M News primarily seeks to highlight people within the university community, events that feature speakers from outside the campus community may be considered for coverage on a limited basis, taking into account such factors as whether the speaker is nationally known to a general audience. If coverage is planned, it will likely be a story ahead of the event or after it – but rarely both.
Many arts-related events featuring W&M faculty and students occur throughout the semester. W&M News does not write reviews of performances, but does publish round-ups and previews highlighting such events. W&M News also regularly publishes arts features.
Fundraisers
W&M News does not generally cover fundraising news, except for those stories and press releases coordinated with University Marketing.
Obituaries
News about the death of a member of the W&M community is often shared with the campus population through an email. Those emails are posted on the announcements page of W&M News.
Opinion and first-person pieces
W&M News does not run first-person or opinion pieces. While some public relations offices may use unattributed opinions in press releases, all opinions in W&M News articles must be attributed to someone; the voice of the article’s author should stay neutral. Faculty members interested in writing op-ed pieces for external news publications may [[scseur,contact Suzanne Clavet]], director of university news and media. People interested in writing first-person accounts of their time and activities at the university may want to submit the interest form to contribute to W&M Blogs.
Promotions/retirements
W&M News posts information about promotions and retirements under its announcements page in the form of resolutions that are passed by the W&M Board of Visitors.
Scholarships
A large number of W&M students and alumni receive scholarships each year to attend the university or pursue scholarship abroad. Due to the volume of these scholarships, W&M News does not generally cover them. However, W&M News may write about especially significant scholarships, including: Fulbright, Mitchell, Goldwater, Truman, Udall, Beinecke, Gates, Luce, Marshall and Churchill.
Rankings
William & Mary appears on multiple rankings throughout the year. W&M News carefully considers which of these to cover based on the national reputation of the organization that produced the ranking, the nature of the ranking, the methodology of the ranking and other factors. Generally, W&M News runs one story each semester, which includes multiple recent rankings.
