The Elm Weekly newsletter distributed Monday mornings and its companion Elm website are two of the best ways to get your message out to the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) community, whether you are trying to reach faculty, staff, students, or alumni.
With the new school year underway, UMB’s Office of Communications and Public Affairs (OCPA) offers tips and best practices for new and longtime users who are submitting their information through the Elm forms. The right side of the form also includes helpful information, and if you ever have any questions, you can email Elm support.
What type of submission should you choose?
Stories and Announcements can be included in the Universitywide Elm Weekly; Accolades and Voices & Opinions are not. Please make sure your submission includes all pertinent information in the “Main Text” box such as event name, time and date, place, and registration link. (Do not include the information on an attached PDF; PDFs are not accepted).
In general:
- Stories are longer articles, usually with quotes from an event or an interview, and have the byline of the writer.
- Announcements are shorter than stories and in general can be about upcoming events, trainings, podcasts, studies, closings or holiday hours, etc.
- Accolades are short pieces of noteworthy news about an individual/group who has recently received recognition for an accomplishment.
- Voices & Opinions are pieces that express the opinions, thoughts, and ideas of the author.
What should you choose as your publication date?
All submissions first appear on the Elm website before being included in Elm Weekly. The publication date on the Elm form indicates when the submission will be published on the Elm website.
Submissions for Monday’s Elm Weekly must be received by the end of business the previous Wednesday. For example, if you would like your submission in the Sept. 16 Elm Weekly, it must be submitted by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 11. This also means that the submission must have a publication date by Wednesday, Sept. 11. Generally, you would want to choose the day you are submitting as the publication date unless there is a reason it should be future dated (an application hasn’t opened yet, for example).
Important: Do not select the Monday of the Elm Weekly that you want your submission to run as the publication date, or it will not appear in Elm Weekly until a week later than you had intended.
What type of photo or graphic should you include?
The Elm cannot accept PDFs; only JPEGs and PNGs can be included with Elm submissions. For accessibility purposes, the photo or graphic should have little writing on it. It is best to submit a square image and not a rectangular one. Do not submit a QR code.
With the exception of hyphens and underscores, please name your photo or graphic file without punctuation.
What if you want your submission to run more than the maximum three weeks?
The Elm submission form allows you to choose to run your story or announcement in Elm Weekly for a maximum of three weeks. If you’d like your submission to run longer and it does not substantially change, you do not need to resubmit it. Instead, you can email Jen Badie or Lou Cortina in OCPA and ask us to republish your submission for another three weeks. Please reach out by the Wednesday before the Elm Weekly that would be the fourth week.