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How-to
The site works on WordPress – if you’re a journalism student you’ll have used it before! Just log in, click “Posts” on the left, and write a new post. If you need to save it and come back to it, click “Save Draft” on the right and you can come back at any time.
If you don’t have an account yet or can’t log-in, message the news team.
What to write about
We’re all ears here at Fly! If you’re passionate about a topic and keen on writing daily, weekly or fortnightly articles, then message the Head of Online to set up your very own column! This can range from sports fixtures to film reviews.
If you write a one-off article off your own bat, just message one of the team to check it over and we’ll most likely let you publish it.
Best course of action if it’s serious news related is to message the Head of News.
Publishing your content
If you’re writing a News item, including Buzzfeed-style listicles, click Save Draft when you’re done. Click “Preview”. Copy the address/URL of the Preview. Send it to the Heads of News and they’ll check it over and publish it. You’re all done!
If you’re writing a Sport item, click Save Draft when you’re done. Click “Preview”. Copy the address/URL of the Preview. Send it to the Heads of News and they’ll check it over and publish it.
If you’re writing any other content, including news reviews and gig reviews, click Save Draft when you’re done. Click “Preview”. Copy the address/URL of the Preview. Send it to the Heads of News and they’ll check it over and publish it. You’re all done!
Once it’s published, one of the above people will send it to the marketing team who will promote it to ensure your post gets the largest audience.
If you’re consistently providing good articles, we’ll make you an Editor. This means you no longer have to check with any of the team about publishing your stuff (but still don’t make things Front Page until you ask the Head of Online).
Style Guide
1. Start by adding a featured image that is wider than 800 pixels. (See above for more info)
2. Your sub-headline should be in Heading 5. (Working on this to make Heading 2 and 3 smaller)
3. Section titles (subheadings) should be in Heading 5 or 6 and Bold. Please don’t just have them in Paragraph and Bold as an editor will have to change this.
4. Divide sections with horizontal lines. To do this, go to the space in between 2 sections, and click the Horizontal Line button next to the Quote button.
5. When adding photos, they should be Full Size and fill the page width-wise and centred, or to the left or right side with text on the other side.
6. 75% of your paragraphs should contain 25 words or fewer. See an average BBC News article for the amount you should be looking at.
7. Quotes in the Quote template (when using the quote button in the editor) should be clips of longer quotes which come after the Quote in the template. They should never be quotes which don’t appear in the main body.
Best practices
– There are no set word limits etc, but as a guideline, listicles should have 7 items or more, serious news should be at least 100 words, Sport content can vary but try and make it over 100 words, and music/gig reviews should be over 200 words.
– Try and separate your content with photos (If you’re in CBJ try and use their guidelines). There’s no need to resize photos – WordPress does this for you.
– Every item NEEDS A FEATURED PHOTO PLEASE. Otherwise it looks weird on the front page and won’t be featured. To add one in, while editing see in the bottom right of the page. It says “Set featured image”. Please upload a large photo and press OK or save. The photo MUST be above 800px wide or else it won’t look right in the front page banner.
– Please ensure your writing has good grammar and spelling. Well written articles result in a lower “bounce rate” (people who leave after a few seconds) which means your post will be higher on Google. The “Readability” stat when editing shows how well you’ve written the article – a green icon means you’ve done a good job.
– Please make sure you add tags (keywords relevant to your article, on the right hand side while editing)
– Make sure to select the category of your item on the right hand side while editing. NEVER choose the Front Page category – a committee member will be the one who chooses if it’s on the front page or not.
– Try and make sure images are either yours, or are free use online, or you’ve been given permission and you can link the source.
– Try and avoid bad language or unprofessional tone in your writing – obviously this depends on your article – in a review, a song may contain a great lyric with a swearword and you might want to bring this up and that’s fine. Just don’t use them in regular writing!