Newsletter Article Submission Guidelines

Government Matters, produced by ESRI's Industry Marketing Division, is a quarterly newsletter that features articles on the use of GIS by state and local government. It has a distribution of more than 156,000. A PDF version of each newsletter is also posted on the ESRI Web site.

Many Government Matters articles are written by GIS practitioners in state and local government as well as consultants, resellers, and developers, many of whom are ESRI business partners. Articles submitted by an ESRI business partner will be credited to the partner. Government Matters articles are an excellent marketing and promotional vehicle for your company or organization.

You must follow these guidelines for your article to be considered for publication, and you must read and agree to the copyright policy on the ESRI Web site. Articles are submitted to the newsletter by attaching the file containing the article to a completed copyright policy form and clicking on the submit button. The Government Matters Submission Guidelines are also available in PDF format. [PDF-647 KB]

Topics

Articles should focus on users and applications and discuss processes and problems solved, not enumerate software features. Avoid blatant sales pitches. Identify the government issue that GIS solved; describe the location, budget, key personnel, and hardware involved in the solution; and, most important, the benefits or return on investment realized. Government Matters runs articles on a variety of topics. No organization or application is too small. Articles should be 600 to 800 words in length and written in the third person. When submitting an article, please provide the following contact information:

• Company or organization name
• Follow-up contact name
• Phone number
• E-mail address
• Web site address

Graphics

Illustrations—screenshots, photographs, and diagrams—make articles more inviting to readers and increase the likelihood your article will be accepted. If including screenshots or images owned by a client or other third party, please secure written permission for use in advance from clients.

• Send original screenshots that show applications at work. These images should not have been embedded in any Microsoft Office document (Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) and saved in TIF or BMP format. Do not send images in GIF format.
• Send photographs (print or transparency) that will be professionally scanned and returned after publication upon request. Do not send photographs you have scanned. If you use a digital camera, make sure you are capturing the image at a high resolution (300 ppi) with little or no compression.
• Send clearly labeled diagrams and ESRI's graphic design department will create artwork suitable for publication.

All articles submitted will be given equal consideration and will be used on a space available basis. Every effort will be made to promote your stories in trade journals and ESRI marketing materials. For more information contact:

Christopher D. Thomas
ESRI State and Local Government Industry Manager
Tel.: 909-793-2853, ext. 1-1819
E-mail: cthomas@esri.com