The Newsroom is the destination for Tommies and the public to find dynamic digital content that tells the stories of St. Thomas. In addition to being hosted on the Newsroom website, this content can be shared through weekly emails, on the university’s official social media platforms and with local media. Our staff seeks out stories that make St. Thomas great, and we invite story submissions, which can be submitted by completing this form or by emailing news@stthomas.edu.
Please submit information about an event or program you would like to notify the St. Thomas community about by completing this form or by emailing news@stthomas.edu.
To ensure the information is included in our weekly Wednesday newsletter, please submit your information by the end of day on the previous Friday. If the information is not submitted to us we cannot guarantee it will be included.
When pitching a story idea, please remember that the Newsroom aims to write stories from human-interest angles that are appealing to a broad audience. Please consider some of the questions below and incorporate them into the pitch to help us have the best understanding of how this story can support the university (noting that we understand not every story will fit perfectly into these categories).
For profile pieces on people:
- How is this person connected to St. Thomas?
- What makes them noteworthy?
- How did their St. Thomas experience help them grow and arrive at their success?
- How does their success make the community a better place?
- How do they continue to connect to St. Thomas?
Profile examples:
For feature stories on events:
- Why is this event important?
- What St. Thomas priorities does it promote or reflect?
- How is this event improving the community?
- Who attended? How many people attended?
- Does the speaker or presenter have a national level of influence?
- How is the topic relevant?
Event examples:
For feature stories on research or other academic work:
For feature stories on grants, awards and publications:
- For grants, awards and publications, we generally will write about them if they are known at a national level.
- Grants: We typically prefer to write about what research was made possible by the grant (see questions under research).
- Awards: We typically prefer to write a profile piece on the individual who won the award (see profile pieces), which would also include information on the award.
- Publications: Most publications will be included in our roundup of Professional Notes. (Submit by completing this form or emailing news@stthomas.edu.) Otherwise, we will often write publication stories either as research stories or profile pieces. To pitch a features publication story to the Newsroom, please consider:
- Is a St. Thomas community member the primary author?
- Does this work reflect the expertise of the St. Thomas author?
- Does the topic have a broad public appeal?
- Was the text published by or in a noteworthy publication?
- Did the publication win a national-level award?
We also ask that you have an idea of how this story will be used by your department and group, and provide examples, such as social media channels, where it can be shared.
After the pitch is submitted, it will be reviewed by the Newsroom team, typically within a week of being received. If the pitch is accepted, a writer will be assigned to the story, who will contact you. We ask for a lead time of about four weeks to have enough time to cover a story.
While the Newsroom has historically been the central location for records of the university, OneStThomas is the location for internal communications.