CALENDAR SUBMISSIONS
A year ago, we ceased printing a calendar of events because, well, we went into lockdown and there were no events. For a few weeks, our calendar normally listing things to do turned into a list of cancellations and postponements.
Since then, the uncertainty presented by the pandemic made it difficult for us to keep that feature of our newspaper going with any regularity.
We’re going to try to resurrect the calendar this spring, as long as the county remains in a position to allow indoor and outdoor events.
This is a community service we provide and because it is in a specific format, we need the submissions to be given to us in that format. Anyone wanting a more elaborate, detailed advertisement published on a desired date is welcome to talk with our advertising department. Contact kate@ouraynews.com for advertising prices.
Some details about our calendar:
We have traditionally published a calendar that runs Thursday-Thursday. But with uncertainty surrounding indoor and outdoor events, we will temporarily expand the calendar to include two weeks’ worth of information.
If you would like to advertise an event earlier, we encourage you to advertise. We depend on advertising revenue to make it possible for us to publish the newspaper.
In order to include your event in our calendar, we need to have your submission by noon Monday the week of publication. No guarantees if it’s outside that timeline or if it’s not submitted in full or in the correct format.
Calendar events are open to nonprofits, meetings open to the public, public events, and events offered for free. If you are advertising a for-profit business event, we encourage you to contact our advertising sales representative, Kate Jones, at kate@ouraynews.com
The desired format for a calendar listing is:
Event, location, time and date.
Here’s an example of the format from a previous calendar (not current):
April 30
LIVE MUSIC – Peter Stoltzman and New Standards featuring Natalie Cressman. Upstairs at Brickhouse 737 located at 737 Main St., Ouray. 7:30 p.m.
Please email calendar listings to calendar@ouraynews.com.
PRESS RELEASES
The purpose of a press release is to encourage coverage of an event or news story. It’s released to the press and written in a way that provides enough details to know what’s going on and why an event needs consideration for news coverage.
The Plaindealer’s policy on press releases is to accept them for consideration. We will not ever cut and paste a press release and use it as an article. While you may have seen that in other publications, that’s just not the way we do news here.
Also, while you might post a press release on social media, there’s no guarantee we will see it there (we have a lot going on and a very small office). So please keep that in mind.
You can submit press releases for consideration by 5 p.m. Monday to plaindealer@ouraynews.com. We may need to follow up with you for more details or interviews if we decide to cover your event or news item. Please include contact information with your press release.
Again, if you want something printed a specific way, on a specific date, in a specific format, we offer advertising to reach the Plaindealer’s audience. We appreciate receiving advertising because it helps sustain our ability to provide homegrown, local news.
Thank you for supporting your community newspaper!
Erin McIntyre and Mike Wiggins are the co-publishers of the Plaindealer. Email them at erin@ouraynews.com or mike@ouraynews.com.