Readers should notice a new look for the Arkansas News email beginning next week, including more images, better ordering of content and some mobile-friendly enhancements to improve accessibility for all readers. The newly designed email is set to debut on Monday, July 24. 

Some of the enhancements to the email will require changes to the submission process. If you submit stories on behalf of a student organization or an academic department, here are guidelines and steps you can start planning for now to ensure a smooth transition to help meet the needs of the new design:

EVENT SUBMISSIONS

To encourage campus to use the Campus Calendar for awareness about upcoming events, several events will be pulled from the campus calendar and displayed as samples in the Arkansas News email. The event samples will include both “today’s” events as well as upcoming events when available.

You can submit your organization’s event at the Calendar Event Creation page. If you haven’t logged in before, you can use your normal UARK username and password via the “Log in With School ID” button. The form includes information for the following:

• Event name
• Description of the event, which is required
• Status, which will start out as “Live,” but can be changed to “Postponed” or “Canceled.”
• Schedule, which includes start date and time, end time and repeating options.
• Location, including options for hybrid and virtual
• Additional details such as a hashtag
• Photo, which you can upload or choose from a library of images
• Filters, to help someone find your event based on its type, theme, target audience, department or group.
• Ticketing, in case your event charges for admission

The university calendar uses a robust software that allows readers to create personal settings of their own and receive email notifications about events with specific parameters. For instance, you can choose a “type” of event such as “performances” or “volunteerism” or perhaps all those events connected with a specific academic department.

While the Arkansas News email won’t include every event in the campus calendar, providing samples and links to the full list of daily and upcoming events will serve as a regular reminder of all the information available through the campus calendar. 

Open the PDF for a side-by-side comparison between the old Arkansas News email of July 12 and the upcoming new student email and faculty/staff email as they would have appeared that day to see how images become more integral to the design.

IMAGES

Submitters to the Arkansas News email should be aware of two primary changes in what images will be accepted for the new design:

• a preferred horizontal shape and
• an effort to reduce use of images with lots of wording.

SHAPE AND SIZE OF IMAGE
The new design relies primarily on horizontal images that are square in shape. Images that are vertical will likely be cropped or will not be accepted. Here are ideal dimensions:

• 72-pixel resolution
• 1,200 pixels wide
• 900 pixels tall

If the only available image doesn’t match that size, you can still submit an image with the story, but it might not be used as a part of the news email.

CONTENT OF IMAGE
Photographs related to the story or a piece of art that draws a reader’s attention to the story are highly recommended.

Text-heavy images such as posters and flyers will not be accepted for the redesigned email. Those designs may work well for a print document, such as a poster, but they are difficult to read online and don’t meet accessibility standards due to digital screen readers that are not able to discern text in an image. All necessary test information and links should be included in the article’s story rather than in an image.

Here are a couple of examples of images that have limited text and catch the eye but are much easier to read and give a reader quick understanding of what the story is about. Short text like this will be included automatically as “alt-image text,” which a screen reader does recognize.

Beginning in August, articles submitted with text-heavy flyers or posters will be published in the news email without the image.

ARTICLE SUBMISSION

Academic departments, student RSOs and members of the campus community are welcome to submit news articles and announcements about honors, research, creative works, promotions and major campuswide events through the online news submission form.

The submission form includes spaces for:

• Contact information, which does run with the article.
• Publication date, which is the date you want the article to appear in the Arkansas News email and publish to the news.uark.edu website.
• Removal date, which is optional. Most articles don’t need a removal date, but if one is added, the article will be deleted from the web on that date.
• An optional image. A caption and/or photographer can also be added. (See the notes above about image size and shape).
• Article headline. Shorter is better because the headline shows up in social media and other web locations when the story is shared. Try to keep it to 10 to 12 words maximum.
• The article itself, which ideally tells the story clearly and concisely. If it’s an event, don’t forget time, date and place.
• Additional optional elements such as a YouTube video or audio file if you have one that is related to the article, and related websites or pages.

Submitted articles are read for clarity, and staff may make light edits for the university’s editorial style. Submit articles by noon the day before publication.

If your department or student organization has questions or suggestions about the new design, please email editor@uark.edu.

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas’ flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas’ economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.