Something worth sharing on Newspoint?
Take a look at these guidelines first
Jump to section: General Guidelines - News - Events - Further Assistance
General Guidelines
Headlines: Avoid using generic titles - they should be concise as possible and representative of the text.
Localisation: The variation of English used on Newspoint is British English. As such, organise is used instead of organize.
Use of Language:
- Slang words are heavily discouraged (unless forming part of the branding) and will be replaced with the closest official dictionary equivalent.
- Words / terms in other languages should be italicised.
- Articles in Maltese are encouraged to accompany their English equivalents. These will be posted in the Maltese section of Newspoint.
The text underneath will be placed on multilingual articles, under the article banner and following a horizontal separator line:
On English version: This article is also available in Maltese
On Maltese version: Dan l-artiklu huwa disponibbli ukoll bl-Ingliż
Text / content:
- Consistent tense (past, present, future and the related sub-categories)
- Consistent voice (we prefer the active voice if possible)
- Consistent point of view (use first, second or third-person perspective).
Nomenclatures & titles:
- Titles should always be abbreviated to their shortened version, i.e. 'Prof.' for Professor, 'Dr' for Doctor, etc...
- All titles should not be followed by a period ' . ', with the exception of instances where 'Prof.' is used in reference to a Professor.
- In the case of Professor Engineer the title should read: 'Prof. Ing.'
Audio-visual material:
- Photos: Two (2) photos (landscape and portrait) without any superimposed text (unless part of the branding). Any related video material can also be included.
- Use of Posters / Banners: We do not upload posters and / or banners to Newspoint.
- Use of PDFs: We do not upload PDFs to Newspoint, however we can link to them through a Newspoint article, given we have detailed context of their contents.
- Videos: Can be embedded on a Newspoint article once the video has been uploaded to one of the chosen official UM YouTube channels.
- Privacy / GDPR: Make sure you have the consent of those featured in the images / photos and / or videos you send to us. Please refer to this document.
Links / URLs:
- Hyperlinks are used to mask a URL within the text. For example: 'Applications for event are now open' is utilised instead of 'Applications are now open at https://example.com'.
- URLs will be shortened as much as possible for aesthetics and practicable purposes.
- Terms such as 'click here', 'found here', 'tap here', are heavily discouraged as per the W3C guidelines.
- Mentions of UM staff members (incl. Academics and Administrative staff) within articles/notices on Newspoint are automatically linked to the official corresponding staff member profile found on the UM website.
Date and Time: Format should be as follows: Weekday - Day - Month - Year, e.g. Friday 28 August 2020. The Newspoint editor, may choose to opt for a shortened format: Day - Month - Year, e.g. 28 August 2020.
Jump to section: General Guidelines - News - Events - Further Assistance
Want to promote...
The text you send us should answer the following questions:
- Who - Who is involved? If UM staff, a link to their profile is best. If not, please specify the Faculty, Institute, Centre, School or Department concerned.
- What - What happened or is about to happen? What's newsworthy about it?
- When - When did this take place? / When will it happen? According to brand guidelines, dates should be in the following format:
day - month - year, e.g. 20 November 2020. - Where - Specify the place where the news took place or will take place, to give more context to the item.
- Why - Why is this news topical? Try to link it to some more wide-reaching studies, or to past related events.
Important to note
Word count: Keep the news between 250 to 500 words. The more concise, the better.
Headlines: Should be concise as possible and representative of the text.
Audio-visual material: Include two (2) photos (landscape and portrait), describing the general theme behind your article, in order to make the content more appealing. In addition, please append any related video material to your submission request.
Distribution: Please specify whether you'd like this news to be disseminated to local media. In such cases, we reserve the right to publish on Newspoint prior to disseminating to the media. For research articles, you may also request us to share this via EurekAlert!, which will maximise the chances of this research being picked up by international media.
Disclaimer: We reserve the right to amend any of the above wherever it is deemed necessary, whilst remaining loyal to the gist of your submission
Jump to section: General Guidelines - News - Events - Further Assistance
- Who is this event aimed at?
- What is the general theme of this event?
- Is there an event programme?
- Who are the speakers?
- Is there a call for papers associated with this event?
- Is this the first edition of this event?
- Is this event available to the public, or by invitation only?
Before sending an email to Newspoint, make sure the following details are clearly stated:
- Official event title
- Date
- Time
- Venue
- Any contact info (such as email, website, phone number, etc...)
Important to note
Word count: Events should not exceed 300 words.
Audio-visual material: Include two (2) photos (landscape and portrait), describing the general theme behind your article, in order to make the content more appealing. In addition, please append any related video material to your submission request.
Pre-requisites & exceptions: The UM calendar of events is strictly for events that are somehow associated with the University of Malta. Any other events will be published, but excluded from the UM calendar. Other events from cultural institutes/entities and / or registered voluntary organisations, not linked with UM, but still of interest to University staff, students and general public will be listed under the category 'Malta'. In exceptional circumstances, the Newspoint team can choose to list an event which does not necessarily fall under any of the above criteria. Any changes to the events details including updates and / or cancellations, should be communicated via email.
Other: If you are already promoting the event, or inviting guests via social media, please send us the URL of the Facebook Event page (or from other social media platforms), in order to hyperlink it on Newspoint.
Kindly note that any event organised by UM entities has to be approved by the Conferences & Events Unit, which can be contacted via email.
Disclaimer: We reserve the right to amend them, whilst remaining loyal to the gist of your submission
Jump to section: General Guidelines - News - Events - Further Assistance
Please note
We do realise that some jargon is unavoidable in some instances, such as in research articles, however whenever possible, please translate this into reader-friendly language.
We reserve the right to reword any content which is highly technical to comprehend. Your cooperation in seeking alternative terms would be appreciated.
Failure to comply with any of the above guidelines, may render your submission invalid.
The Newspoint team, which forms part of the Marketing, Communications & Alumni Office (MCAO), is available to assist you with your requests.
Kindly contact the Newspoint Team, via email for further assistance.
Jump to section: General Guidelines - News - Events - Further Assistance
Newspoint Publishing Guidelines v1.5.0