I haven’t had room to print a Behind the Scenes since September, so we have some catching up to do. And based on conversations I’ve had with coworkers and readers, we’re going to recap Columbia Gorge News policies, procedures and deadlines so we’re all on the same page. (I’m sorry, newspaper humor, I literally could not resist.)
P.S. I’m going to be repeating this a lot, but as a preview: Items run as space allows. Even if you make deadline because print space is finite. That’s true for you, and that’s true for me.
Weekly press deadline
Our paper goes to press Monday afternoon. That means stories written, placed on the page and proofed (though there’s nothing like printing a paper to find all the typos you should have caught). We are usually not able to include anything submitted on Monday — and we don’t always check our inboxes that day either because it’s all hands on deck. Please don’t make me break your heart by sending something in at 3 p.m. to be included in that edition.
Because we print in Salem and our newspaper is delivered to subscribers via the U.S. Postal Service, we must send the paper Monday afternoon in order to get it printed Tuesday morning. If we miss that, then we miss getting the paper delivered back to Hood River by postal deadline, which means it won’t be in mailboxes by Wednesday. We have zero wiggle room.
Letters to the editor
I haven’t had much room to print our letters policy as of late, but I want to highlight a couple things:
Letters deadline for the upcoming edition is Friday at noon. If you send in your letter over the weekend (or even on Monday, our deadline day), I cannot guarantee placement. And truthfully, I can’t guarantee placement even if you send it by Friday at noon just because print space is a moving target and things happen. But you do have a better chance of getting in when you submit your letter then. If your letter does not run, it is saved for the following edition.
Cite your sources! There is a difference between personal opinion (“I hate snow”) and fact (“Our elected official hates snow”). If you’re including a fact, you need to include where you found said fact (“Our elected official hates snow, as seen in the Columbia Gorge News article of Oct. 30, 2024, where they are quoted as saying, ‘I hate snow’”). If you don’t, I’m going to send it back.
Press releases
If you want your press release to be considered for the upcoming edition, it needs to be submitted no later than Thursday end of day. Press releases run as space allows — that whole print space is a moving target thing — but the worst that happens is it goes online ahead of print. Send these to news@gorgenews.com and clearly label in the subject line.
Press releases should be print ready — meaning you’ve included an author or organization we can credit with a byline (“By Trisha, Columbia Gorge News”), names and other information for any photos, and in story form. We can create releases based on flyers but that takes staff time we may not immediately have, so it may take a couple of weeks to get going.
Press releases may also be edited for length.
Sponsored content
If you need more than a promise of inclusion in an upcoming edition and / or do not want your press release edited for length, consider running it as sponsored content. These press releases are scheduled just like advertisements, which means you can pick your run date. It also means we work around the length of the article instead of cutting it down to fit the space. You can also include photos. Sponsored content goes up on our website and is pushed out on our social media channels as well.
You might be wondering why you’d do that — doesn’t Columbia Gorge News print everything we receive anyway? The answer is no, because we just don’t have the space.
Besides guaranteed placement, however, you’re also helping us stay in business. Newspapers cost money to produce — staffing, printing, transporting ... you get the idea — and those costs keep going up. We can’t continue our mission of bringing local news to the Gorge each week if we don’t have financial support.
How to Help
‘Tis the season for our annual listing of ways the Gorge community can help various nonprofits, organizations, and clubs before the end of the year. We’ve run everything from nursing homes seeking Christmas decorations to food banks collecting nonperishables and cash donations. As with press releases, items should be sent by Thursday end of day to the news@gorgenews.com inbox. These items run as space allows but the list will be published in its entirety each week online and pushed out on our social media channels.
Entertainment and events listings
Same deadline, same email. Again, listings run as space allows and may be edited for space. The closer we get to your event, the better chance it has of running in print, but the entire master list goes online each Monday afternoon. You can also enter your own listings at columbiagorgenews.com/local-events.
Holidays
Columbia Gorge News will be closed for Thanksgiving, Nov. 28; Christmas, Dec. 25; and New Year’s, Jan. 1. Our Thanksgiving edition, Nov. 27, will be business as usual. Dec. 25 and 31 are Wednesdays, so those editions will most likely go to press the Friday before to make it into mailboxes before the holiday — because if the post office isn’t open, the paper can’t be delivered.
All of that is just to say if you have news, press releases, classified ads, legal notices, obituaries, events or letters (and I’m probably forgetting something. Dang, we cover a lot of ground), be sure to send it in as soon as possible. When in doubt, send it to news@gorgenews.com, but you’re also welcome to send items directly to me at trishaw@gorgenews.com.
And now, something completely different
We update our website, columbiagorgenews.com, daily because of our tight print deadline — everything from press releases to byline stories. Be sure to visit! You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram, @columbiagorgenews.
The best way to reach staff, however, is via email. We don’t comment on social media posts or check messages there very often. You can find our staff listing and email addresses on our website — click the house icon on the navigation bar, then select “contact us.” Thank you!
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