News guidelines

Guidelines for publishing a news story on the NIHR website  

News stories on the NIHR website are an important way of telling people about NIHR’s research findings and about key activities and announcements that will be of interest to readers of our news feed.

The following guidelines are for use by:

• NIHR communicators and other colleagues who wish to publish a news story on the NIHR website

• Press Office team members who are responsible for reviewing and signing off all news stories prior to publication

The guidelines cover five key areas:

• How to secure approval for the topic and timing of a news story

• How to write a news story for the NIHR website

• Search engine optimisation, readability and accessibility

• How to upload and promote a news story

• Additional guidance for Press Office team members

How to secure approval for the topic and timing of a news story 

Topic approval

Sometimes people put significant effort into drafting a news story for the website that is subsequently determined not to be appropriate for this channel. To avoid this happening, it is important to contact NIHR’s Press Office prior to developing a draft.

You can contact the Press Office by sending an email to pressoffice@nihr.ac.uk. You will need to answer the following questions:

• What is the essence of your news story?

• Why is it important? What are the key messages/ takeaways?

• What audience are you trying to reach?

• Who do you think should be quoted?

• What is the proposed timing and why?

What will and will not engage readers of the NIHR website news feed is somewhat case dependent and each story will be assessed on its own merits. We have, however, developed guidelines on the kind of content that is in scope.

The NIHR news feed is read by a variety of audiences - researchers, policy makers, health and care professionals, members of the public and more. It is mainly focused on producing stories across three broad themes:

• ‘Big picture’ stories

• Operational updates

• Community stories

Please read Appendix I below for more detail.

Timing approval

The Press Office will work with you on appropriate timings for your news story, bearing in mind other stories in the pipeline and the need to have an even spread of stories across each week.

Where possible, you should contact the Press Office at least two weeks before the proposed publication date. Please note: Where the story has the potential to be very high profile and newsworthy, please contact the press office at the earliest possible time as the process for issuing press content takes even longer.

A member of the team will come back to you within two working days, either by email or phone, regarding whether your story is suitable for the NIHR news feed. If it is not suitable, they may be able to suggest alternative communications channels and put you in touch with relevant colleagues.

It is understood that there may be occasions where a news story is required at very short notice, perhaps in response to an unexpected event. Under such circumstances, please call the Press Office on 020 4587 7470 to discuss as a matter of priority.

How to write a news story for the NIHR website

There are a number of key considerations when writing a news story for the NIHR website. Following are our top ten tips:

1. As a rule of thumb, news stories should be 500-600 words in length. Bear in mind that a significant proportion of readers will be using a mobile device.

2. The headline should be short (fewer than 65 characters), eye-catching and ‘newsy’ to draw readers in. For example:
   
   “World first stem cell trial aims to revolutionise MS treatment”

3. The first paragraph should sum up the story in one or two sentences, answering who, what, when, where type questions. For example:
   
   “The NIHR has awarded over £10 million of funding to four projects across England that will use artificial intelligence methods to better understand how long-term conditions affect each other.”

4. You will also need to answer ‘why’ type questions, contextualising your news and giving the reader a reason to care. This is typically done in the second paragraph.
   
   In the case of research stories, it is important to convey that the NIHR is responding to health and social care needs. This can be done in a number of ways, for example:
   
   “This research is being undertaken to address an important research gap identified by patients and healthcare professionals participating in a recent James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership.”
   
   “X is one of the focus clinical areas identified by NHS England’s health inequalities programme, Core20PLUS5.”
   
   “X affects one in five women and accounts for Y% of the NHS’s annual expenditure.”
   
   Useful data points can be found on credible UK websites such as the Office for National Statistics, NHS England and Cancer Research UK. If you use data from Wikipedia, it is important to check the referenced source. When sending a draft news story to the Press Office, please provide a link to all sources used.

5. Write in plain English, minimising your use of technical language or jargon. Avoid overlong sentences or complex grammar. Use sub-headings to give your story structure and make it easier to read. Check and improve the readability of your draft in the Hemingway Editor App. You should aim for a readability score of 9. Find out more about the Hemmingway Editor.

6. Spell out acronyms in full the first time you use them, unless they are very well known (e.g. NHS). Given that the story will appear on the NIHR website, you do not need to spell out NIHR. After the first mention of NIHR, feel free to use words like ‘we’ and ‘our’. Avoid flowery or verbose language that doesn’t serve the purpose of the story itself, e.g.:
   
   “The NIHR is delighted to announce that…”

7. When writing about research that the NIHR has funded, please indicate if the research was also commissioned and/or delivered by NIHR as this will strengthen the story. If you do not know, the Press Office team will be able to check on your behalf.

8. Include at least one and a maximum of three quotes, for example from a researcher or NIHR corporate representative.You can discuss who this might be with the press office in your initial conversation.
   
   Quotes are a great way of humanising and adding perspective to a story.
   
   A good quote will:
   - Sum up the importance of the news and provide a personal perspective
   - Sound like someone is speaking to the reader directly
   - Elicit an emotional response - e.g. a desire to get involved, a sense of urgency or feelings of sympathy, inspiration or admiration

9. Consistent with the spirit of ‘One NIHR’, do not give undue attention to the part(s) of NIHR involved in the story or draw comparisons between other areas of the organisation. You can record these towards the end if required.

10. Provide a call to action. This can appear in the quote, in the copy itself, or at the end presented as links to more content/actions.
    
    For example, the volunteer service arm of Be Part of Research has now been officially launched to the public. It's important we promote the service as much as possible to raise awareness of the benefits of the service.
    
    This sentence can be used at the end of news stories to promote Be Part of Research:
    
    "Visit the Be Part of Research website to learn more about research, search for opportunities and sign up to be contacted about studies that interest you."
    
    Wherever possible, you should also include links that signpost people to other parts of the NIHR website or one of the other corporate websites. For example:
    - Is there a funding opportunity, another news story or case study that’s relevant?
    - Is there a content page that's relevant? For example, a programme showcase page, a specialty page or a link to our corporate priorities?

Final sign off process - ie. house style, press office final review, fact-checking only thereafter

Search engine optimisation, readability and accessibility 

There are a number of more technical considerations that are important when writing for web. These are familiar to most NIHR communicators and are explained in the writing for web guidance on the NIHR Communications website. You can also email nirhwebsite@nihr.ac.uk for guidance.

Search engine optimisation

Including keyword or keyword phrases in your news story helps to ensure it can be found using search. Almost half of all users of the NIHR website come via Google search results, so optimising your content for search is a really important part of content production. Think about the word(s) or combination of words your audience are likely to be searching for to find the content they need and include these in your content.

Some key points to keep in mind:

• Headlines should be no longer than 65 characters and where possible should include your keyword or keyword phrases; use the Moz Title Tag Preview Tool to check if your headline fits into the limited space provided on search engine results pages

• Include your keyword or keyword phrases in the first sentence and the first h2 heading

• Include your keyword or keyword phrases in the meta description, which should not exceed 165 characters in length

For more detail, please read the web team's news story SEO guidance. You can also use the NIHR web team’s SEO checklist.

Readability

As indicated, all news items should be written in plain English. To ensure people are able to easily read our news stories, we recommend that you copy and paste your draft into the Hemingway App. We aim for a readability score of 9 on Hemingway, this is not the same as the reading age of a nine year old.

Accessibility

All news items on the NIHR website must conform to accessibility legislation. The main areas to be aware of are as follows:

• Links - these must be descriptive, e.g. “click here” or “read more” may not be used

• Headings - if you are using headings in a news item, a heading tag must be applied in the content editor and must be applied sequentially (h2, h3, h4)

• Video clips - please only include if all the accessibility elements have been added (further information can be found on our comms site)

• Images - most images are decorative; please only add alt text if your image is descriptive (i.e. it provides content) e.g. a graph or infographic or text within the image (such as organisation names)

How to upload and promote a news story

Once your news story has been signed off by the Press Office team, it can be added to the NIHR website using the Sitekit CMS.

See how to add a news item to the website.

Please check that the ‘Do Not Show Before’ date on your news story post is changed from the date you added the story to the date you would like it to publish.

With very few exceptions, NIHR news stories are promoted via relevant newsletters and social media channels. Without such promotion, readership is low. All stories appear on the NIHR Relations Twitter feed and some appear on other Twitter channels, on the NIHR Facebook page and/or on the LinkedIn page or showcase page.

In the first instance, link to the news stories but then consider if additional social media content can be created to promote the story across a 24-48 hour period. For example, Twitter cards with key quotes or stats and links to subsequent news coverage could be developed to keep the conversation going.

Please consult the social media team for further guidance on social media tools and policies. See also the guidance for social media on the NIHR communications site.

Appendix I 

The NIHR news feed is read by a variety of audiences - researchers, policy makers, health and care professionals, members of the public and more. It is mainly focused on producing stories across three broad themes:

• ‘Big picture’ stories

• Operational updates

• Community stories

‘Big-picture’: Nationally and/or organisationally significant news stories

What is news

• Significant NIHR-produced outputs, e.g. campaigns, reviews, reports, datasets, strategies and guidance and resources with national-level scope

• Announcements of significant NIHR-funded and/or delivered studies, which the NIHR press office is not leading on, but for which there remains value in promoting across our channels

What is not news

• This category will almost always have some news value

Operational updates: Significant changes to how the NIHR’s researchers, partners and stakeholders can/will work and engage with the NIHR

What is news

• CEO-level appointments across coordinating centres (e.g. Dean of the NIHR Academy, CRN CEO, Programme Directors)

• Announcements around the appointment of successful groups (e.g. Research Professors, Senior Investigators)

• Themed call launches

• Launches of brand new, significant funding calls and announcement of significant awards (significance could be about the amount of money available or the alignment with an area of strategic focus)

• Major changes to NIHR systems (e.g. Open Access) or to the functioning/funding of a major programme (e.g. the recent increase in frequency of the RfSC programme)

What is not news

• Routine, BAU updates about funding calls

• Coordinating centre appointments below CEO level

• Registration opening for an NIHR/third-party conference

• Recruitment campaigns for committees, panels etc

Community stories

Sharing stories about significant successes and achievements in the health research community, informing people about the work of their peers, cultivating a sense of togetherness and inspiring others to future success.

What is news

• Announcements of large NIHR owned/ co-owned recognition awards (i.e. news about who was awarded); the profile of any partner organisation may be a determining factor here

• Significant external successes by NIHR-related individuals (e.g. a Research Professor being awarded a significant third party recognition award, e.g. New Year’s Honours)

• Innovative collaborations and career development schemes

What is not news

• Relatively small, niche recognition awards

• Retrospective write-ups of events/ prospective promotion of events

It is expected that most NIHR news stories will fall under one of these three categories. However, the above examples are not exhaustive, and where possible the Press Office will help you turn your content into appropriate news story copy.