University of Illinois Extension
DeKalb County
1350 W. Prairie Drive
Sycamore, IL 60178
(815) 758-8194
Dear 4-H Club Reporter:
With a new 4-H year here we are hoping that you are excited and ready to take on the
responsibilities as your club’s reporter. With this office comes the responsibility of
sharing with the public the good things your 4-H club is planning on doing during the
year, and to share the stories of your club’s activities, programs and general success.
We hope that as your club reporter you will share this information with your area
newspaper, school or radio stations. Please also feel free to send them to us to be
submitted in the DeKalb County 4-H newsletter. You can email them directly to us a
jbjennin@uiuc.edu or groezing@uiuc.edu for the “4-H Flashes”.
Within this binder we would like you to keep copies of news releases written and
submitted to the media as well as copies of your articles that were printed in the area
newspapers.
As your club’s Reporter you will have an opportunity to submit this binder to the
Extension office in September, where it will be judged for consideration of a “Top 4-H
Club Reporter Award.”
We know that there are lots of good things 4-H clubs are doing throughout the year,
and as your club’s reporter you have the opportunity and job of sharing that
information with others. We hope that you will take on this task with great enthusiasm
and dedication as you write news releases on your club’s behalf, and share them with
the communities of DeKalb County.
Thanks and have a great 4-H year!
Sincerely,
Johnna B. Jennings
Extension Unit Educator
4-H Youth Development
Nicole Groezinger
Community Worker
4-H Youth Development
Club Reporter Tips
News releases should share the following information:
Who
What
When
Where
How
When reading a news release you should be able to answer the following questions:
“Who is the group or person?”
“What is the event or activity?”
“When is or did the event/activity take place?”
“Where was, or will the event/activity take place?”
and sometimes “How did the event/activity happen?”
The top of your news release should have the following information for
media to use when receiving your news release:
NEWS RELEASE
Name of 4-H Club
Address of Reporter
Telephone Number
For Immediate Release or Kill Date
(Kill Date is the date in which it should no longer be printed)
Name of Reporter
4-H Club Reporter (your title)
Title of your story
Photography and News Releases
Don’t forget to send photos with your news releases too, but make sure the individuals
in your photos have signed off on photo releases. We don’t want you to submit photos
of individuals that do not want their photos printed in the paper. So please check first
with your subjects before submitting their photo. The Extension office can assist you
on this matter when it comes to 4-H members and photo releases. The newspapers
prefer photos with no more than 5 to 6 individuals. When submitting photos, you need
to share with the media the names of the individuals and what they are doing in the
photo. Pictures say can say a lot and add interest to the story written.
If you take photos of an individual that is not a 4-H member we might suggest that you
have them complete a photo release form so that you may have their permission to
print their photo. Make note that individuals under 18 must have parental permission
on this photo release form.