wees RY Should you have any lingering doubts about the OO abhi © rere nh x ed nme Bn C3 meen PT, © INGHt SIEOTS ANS WS popularity of the North Shore News, I’d like you to spend a few days some time cuping with our Editorial Department’ s mail and visitors. Every week we receive upward of 100 requests from. North Shore groups and individuals who want us_ to run a news item about their activities, because. they know we’re read in virtually every household. from Deep Cove to. Horseshoe Bay. compliment we appreciate deeply -- It’s a but even compliments can bring their problems. Our business is to keep the. North Shore’s 47,000 house- holds up to date on every- thing significant and inter- esting that’s happening in our community. If your news item -- whether it’s from the North Van Chamber of Commerce or the Cypress Park Barberstop Quartet -- fits that description, we’ll bend over backward to publish it. The problem created by our popularity, of course, is simply one of space. Al- though the North Shore News has increased in size very substantially during the. | run past . year (we now . regularly to 48 or ‘more pages) the number of people seeking to get their stories into our news and editorial. grown even columns has faster. So every week, alas, ‘there are some disappointed North Shore groups and individuals ‘whose news items don’t make it because we’ve run out of pages on which to print them all. KEEP IT SHORT . There are, however, ways in which you can help us find space for your news item -- and that’s what the present column is all about. The most important rule is _KEEP IT SHORT. As short as possible while giving all. the important facts of your story or announcement. Note the word ‘‘facts’’. News items deal facts, not opinions. If you want to sound off with your personal views on some matter, we’ll be delighted to have a Letter to the Editor from you -- again, the shorter the better, provided it’s long enough to make your point. Reasonably short items of community interest make it. possible for us to carry many more of them in each issue, which is always our claim. News stories and = an- nouncements that are too long can, of course, be edited and ‘‘cut’’.. But this often takes quite a lot of time -- at the expense of time needed to deal with other stories and announcements. Moreover, we most = efficient and _. each one delivered. with deliver flyers The North Shore News offers the delivery of flyers, brochures and pamphlets on the North Shore. We already cover every door on the North Shore—all we have to do is Insert your flyer into our paper, , and pay our carriers. the parts that we edit and ‘‘cut” may not always coincide with your ideas" of what: is important in the . item. IMPORTANCE FIRST» All right, you. say, how long is ‘‘short’’? For most community news items the ‘answer, roughly speaking, is 150-200 words.. Rarely, if ever, more than 250 words. If all such items were kept to ‘those lengths, we could print nearly twice as many each week. _ What it really means is that you concentrate on the most important thing and put it first, right at the start of your message ‘or - release. Then follow on with other facts in descending order of importance. In that way, if we have to ‘‘cut’’ for reasons of space, it will be the least important points that dis- appear. A few other tips to help you get into print with us whenever you have .- an interesting news item -- by which I mean interesting to the largest number of read- ers. Obviously, an item likely to appeal to 50 per cent or more of our readers will tend to get preference over one appealing to only five per cent. This doesn’t mean, how- ever, that you have to be big. People are always intrigued by the unusual, and that’s the thing to emphasize whenever you can. Your Flat economical a bonus for paragraph about the Fiat ‘plans, you’ll turn a lot more down the left margin) if you _ writer, ‘they’re clear, we’ll make _ them into a story. If you have a relevant . ‘jumbo size upward, or a pictures and pictures’ can for delivery rates, call: 980-0511 Earth Society, may have only 10 members and if you send us a simple announcement about the date of its next meeting, you’re not. going to — turn too many people on ‘(including us!) But if you preface your news item with a punchy Earth Society’s beliefs and people on. Curiosity, after all, kilied the cat! GENEROUS SPACING If you're a theatre group doing a play, don’t just tell _us that. Start. by telling us that the author is a North Vancouver hardware mer- | chant who quit schooi im 5 “Grade 8 and didn’t start ~ play-writing until the age. of. -57. Get the idea? ~ ‘If at all possible, type your . Double-space . it.. -And leave generous white. release. space at the top of the sheet and down the left margin. You’ve no idea how much these little things mean to an editor fighting a deadline. The same (double spacing, white space at the top and write your release by hand, and please use block capitals for all proper names. If you’re not a fiuent or just can’t be bothered that evening, simp- ly jot down the. relevant facts in note form. Provided photograph (a print from negative), be sure to let us have it. Our readers. love often tell a story better than several hundred words. Finally, the five W's, the professional ro creed: What... Who...When.. Where...Why. Be sure to cover all five in your story. Especially ‘‘when’’ and ‘‘where’’ Above all, please remem- ber our deadlines. If you want a community news item to run the following Wednes- day, try to let us have it by -f Friday noon at the latest. The only exception is weekend sports results. These should be sent in not later than noon Monday. . By helping | us, in these simple ways, to handle your announcements and releas- es, youll enable us to print more and more of them. And that will make everyone happy: you, us and our readers -- who put commun- ity news high on their list of favorite items. : Ground Beef (Choice) Co ees i Lee eens) URE S$ 2 bunches/ per head / per Ib. Wieners (ulk) per Ib. per Ib. per Ib. Chuck Steaks ms