BY BILL SHUMWAY

North Country This Week

North Country This Week and NorthCountryNow.com can help promote your community and recreational events, festival or concert for free!

The headline for most announcements is seen at least 50,000 times if your press release is submitted early enough to be published in the paper – at least two and preferably three weeks before the event.

While it may be challenging to finalize details for your event three weeks in advance, that is what works best if you are striving to attract as many people as possible.

Our staff needs time to edit your press release, lay out the pages and print the paper. Then, readers pick up copies for the next seven days after the paper is published. And publicity works best if people have several days to plan to attend your event after reading about it.

Deadline for Wednesday’s Potsdam-Canton edition is 5 p.m. Friday.

Community events are also posted on NorthCountryNow.com even if you miss the deadline for the paper. But you will miss out on your news item being seen more than 20,000 times in the paper.

The other benefit of finalizing publicity three weeks before the event is that you will have time to deal with unexpected issues that may pop up. You will have more time to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Here are some more tips on how to write an effective press release:

• Write in complete sentences. State name of event, where it will take place including street address, date and time. If there is an admission charge, state the price. Indicate what organization is sponsoring the event. If it is a fundraiser, name the charity the proceeds benefit.

• Write a sentence or two describing what will take place and why people would want to attend. Include brief details of the featured speaker or performer. If you wish, include a sentence or two about the event or organization.

• Double-check spelling and accuracy of all names and other details.

• Do not create space or a return between paragraphs, and don’t write in all caps.

• Conclude with a reliable email address and phone number people may contact for more information.

• Feel free to submit photos of a previous event or featured speakers or performers. Identify people in the photo and the photographer. We can’t always use photos, but it is worth sending them if available.

• The best digital photo formats are jpg, jpeg or eps files. Don’t send small digital images because even though they may look good online, they may not reproduce well in the paper.

• Send the release in the main body of the email, not as an attachment, to Events@NorthCountryNow.com. Include a brief name of the event in the subject line.

All press releases are edited for space, style, content and good taste. Copyrighted text and photos to which you do not own the copyright will not published.

If you are promoting a large event, consider guaranteeing additional exposure by purchasing advertisements in print and online. We offer discounted rates to non-profit organizations without a paid staff.

For maximum promotion, our new “North Country Spotlight” full pages in North Country This Week are also available.

Bill Shumway is editor and publisher of North Country This Week.