In-plant Impressions gets unsolicited articles frequently. Those that are well written and touch on topics important to readers are given strong consideration for publication, though space does not permit us to use as many as we would like. Our best advice is to contact the editor at bobneubauer@napco.com and send an idea or a rough outline of the article. We will only consider articles that have not been submitted to any other graphic arts magazines.
If you’d like to write a story or column, a good first step is to look at our editorial calendar. Perhaps your idea is sitting right there, waiting to be written. In this case, we may ask you to write it. We do not have a large freelance budget. Sometimes the only payback we can offer is a bio at the end of the story describing the writer and his or her company, as well as information on how to contact him or her. Many of our consultants/contributing writers find that this helps them boost not only their credibility but their business. A preferred story length is 800 words, ranging up to 1,500 words depending on the topic.
Photo Submissions
We love color photos. If your in-plant is doing anything newsworthy, by all means send us a photo. Similarly, if you are an equipment vendor and you are installing gear in an in-plant, take pictures. Send them. We’ll use them, provided they are in focus and we can see everyone’s faces. Just make sure to identify the people in the shot and tell us what they’re doing. If you’d like to e-mail us photos, please make sure they are at least 266 dpi.
Interviews
If we call you to interview you, please be aware of our policy on sending out quotes prior to publication.
Because In-plantĀ Impressions is a news magazine, and we have deadlines, it will not always be possible for us to allow the people we interview to see their quotes and comments prior to publication. When you agree to be interviewed by us, you agree to allow us to quote you in the magazine. We agree to quote you accurately.
It is our policy that:
- If the interview subject requests to see his/her quotes prior to the interview, we will e-mail his/her quotes only for confirmation of accuracy, and we will change facts if we stated them incorrectly. We will not change the wording of quotes, only factual information. The subject must get back to us with all corrections within 48 hours, unless we’re on deadline and request a response sooner. We will not cancel publication of a story after it is written; we will only make changes to ensure accuracy.
- If a subject requests to see his/her quotes after the interview has been completed or after it has gone on for more than 10 minutes, we cannot promise him/her that we will do this. Since he/she already agreed to the interview, he/she agreed to be quoted. As a courtesy, however, we may be able to e-mail the person his/her quotes to check accuracy only.
- If we do allow a subject to see his/her quotes, and the person sends us suggested changes, he/she will not be sent a final draft of the story before publication.
Though we always do our best to make our subjects look good, our business is to write news stories about the graphic arts industry and publish them on a deadline. Allowing people at outside organizations to have final editing powers is simply not viable. Thanks for understanding.