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Arizona Daily Star FAQHow do I submit a press release?Guidelines for writing and submitting a press release and publicity photos are at www.azstarnet.com/staff/GetIntoTheNews.pdf. This handy booklet can be mailed to you by calling Reader Advocate Debbie Kornmiller at 434-4080 or e-mailing her at advocate@azstarnet.com. How do I submit an event for Caliente and the Community Calendar? StarNet's Daily Star Calendar offers a searchable listing for public events and activities. Please add your event at dailystarcalendar.com. Events from that database will then be considered for inclusion in the Arizona Daily Star. Deadline is three weeks before the event. Have a business tip? Call the Business section at 573-4663 or e-mail business@azstarnet.com. This section features news about economic development, tourism, retail, small business, real estate and technology, workplace and consumer issues. The Monday section includes Moving Up, a people feature about promotions, hires and awards. AzStarBiz.com is updated throughout the day with business news and allows you to upload your business and workplace photos as well as press releases. Share your news about what it's like to live in Southern Arizona? Call the Accent section at 806-7715 or e-mail accent@azstarnet.com. Accent features notices of upcoming fund-raisers, community classes, arts news and stories relating to a variety of topics, including health, fitness, families, traditions, pets and hobbies. You find all of the StarÕs features sections Ñ including Caliente and At Home Ñ aggregated at www.azstarnet.com/accent as well as blogs on knitting, the arts, music, movies, restaurants and television. Have news about your community? Contact the Tucson/Region Desk at 573-4142 or e-mail citydesk@azstarnet.com. The daily local news section includes Community Calendar and Neighbors. If you call about a person, tell us how that person has changed our community. We're also interested in issues that affect you or your group. For example, action taken by the state and federal governments often affects how a group in Tucson is able to complete its mission. Have a tip for Sports? Call Sports Editor Shannon Conner at 573-4145 or e-mail sports@azstarnet.com. Sports runs local and regional events through out the week, with its main focus on University of Arizona sports. The section also lists league and team registrations and tryouts in its weekly sign-up lists. Please send these a week ahead. How do I get my news in the paper? Workshops are held each year to help nonprofit organizations get their information in the paper. These workshops are on Thursdays in September and in January, starting promptly at 7:30 and running about 90 minutes. TheyÕre held throughout the community. Reservations are required. Call 573-4142 or e-mail advocate@azstarnet.com. Pamphlets are available by mail or at www.azstarnet.com/staff/GetIntoTheNews.pdf. Want to join us for a news meeting? Each month readers are invited to sit in on the daily news meeting, where the next day's Page One stories are discussed. These are scheduled at least a week ahead and usually are on Tuesdays. All are welcome. Special arrangements can be made for students to avoid school conflicts. Online resources Learn why Star employees are not permitted to accept gifts or free meals by reading the Star's Code of Ethics at www.azstarnet.com/staff/CodeOfEthics.pdf. Find e-mail addresses and work phone numbers for all Star employees at regulus2.azstarnet.com/contacts/. Increase your chance of getting a guest opinion published by following the guidelines and tips at www.azstarnet.com/sn/opinion/64475. Does the editor really read all the letters to the editor? No. Editorial Page Editor Ann Brown and Letters Editor Martin Rosales choose which letters are published and which are not. About one in five are published. Does it matter how you send the Star your letter? Sure does. Here, in order, is how letters are chosen each day:
Are letters to the editor that won't be run acknowledged? No. Is that right? No. How do I get a copy of a story that was in the paper? Back issues of the Star are kept for up to 30 days and may be available at the Star's main lobby at 4850 S. Park Ave (northwest corner of Irvington and Park). Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Call 573-4551. Copies of stories dating back to 1993 are available online for a fee at www.azstarnet.com. Stories from the last seven days are free at www.azstarnet.com. The search is near the top of the screen. All local stories and most wire and syndicated stories are available online. Some columnists and news services may not be available because the online rights could not be purchased. I just had a baby. Will the birth announcement be in the paper? No. But you can find them and search by hospital, parent's name or time of birth at www.tucson.com/births. What's the relationship between StarNet and the Star? StarNet is more than the online version of the Arizona Daily Star. Started in 1995, StarNet, once an ISP Ñ Internet service provider Ñ continues to evolve. It posts information from the newspaper as well as creating its own content with wire service material, staff-produced video and interactive multimedia presentations and databases. StarNet's editorial employees work under the umbrella of the Star and are Star employees. What do Star critics look for in a performance? The Star reviews more than 400 movies, concerts and theater performances each year. The reviewers approach each event with their own sensibilities and backgrounds. They also review based on guidelines created in 2001 by the then-Caliente editor Ann Brown. "Effective reviews are based on solid reporting. Observation and analysis are the essence of an effective review. Reviews need to be analytical discussions — not off-the-top-of-the-head rants. "They do not rely on opinions or viewpoints based solely on personal judgment; instead, a review should be a critique, a criticism, an assessment of creative work that judges and discusses the work's qualities. Thus, just because you don't like a particular work does not make that work bad or unworthy. Good reviews require good thinking. "Effective reviews do not draw attention to the writer or the writing, but rather the creative work being reviewed. The reader should walk away feeling he or she knows more about or has a better understanding of the creative work. The reader should not be thinking how cute and clever the writer is. "As always, the tone should be accessible and sophisticated without being pretentious or overbearing. A review should reflect the tone of the work or performance. For example, a cute, flip attitude would not be appropriate for a serious work, say the documentary 'Kandahar.' Likewise, it would be a disservice to readers to take an uppity, pretentious tone for the movie 'Orange County.' "As with all stories, a compelling lede — an opening paragraph or two that will make the reader want to continue reading — is essential. "Second, a 'nut graph' should capture the essence and tell why we're writing the review. The nut graph — or another paragraph high in the story — should tell the reader what performance the reviewer attended and where it was. "A review names the soloist, featured performer, film or play. A brief background of the performer or a plot summary is necessary — we'll have readers who don't know the group, artist, film or play in question. "ALL aspects of the experience should be included in a review, and should answer most, if not all, of the following questions: "How many people attended? "Was the house sold-out or half-empty? "How did the audience react? "What was the audience makeup? "What were the scenery, costumes, cinematography — the entire staging — like? "Did it work with the script? "Did the costumes, special effects and stage setting work with the performers? "For plays and movies, did the script or screenplay work? "What made the performer(s) effective or ineffective? If possible, compare this work to some of their previous work. "Did it live up to the expectations? "Comments from others in the audience can be incorporated into a review, especially if it is a genre with which the reviewer feels other perspectives could add depth to the review. "If we criticize a performance, we need to substantiate our criticism. It is not enough to say, 'Sally was not effective in the role.' We need to vividly describe Sally's performance and explain why it was not effective. No need for lengthy discussion, just 'Sally reflected the strength of the character, but failed to let her vulnerability show.' "Stay away from generalities. Words like great, bad, good, stupendous, awesome have little place in a review. Strive for specific language that describes the event and gives the reader a sense of what it was like at the event." How does the Star choose which performances to review? Features editor Maria Parham says: "Over the last few years, we've moved away from reviewing many traditional arts events as we developed a broader view of the arts world and a forward spin. "Our feature sections, including the popular Friday entertainment section, Caliente, emphasize upcoming events so readers can make informed choices about spending their entertainment dollars. "Repeating events, such as theater, movies and symphony and operatic performances, as well as multiple-night performances at Centennial Hall, are most likely to be reviewed. "Thousands of readers may go to a movie playing for several weeks, for example. That's why we make sure the review is published as near the movie opening as possible, even if that means sending the reviewer to Phoenix. On the other hand, a preview of an upcoming Arizona Friends of Chamber Music performance is more useful than a review, since it often doesn't repeat. "We also write about many more events than we did in years past, hoping to reflect the variety of entertainment venues enjoyed by readers. "In the perfect world of unlimited space and resources, we'd list, preview and review everything that happens in town. Unfortunately, we're living in the real world, and we have to make tough choices every day based largely on reader interest." |
