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Publishing Guidelines for News


What kind of articles are considered newsworthy?

There’s no clear cut answer for this, and it’s arguably one of the greatest challenges most editors encounter. Writers should exercise common sense and recognize that any article intended to be presented as “news” should be current, not something that was revealed several weeks ago. Now if you’ve located a story that just happens to be only a few hours old and the information is newsworthy – those are articles which belong on this site. Refer to the Categories section for more details.

Although our primary focus of the site is gaming related, editors are welcome to publish other forms of content. If you were interested in publishing an article about new technology or HDTV, which aren’t directly related to video games would still be of interest to most games. These would be fitting for the Tech category.

An easy rule of thumb to help you determine what content should be published on the site is to put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Would you read this content and is it interesting enough that you’d share the news with others? Announcements about a game that’s gone gold isn’t going to attract much attention and should never be published as news. However, if the publisher revealed a new teaser trailer or a tech demo of an upcoming title would qualify as news. In short, use your best judgment.

Negative Articles

Often certain events occur in the industry (like the Gamespot EIC fired because of his negative review of Kane & Lynch) naturally create upsets within the industry. Should these type of articles be avoided? No, it’s still news. Now, if you head out to your local video game retailer and had a bad experience, a rant where you pour your heart out isn’t news.

Publishing Rumors

These are as much a part of the gaming industry like the juicy gossip that lingers in Tinseltown. Our stance on the subject is it’s acceptable, but the information must a. come from a credible source b. tagged as a Rumor and c. clearly acknowledged as a rumor in the post. Sadly, a lot of folks get a kick out of creating hearsay on discussion boards, so please check the sources before rushing to make a post.

Opinion pieces

All articles should be well-written and presented professionally. All editors, contributors and respected members of the industry are welcome to publish Opinion pieces and should be accompanied with the following disclaimer: “This blog article should be recognized as the sole opinion of the editor and does not necessarily reflect The Next Level’s official position on the subject.”

Please also be sure that your article is placed under the Opinion category.

Sources

Whenever you publish a news story which was located from another source, please make sure to link to the other source at the conclusion of your article. It’s a common practice for websites to recycle news from other sites. Credit should be issued to the website where you initially found the story; or you can acknowledge the original source where the content was published first.

Here’s how the credit should be published…

(double-space after news post)

Source: (Enter name of website here and make text a clickable link using the Insert Link button)

Sometimes you may encounter situations where the site that recycled the news may have presented information that has offered more information or is simply expressed better than the original source. In these cases, it’s acceptable to link the secondary source, otherwise always credit the original source.

If the story was taken from a site where English is not the native language, you’ll need to use other resources to have the information translated into English before publishing on the site. Also clearly acknowledge that in the article that the source is in another language by starting your post with something along the lines of: “Jeux-france.com reports that…”

Discussion boards (with exception to respected boards like NeoGAF and Shoryuken.com) generally do not qualify as reliable sources. However, authors are permitted to link to threads that contain images or videos. You’re also welcome to link to any threads that have been composed by industry professionals or software developers.

Is there a special criteria to formatting text i.e. video games or other entertainment titles?

All references to video game titles (i.e. Mass Effect), books (1982), film/movies/TV must all be put into italicized text. Editors of the site should be particularly familiar with this criteria. This can easily be formatted if you’re using the rich WYSIWYG editor.

Examples:

  • Today, Microsoft announced that Viva Pinata: Beat Them Senseless will be released this Fall.
  • Simon made a subtle reference to Halo 3 on American Idol during last night’s season premiere.
  • If you’ve enjoyed reading Tom Clancy’s books, you’ll have to pick up Rainbow Six: No One Gets Left Behind.

Boldface should generally be avoided.

Writing style and language tips

A quick few reminders to all:

  • Always use professional language in your posts and keep it clean.
  • Avoid using a trail of exclamation points. One is acceptable.
  • Personal comments should be avoided for articles intended to be presented as News. Keep the article objective.
  • Keep your headlines short and descriptive. If you’re unable to come up with something that won’t make sense to anyone else, use the same headline featured in the original source where the news was published.
  • Always run your article through a spellchecker (either through Word or the built-in Wordpress tool), check the article for proper grammar usage.
  • If you’re simply taking information from another source, please edit where necessary, especially when the site uses words like “We” or “I”, these should be replaced using the website’s name.

Example:
An article on IGN reads “ We take a closer look at Wipeout HD for the PS3”

When publishing an article on The Next Level, it should be entitled: “IGN takes a closer look at Wipeout HD for the PS3″

Publishing Guidelines for Blogs

All blog posts should have some relationship to games or technology. This site was not creating as a place for editors to discuss their personal lives. (There’s a seperate section for that) Authors may publish short reviews of games, provide a personal opinion on industry related topics or issues; even publishing videos that are amusing or would be of interest to other readers are considered acceptable uses for blogs.

Every author should make a solid effort to make every post as useful and entertaining as possible. Users should avoid making low-quality posts or resorting to immature language will be immediately deleted from the site.