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09/23/2009 12:00 AMDuring elections seasons, Shore Publishing Newspapers makes the following print opportunities available to candidates as part of our mission to offer complete information to our readers; these opportunities are in addition to the coverage generated by our staff of writers. As part of this year's elections coverage, a staff writer will interview candidates for state senate, state representative, and judge of probate. We will contact candidates for this information in September. Any additional coverage will be determined by the editor.
Contact with representatives from our sales department is wholly separate from our editorial department's coverage of elections; please do not submit editorial content to a sales rep to deliver to our editorial staff or vice-versa.Submissions GuidelinesGeneral Elections Information
Note: Changes to our submissions guidelines from the previous state election cycle are in effect—these changes, along with other key pieces of information, are noted in bold.
• Letters to the editor offer candidates and the general public a forum to discuss local issues. Maximum size is limited to 300 words; writers may submit a letter as often as once every two weeks; we anticipate changing this to once a month as letters volume increases in late summer or fall. Letters are the place to rebut published claims and respond to current issues. Keep in mind they are also letters to the editor and not open letters to voters. Letters are subject to editing for grammar and civility; letters over 300 words will not be considered. It is rare that a letter that fits our format will not be published. Deadline: Letters must be received and confirmed by 5 p.m. on the Thursday preceding the publication date. Letters are accepted only at news@shorepublishing.com; at P.O. Box 1010 Madison, CT 06443; or at our office during business hours. We will decline negative letters from all authors in the two issues preceding the polls.
• Press releases of up to 300 words will be considered as often as once every two weeks. Press releases allow candidates to give updates on their campaign, to outline a position, and compare themselves to other candidates (in a civil manner). Press releases are subject to editing for grammar, civility, size, format, and run according to tight space constraints. Again, while we limit to 300 words, smaller releases are favored and will strongly increase the likelihood that we will be able to run the release. Due to space constraints, photos will not be considered for publication. It is very possible that a press release will meet all of our guidelines but not be published to due space constraints. Note: We are weekly newspapers with strict deadlines. Press releases must be submitted eight days prior to the publication date (Wednesday by noon). Due to space constraints, we do not guarantee that releases received by deadline will run. Press releases are accepted by email only and should be sent to both your beat reporter and to news@shorepublishing.com.
• We will cease accepting press releases for the two issues preceding the election (Oct. 21 and 28) and releases that contain any suggestion of negative content will not be considered for the Oct. 14 issue to allow for rebuttal. We will also decline negative letters in the two issues preceding the polls.
• Officeholders who are running as incumbents are now considered candidates; the major import of this is that the column space we are able to offer in non-election issues is no longer available to declared candidates. Those candidates will still have the above opportunities for contacting voters in our pages.
• Shore Publishing does not endorse candidates.
• We accept just one letter of endorsement per individual reader per candidate per election. Blanket party endorsements are considered that reader's one endorsement.
• Each race will have assigned to it a single Shore Publishing point person. You will receive personal contact from that person shortly; use this point person for your primary contact for editorial dealings with the paper with the exception of letters to the editor, which should be sent to news@shorepublishing.com.