While Bizcommunity retains a dedicated editorial pool and a group of around 265 industry contributors, we always welcome additional contributions, particularly for the new channels we officially launched mid-September 2011.
This is a great way to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry and all contributor pieces are published together with a byline, portrait pic, short biography and full contact details - and only exclusive contributor pieces are used as headlines/top stories on the portals or newsletters.
Organisations wishing to contribute news can also make use of the following guide of where to send what.
General news
You may make use of the following services for certain kinds of company news:
Exclusive opinion pieces
We don't publish everything we receive as we give priority to exclusive news, breaking news, opinion, thought leadership, case studies, etc. 'Company news or PR puff' is ignored or given to sales as a lead for press offices.
We particularly welcome original and exclusive opinion pieces/features (how to's, articles about industry issues, views, news, trends) which must be written in first person. These are bylined with a two-to-three sentence bio on the writer, including contact details, social media links and a low res portrait picture.
If we receive opinion pieces on a regular basis, we create a permanent profile for the author (see a list of our contributors here and click through to view the individual profiles).
Exclusive opinion pieces are generally kept for use as a headline/top story, and may be held back until there is a top-story slot available (if the piece is of a soft-news nature or not time-sensitive). Hard news/breaking news always takes precedence. Sometimes this means a delay of a couple of weeks between submission and publishing.
Some guidelines for opinion pieces:
- 600 - 900 words an article; if the piece is long but really good, the editor may allow a longer piece to be run or request that it be broken up into a series of articles
- Each article must be relevant to the specific industry portal and its targeted B2B readership
- Each article must be bylined and written in the first person and accompanied by a head-and-shoulders full-colour portrait pic (low res, less than 200KB, as we are not a print publication)
- A bio of the writer with company title, contact details and social media links must accompany each article:
- there may be both a short bio and an extended version
- the bio is about the author, not the company, although accomplishments at the company may be mentioned
- keep in mind that contact details and social media links will be made public, so only submit details that the author is happy to share with the world
- The editors of each portal reserve the right to edit and rewrite headlines, intros and body of the contributor piece to suit the style of Bizcommunity.com, consulting with the writer where necessary
- Editorial tends to be very busy and sometimes we are unable to get back to you immediately about if and when we'll use something. It is best to stipulate a date until when the piece is available exclusively to us and, if you've not seen it used by then, go ahead and send it somewhere else or to your press office.
- If the piece is time-sensitive, then indicate this in the email subject line and in the cover email.
- If you intend to write regularly, please submit roughly once every two weeks (for the Marketing & Media South Africa portal, only once every six weeks or so). More frequently than this may lead to a backlog. If, however, the piece deals with a hot topic that is current, submit immediately but indicate time-sensitivity in the email subject line.
- Note that there are two sets of email addresses per industry, one for contributor pieces only and for general news/press releases
- DO NOT SPRAY AND PRAY
- Do not send to personal email addresses. We have set up mail filters rules to make the news-editing/copytasting process easier, and when editors go on leave or business trips, the email addresses are redirected to the person filling in.
About press officesWe also offer press offices and the advantage of running a press release through a press office include the following:
- Branding, profile and full contact details and social media links are included
- Past news is conveniently archived for readers' perusal
- Every time a release is published through a press office, the company logo is included on the front page and in the relevant section under "In the News".
None of this additional value is afforded with editorial coverage of a piece, which could also be extensively edited or edited down to become a snippet/in brief before finally being published, if it is considered newsworthy.
For more:
See also:
For More list added at 10.43am on 20 October 2011; updated at 3.31pm on 21 October 2011 and 12.29pm on 25 October 2011; updated at 1pm on 3 April 2013.
