Media Submission Guide

Greenfield | The Magazine

Overview.

The aim of this publication is to generate public interest in regards to Greenfield Senior Living and increase our standing within the community—as a company that genuinely cares for its residents and has a high level of integrity. Ultimately, the magazine will make your life easier, since it will draw prospective residents to your communities and reduce the effort you need to expend in order to “sell” the benefits of Greenfield to them—since they will already be aware of them.

Our goal is for the magazine to become a one-stop resource. Although it has features, pictures and information regarding our communities, we want the publication to have a far greater reach. In order to achieve this, it will be packed with articles and useful information pertaining to all aspects of senior life—similar to the AARP magazine.

Community Participation Requirements.

In order for the magazine to be a success, it is essential that all Greenfield’s Executive Directors are “on board”—with regard to media requests. Ultimately, it will be the job of each ED to oversea and make sure that the following requirements are met.

Deadline | 15th of each month. An article submission. It can be written by any staff member, including the ED—or even an external contributor. Since I can already create features from what is being posted on Facebook, what I REALLY need are articles that are informative and educational. Although it’s nice to receive “shout outs” to employees who have excelled (and will include them in the magazine), I require articles that will attract readership beyond our local audience. For example, it could be a first hand account from an RN describing their life and the challenges they faced during the pandemic or an informative feature on how to communicate to someone with dementia. Please include the name, position, short bio and a head-shot of the contributor.
Deadline | Last day of each month. The activity calendar for the upcoming month.
Deadline | 24 hours. When receiving a request for information, please respond within 24 hours—since the creation of the monthly publication is time sensitive. Requests of this nature will include a CC to Justin and Matt Please respond to all parties—by including them in the CC when you reply.

Article Submissions.

Original articles pertaining to your area of expertise would be wonderful. When submitting the article, please include a photo of yourself (high resolution—taken vertically), your job title, community name and a short bio.
If you know of anyone within Greenfield (or from outside), who may like to write an article for the publication, please contact them. There are many people in a variety of professions, who would jump at the opportunity to have something published.

Internal Article Submissions.

Robin W.jpg — External Article Submissions.

In addition to acting as the magazines designer and editor, I will be focusing my energy on finding external article submissions . This involves exhaustive searches on the web in order to locate pertinent articles—to enhance the overall quality of our publication. Since these articles are subject to copyright, my task also involves obtaining permissions before publishing them within our magazine. As I mentioned earlier, **you can help in this process** by approaching professionals (from your contact list) to see if they would be willing to contribute.

Photo Uploads To Facebook.

Please be sure to document life within your community as much as you can. Regular posts on Facebook are not only appreciated by the relatives of the residents, but are also the source of the media I use for the magazine.
When taking pictures of a person on their own, or small groups (less than four people), it would be great to have a few in landscape format (camera held horizontally) and others in portrait (camera held vertically). Depending on what I’m using the images for, the orientation can make a huge difference. In contrast, when taking group pictures, there is no choice but to hold the camera horizontally (landscape format).
Get creative with it! The photos can be on all aspects of community life—from the staff working in the kitchen to the residents in their rooms. Activity photos are a definite plus—and don’t miss special events like holidays and birthdays!

Photo Guide | What we need

Depending on what you are photographing, it would be nice to have a variety of pictures that are both landscape (horizontal) and portrait (vertical) in format.
A selection of close ups, medium range and then others taken from further back.
Framed well—without too much dead space (above or below).
For group pictures (taken horizontally), the same applies. Frame the shot well and avoid dead space.
A variety of pictures would be great. Singles, couples, groups and people engaged in activites.
Above all else, please make sure the pictures are in focus.

I have included some examples below, in regards to the ideal framing of the photos you take.

Photo Guide | What to avoid

Out of focus.
Too far away.
Too much dead space, above or below subject.
Don’t cut off part of the face when framing the shot.
Try to avoid photos that do not flatter a person. For example, when someone is eating and their mouth is open, or if they look miserable—possibly because they don’t want to be photograhed.
If you are taking a portrait (unless it’s candid shot), please make sure that the subject is looking at the camera. A smile would also be nice!

Below, I have included some examples of what to avoid when taking pictures.