While the cat’s away …

For the next couple of weeks Tasmanian Times is going to be operating at a slightly slower pace than normal and in a slightly different way.

It’s no secret to most people who submit material to Tasmanian Times – often at all hours of the day – it usually gets handled pretty quickly.

However, over the next few weeks the ranks of Tasmanian Times editorial workforce will be a bit thinner than usual.

So between now and the end of May there will be a couple of changes aimed at ensuring that we can publish as much as we can in as time-efficient way as possible.

The changes are:

• Articles: The primary focus of the website will be on publishing articles which are unique to Tasmanian Times.

Before you start writing an article, please read the guide on Submitting material for Tasmanian Times.

Following the guide will make it so much easier to get material published promptly and keep the editing workload to a minimum.

Often the single most time-consuming task with publishing a story is finding an appropriate photo. So if you could send your article in with a photo of yours or a copyright-free one resized to 710 pixels wide, that would save us a lot of time.

To submit an article, please send an email to editor@oldtt.pixelkey.biz. You will get a message giving you the alternate address for the sub-editor for the next few weeks. (We haven’t published it here as we really don’t want to get deluged with spam.)

• Mainstream media articles: If you have spotted an article from a mainstream media outlet you think deserves a broader readership and is relevant to the Tasmanian Times audience, feel free to send it through via the address above.

However, it will only be published on Tasmanian Times Facebook page which you can find here .

The reason for this is simple: it takes seconds to publish a link to an article on Facebook.

However, to publish the link to a mainstream media article on the Tasmanian Times website takes time to create a new thread, find a photo, resize it and then moderate the comments.

• Media Releases: To cut the amount of time devoted to publishing each media release each on an individual thread, a thread for media releases will be created at the start of each week. These threads will be open for comments.

If you have a media release you want published, pleased submit it as a comment. It will then be moderated by the editors, which will be far faster than hoping it gets published as a standalone media release on its own thread.

The thread for the week of May 9 to 15, 2016 is here.

Given our constraints for the next few weeks, what editorial time is available will primarily be devoted to publishing original articles to Tasmanian Times website.

Thank you for your support and patience.

Best wishes,

The editors