Thank you for your interest in submitting to BU News Service!
Overview
BU News Service offers students in the journalism department opportunities to gain practical experience reporting and editing news. In some cases, your work may be shared with media partners who will publish it for a larger audience. We operate under a Creative Commons license that allows for republication of stories with proper credit.
Our focus is primarily off-campus, so we favor stories about the city, neighborhoods, and wider issues. Please note that we’re not an “archival” site.
If you cover a breaking story and send it to us a week later, it’s highly unlikely that we’ll run it. We’re looking for turnaround times that mimic real-world newsrooms. So, file asap. (Also note that we don’t run everything that’s submitted to BUNS. We have a staff of editors who make the final call on what to run.)
Here’s a guide for how to submit your work for potential publication.
For Professors
Our main goal is to get students used to pitching their own work and working with our editors closely, so we prefer that students submit work to us directly rather than through a professor.
However, we know there are some programs that don’t work that way, so here’s how you can submit your students’ work to us.
Put each story in a Google doc and share it (with editing permission, not just viewing) with the corresponding editor (see staff list) with a brief description of where it’s coming from/what it’s about and contact information for the author.
Each story needs to have a photo or graphic submitted with it. Professors can just attach the photos to an email, but students pitches are required to file photos in a specific way.
For Students
All stories should be filed via Google Docs to the specific editors.
If you did not write your story in a Google Doc, copy and paste the text into a doc (do not upload a Word file as it cannot be edited on Google Docs in that format).
Share the doc with the proper editor (see the staff page). If you are writing about an art gallery, send it to the art editor, etc. AND send it to the BUNS email (bunewsservice@gmail.com) and make sure editing privileges are enabled.
ALL STORIES MUST HAVE AN ACCOMPANYING PHOTO OR VISUAL. Photo submission instructions are a bit longer, so go here for more info.
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For special submissions
Audio/radio pieces: Please follow our guidelines here.
Interactives:
Does your story have a chart, infographic or other interactive element? You’ll need to send us the embed code. If the interactive has embed code available, it’s preferable to sending us a static graphic. Because that information is located in different spots depending on what you’re using, we can’t send you exact directions. Check the help file on the application you’re using for directions on how to find the embed code and copy and paste it at the top of your story or email with a note about the content.