Westport businesses and community event organizers are eager to publicize their events.

Westport Journal is happy to help spread the word to our readers, but organizers must package information about the event so Westport Journal can efficiently rewrite the release for our readers.

Here are some ground rules.

Your release needs a headline and body copy that imparts the news of the event. Be sure to cover who, what, when, where, why and how the event is happening. Add to that a historical perspective–is this the first time this has taken place? The tenth time?

Westport Journal is 100% online; therefore please embed URLs as hyperlinks in the body copy (as in Westport Journal or Levitt Pavilion). And test those links before submitting the release.

Graphics are important. People scroll through Westport Journal’s homepage and stop when the image or headline grabs them. Make sure you supply us with a horizontal “featured image.” The preferred size is 600 pixels wide x 300 pixels high.

Write in the third person. Though you are promoting your own event, write your release in the third person–they are having a fundraiser (as opposed to we are having a fundraiser).

Include a quote from one of your organization’s leaders.

Include a boilerplate mission statement, a three-to-four sentence paragraph that describes your organization’s mission and what it does.

Contact: provide the name, phone number, and email address of a real person who can answer questions from reporters.

Submit releases as Microsoft Word or Google Docs files.

Send releases to press@westportjournal.com.