Choosing a Publication: Specific Section for the Article

By: Roviel Villa

You’ve already written and rewritten the draft of your article. People you’ve consulted about the article’s composition have already given their own inputs, and you’ve taken them into consideration when polishing your written work. After subjecting the article to a process of scrutiny, you now feel that the written work is finally ripe for publication.

The next step you have to take is to choose a publication where you want your article to be published. But then, you find yourself asking this question: where exactly will I publish my article?

A survey conducted on a group of students taking up a journalism subject revealed that the best way to choose a publication is by submitting the article to a specific section that matches the theme of the written work.

Knowing what type of article you are writing, whether it is a hard news story or a feature story, will help you narrow down the search. It is much easier to choose a publication for a hard news story since they are present in all newspaper publications. However a feature story, whether it is a personality sketch, a travel feature, or personal essay needs more attention since they follow specific themes and their topics are varied.

A hard news article fits right into the hard news section. Usually, news stories that shows up in the front page of the newspaper are done by field reporters. Most hard news articles already have a staff reporter assigned to it, so if your article is hard news, it is harder to get your own space since you will be competing with those who are working.

If your article is a feature story on the other hand, you have to specify clearly what theme you are following. Themes of your feature story may include the following: youth oriented, faith based, celebrities, specific org events, or travel related.

These sections that cater to the themes as stated above usually come out once a week, depending on the schedule that the publication is following. Getting well acquainted with the newspaper schedule and knowing the day that a specific section gets released is therefore important, so you can submit your article before the cut-off period for submission set by the editor of the specific section.

When writing an article, knowing exactly what section you want your story to be featured makes the writing process much easier. It also makes the choosing of the publication process easier too.