The Catholic Miscellany is the official newspaper of the Diocese of Charleston. This bi-weekly publication strives to present news and events covering a range of activities by Catholics in South Carolina in a professional manner.
All meetings and events cannot be covered by Miscellany staff, so designated parish contacts and other individuals are encouraged to submit news. The Catholic Miscellany does not try to explain each event in detail – it can only give highlights and provide some resources for more information. We follow Associated Press and Catholic News Service Style.
To submit People & Event notices, photos, calendar items, Parish Life briefs, or letters to The Catholic Miscellany, please email it to Deirdre C. Mays, editor@catholic-doc.org
Please make sure you include the church, topic or event name in the subject line. Send in any items at least three weeks in advance of a publication date. The sooner the better.
Readers who wish to submit full-length articles should send a letter of query to the editor prior to writing it (editor@catholic-doc.org).
School notes should be send to Amy Wise Taylor, ataylor@catholic-doc.org
Change of address for your subscription should be sent to Lauren Avard, lavard@catholic-doc.org
The newspaper is published biweekly on Thursdays so information should be sent in at least three weeks in advance of desired publication date.
Publication dates in 2016 are: Jan. 14, Jan. 28, Feb. 11, Feb. 25, March 10, March 24, April, 7, April 21, May 5, May 19, June 2, June 16, June 30, July 14, July 28, Aug. 11, Aug. 25, Sept. 8, Sept. 22, Oct. 6, Oct. 20, Nov. 3, Nov. 17, Dec. 1 and Dec. 15.
Here is some helpful advice about getting coverage at your parish or submitting articles to the newspaper:
Story Ideas
Do you know of someone in your parish who truly lives out the life of an apostle, a group that is making a particular effort to help the community, a priest or religious who gives without expectation, someone or something that touches other people’s lives and makes a difference? Please let us know.
Is it news? Ask yourself if this is of interest to someone on the other side of the state, unusual, significant, different, and not happening to anyone else. Also, make sure that it is timely, articles referring to events over a month old are not news.
Please let us know if your parish has an event coming up that is open to or of interest to the community. Do not assume that because the bishop, diocesan staff, or pastors know about an upcoming event, that The Miscellany staff will too.
Please note that routine or everyday activities and meetings of a church, parish, school or other organizations cannot be covered. Anniversaries are only covered at 10, 25, 50, 75, 100 years, etc. Due to space constraints and a commitment to covering all aspects of the diocese equally, The Catholic Miscellany will not be able to assign coverage of these items. Please consider submitting a press release to the Parish Life column instead.
Press Releases
Press releases should provide current, useful, accurate and interesting information. It should contain: who, when, what, where, why and how.
Keep it simple and stick to the facts, please avoid embellishments or flowery writing. Tell the story as concisely as possible.
Remember the following style:
- The opening paragraph must summarize the press release. The paragraphs that follow should provide the detail.
- The body of the press release should be written with the most important information and quotes first. This inverted pyramid technique is used so that if editors need to cut the story to fit space constraints, they can cut from the end without losing critical information.
- The closing paragraph repeats the critical contact information, including the name of the person, his or her phone number and/or email address.
Sample Press Release
City, Date, 2013 — The first few paragraphs contain the most important information:
who, what, when, where, why and how.
A press release has short sentences and about three or four lines per paragraph. The rest of the news release expounds on the information provided in the first paragraph. It includes accurate quotes from key people. It contains more details about the news you have to tell, which can be about something unique or about a prominent person, place or thing.
Finally, provide contact information include the full name of the person, a phone
number and an e-mail address.
People and Events
Events should be open to the community at large, such as a yard sale, guest speakers, workshops, and not specific to one parish. P&E notices are run at the editor’s discretion and if/when space allows. Publication or frequency is not guaranteed. Items such as regular, monthly meetings or liturgies, requests for donations, bingo or raffles will not be included.
Please include the city, date, time, place, cost, and contact person and phone number with area code.
Example: CITY–St. Cecelia Church, 123 Boulevard St., will hold a yard sale on Nov. 1 at 10:30 a.m. Contact: First and last name, (Area code) phone, email.
Photographs
Photographs should be unedited and include people in action situations — candid if possible. At least ¾ of a person’s face should be shown.
Groups should be close up and limited to three to five people; rarely if ever, more than five.
Including a full group of people in any event detracts from the picture by making the subjects too small to be recognized. Choose a representative sampling of individuals in actions concerning the events.
Photos must be timely, bright, focused and unedited. Be sure to fully and correctly identify each person shown. Digital photos are preferred and should be of medium or high resolution and of regular dimensions, a 1 x 2 inch photo is unusable.
Click here to look at some photo Dos & Don’ts
School Notes
Here’s what schools and parents should submit: Awards – school local community and state etc.; Scouting awards (Eagle, Catholic awards); championships (from sports to chess); fundraising tallies (not if you’re having a fundraiser, but how much you raised and where it’s going); senior scholarships; military academy appointments; new building projects. No classroom projects unless it has a broad or unusual news appeal, or impact on the greater community.
Photos: Avoid posed group shots whenever possible. Headshots are fine for awards. It’s ok to send just a photo and not a press release if it’s an appealing or entertaining shot such as field days. Be sure to include the first and last names of all children pictured, the date and the event description. Schools or parents are required to obtain necessary permissions allowing children’s photos to be published. See photo Dos & Don’ts section for advice on how to take pictures.
Send your School Note items to Amy Wise Taylor at ataylor@catholic-doc.org.
Letters to the Editor
Letters to the editor about articles published in The Catholic Miscellany are welcome. They are published at the editor’s discretion and if space allows. Letters should cover one subject, be charitable if in disagreement, and are subject to editing in order to conform to space, accuracy and style requirements. Please limit to 250 words and provide name and contact information (phone and email). Op-Eds are run at the discretion of the editor and require prior notice. Email letters and queries to editor@catholic-doc.org.
Uncharitable letters will not be considered.
Letters represent the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Catholic Miscellany, the Diocese of Charleston or the bishop.