Penn State News: Story, photo and video guidelines
Submissions
For members of the college community:
Please send your submissions to LRW6@psu.edu. Members of the editorial
team will reach out if there are questions; otherwise, please know that your
submission will be considered.
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For Penn State students and student organizations:
http://news.psu.edu/story/336723/2014/12/02/submit-your-student-organizationevents-penn-state-news
Editorial oversight
All material submitted for publication on University news platforms is subject to
review and editing. Final decisions for publication and appropriate platforms for an
item rest with the Penn State News and Media Relations editorial staff. Items not listed
here will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Story guidelines
What we publish:
Broadly speaking, Penn State News will cover college-sponsored events that take place
on Penn State Berks campus. Certain events that are not held on Penn State Berks
campus also may be covered, including but not limited to:
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Off-campus events that are part of a larger college-sponsored conference or
event will be included in the overall coverage of that event.
Major town-gown initiatives with a strong Penn State component will be
covered, even if they do not take place on a Penn State campus.
Other outreach activities taking place in the community may be covered at the
discretion of the editorial team.
What we do not publish:
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Information of a commercial nature.
Solicitations
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Information about events whose registration deadlines have passed, or that are
not open to the general public.
Lectures given by faculty or staff at another institution that are not part of a
national or international conference.
Book or poetry readings and book signings by faculty, staff, students or
administrators will not be covered, regardless of the location of the event.
Stories profiling services offered by units, departments or offices at the
University that do not contain news of new initiatives.
In most cases, recurring announcements only will be published once per
semester.
Guidelines from University Park
News of Record
The following is a list of guidelines governing the selection of items for the University’s
News of Record, which includes announcements about:
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25-year awards
Appointments
Awards and Achievements
Grants and Contract Awards
Partings and Passings
Faculty Publications
Lectures
Links to these items will appear on every edition of Penn State Today and on
the Faculty and Staff News page (http://news.psu.edu/audience/faculty-and-staff) on
Penn State News.
News of record items will meet the following criteria:
25-Year Awards
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Information and photos for 25-year awards, which recognize a faculty or staff
member’s service to the University for 25 years, are submitted by human
resources representatives or by communicators at campuses and colleges.
Appointments
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Appointment announcements will be published for individuals who have been
newly appointed to serve on the Penn State Board of Trustees; for the
university president, provost and campus chancellors; and for those who report
directly to the university president, the provost, or a campus chancellor.
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Appointment announcements for members of the Board of Trustees, President’s
Council and for campus chancellors will be composed by News and Media
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Relations staff, in conjunction with external communicators and administrative
offices as appropriate.
Announcements about the appointment of deans and direct reports to campus
chancellors should be written by college / campus communications
professionals when appropriate.
Appointments to other key university leadership positions will be announced at
the discretion of the News and Media Relations editorial team.
Interim appointments to the above positions will qualify for an announcement.
Awards and achievements
Penn State News publishes stories for members of the faculty and staff who:
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make significant contributions in areas such as the arts or music;
receive such awards as Guggenheim or NATO fellowships;
receive a statewide, national or international award from professional
associations and organizations, or are elected as officers or fellows thereof;
are appointed to a national or international committee;
win recognition awards from campuses, colleges and larger academic units;
earn teaching awards from colleges or campuses;
are appointed editor-in-chief of a recognized academic journal;
are invited plenary/keynote speakers or serve on a panel at an international or
national meeting;
are selected as visiting scholars;
are named distinguished alumnus/alumna or awarded an honorary doctorate
by an educational institution; or
present Congressional testimony.
Alumni awards: Penn State News will widely publish news of Penn State’s Alumni
Fellow and Distinguished Alumni Awards. Announcements of alumni awards from
campuses, college and departments will be published, but only on targeted
pages/platforms.
Fulbright awards: Fulbright award coverage guidelines are available at
http://news.psu.edu/story/210214/2011/08/08/fulbright-scholar-programcoverage-guidelines
University-wide faculty and staff awards: Announcement of University-wide faculty
and staff awards is made through Penn State News and Media Relations in conjunction
with the Office of the President. Stories about the recipients of these awards may
not be released by any campus, college or unit before the official announcements
are published by Penn State News. Awards that fall into this category are:
Undergraduate Faculty Teaching Awards
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Milton S. Eisenhower Award for Distinguished Teaching
George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching
Penn State Teaching Fellow
Alumni/Student Award for Excellence in Teaching
Penn State Excellence in Advising Award
President's Award for Excellence in Academic Integration
President's Award for Engagement with Students
Undergraduate Program Leadership Award
Graduate Faculty Teaching Awards:
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Howard B. Palmer Faculty Mentoring Award
Graduate faculty Teaching Award
Graduate Program Chair Leadership Award
Faculty & Staff Achievement Awards:
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Barash Award for Human Service
McKay Donkin Award
Award for Administrative Excellence
Staff Excellence Award
Support Staff Award
James Robinson Equal Opportunity Award
W. LaMarr Kopp International Faculty & Staff Achievement Award
Penn State Award for Faculty Outreach
Grants and Contract Awards
News of grants and contract awards received by members of the University
faculty will be reviewed and announced for those of significant importance to the
college’s mission.
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Faculty publications
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Faculty publication announcements will include information about faculty
members who have written or edited a book. Information submitted should include
author's name and professional title, the title of the publication, the name of the
publisher and short description of the book's contents. Announcements will be made
only for books that have been published.
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Links to commercial publishing sites will not be included.
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Information about book chapters or journal articles will not be published.
News of vanity press and Internet books will be published on a case-by-case
basis.
Lectures
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Brief information about upcoming lectures will be published on Penn State
News. All featured lectures must be given by a member of the University
community, and must be open to the public. Lectures should be announced in
advance, and one time only.
Partings and Passings
Obituaries:
Penn State News may publish obituary information for active members of the
faculty and staff; administration; and Board of Trustees. Obituary information for
retired faculty, staff, administrators and board members, and information for other
individuals with significant ties to Penn State, may be run at the editors’ discretion. A
photograph of the individual should be included when available.
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Retirements:
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Retirement announcements, including photos, will be run for the university
president, the provost and campus chancellors, and for those who report
directly to the above individuals.
Retirement announcements also may be submitted for faculty or staff with
more than 25 years of service, and for faculty who hold emeritus rank or
distinguished professor status.
Penn State News will publish retirement announcements for other individuals
at the editors’ discretion.
Development
At the editors' discretion, Penn State News will publish stories about officially
endorsed fundraising efforts that directly benefit a University scholarship or
endowment. All such stories must be vetted by Development and Alumni Relations
communications.
Events
Event announcements (listed here: http://news.psu.edu/calendar) that are submitted
for publication on Penn State News and related platforms should meet the following
criteria:
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Each entry will include the title of the event, the time, date and location, and a
link for more information.
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Items should be timely in nature, and should be scheduled to occur no later
than two weeks from the current date, and no sooner than 24 hours from the
current date.
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All featured events must be open to the public. News of closed events will
not be published.
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Information about an event should be submitted only once. Repeat
announcements about the same event will not be published, unless the editorial
staff makes an exception for an item of special significance.
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If a previously announced event has been canceled, a cancellation notice may be
published.
Photo guidelines
The following are the general guidelines followed by editors as they consider
photographs for Penn State News. All photos are subject to review and editing. Final
decisions for inclusion of a photo rests with the editorial staff of Penn State News.
Use: Photos that appear on Penn State News will be subject to Creative Commons
licensing. They will be made available, royalty-free, for noncommercial use by Penn
State units, news media outlets and others. (Please see Penn State’s photo use policy
for media organizations and others, located at the end of this section.)
Photo manipulation: All photos should remain unaltered, unless clearly marked as a
photo illustration. Images that have been manipulated should not be published on
Penn State News.
Resolution: If at all possible, photos should be at least 150 DPI in resolution. Photos in
Penn State’s database are available for printing in certain situations, so resolution is
critical. Low resolution / “pixelated” photos will not be published.
Caption: Each photo should be published with a complete, sentence-style caption.
Captions should identify all people in the photo, regardless of age; the name of the
location where the photo was taken; the date on which it was taken; and other
pertinent information. Captions should read like something you would expect to see in
a news publication. This applies to head-and-shoulders photographs of individuals, as
well -- at a minimum, the caption on a head-and-shoulders photograph should contain
the individual’s full name and title.
Credit: Whenever possible, include a photo credit.
Candid vs. Posed: Photos published on Penn State News should be candid in nature.
With the exception of professional head-and-shoulders shots, posed photos should not
be used. This includes group photos, photos of two or more people smiling for the
camera, posed photos of check or award presentations, etc. Photos of a speaker at a
podium are acceptable, but should be avoided if better alternatives exist.
Focus: Photos that are out of focus will not be used.
Penn State photo use policy
The photos owned by Penn State and displayed with news stories at
http://news.psu.edu/, at http://www.psu.edu/ and on the University’s official Flickr
account at http://flickr.com/pennstatelive are free to media representatives for
purposes of news coverage, as well as available to individuals for private, not-for-profit
use at no charge.
Use of Penn State’s images in commercial, non-news-related publications and websites,
or any other for-profit use, is prohibited.
Appropriate credits for each image must be used. If a credit is not listed with the image
in question, the credit should read “Image courtesy of Penn State.” Penn State’s Office
of Strategic Communications reserves the right to withhold access to images if false
representation is suspected or there are questions about intended usage.
Copyright restrictions may apply to non-Penn-State photos displayed on the websites
listed above.
Video guidelines
All videos submitted for publication on Penn State News and related platforms are
subject to editorial review by the Penn State News and Media Relations Editorial Team.
Though professional production quality is not required, videos should be of acceptable
quality and content should align with the University’s strategic goals.
Closed captions: All videos on Penn State News must be closed captioned -- there can
be no exceptions.
University Policy AD 25: Videos that fall University Policy AD 25’s definition of a
“marketing or promotional video” must be reviewed by the Department of University
Marketing in Penn State’s Office of Strategic Communications.
Read the entire policy here: http://guru.psu.edu/policies/AD25.html.
Video captions: Each video should be published with a complete, sentence-style
caption. Captions should briefly describe the content of the video and provide other
pertinent information.