Click here for our Editorial Calendar and Deadlines.

Overview
In our ongoing effort to create a better magazine, we strive to publish only the news that has maximum interest to a maximum number of our readers. The intent is to increase our readers’ interest in all sections of the magazine.

All press releases are edited for length and content so that the final story contributes to our desired reputation of being a readable professional magazine with brief, accurate, timely, unbiased, and interesting news. We strive to apply these rules equitably and avoid the appearance of showing favoritism to any company.

Our Readers
We presently mail the magazine to more than 20,000 readers; 90 percent are dealers, and 10 percent are manufacturers. Press releases should be addressed to this audience.

Our dealer-readers sell, service, and install garage door and access systems throughout all 50 U.S. states and Canada. Of these dealers, 92 percent are either owners or general managers.

Our manufacturer-readers are key employees of DASMA manufacturers. Almost all of these readers are CEOs, presidents, vice presidents, key purchasing executives, or key sales and marketing staff.

Submitting Releases
Format. We accept releases sent in print form (via hand-delivered mail) or digital files (via E-mail). We encourage digital files because they can be edited more quickly, and they minimize transcription errors (from retyping text). We can read many different digital files, but we encourage you to send digital files in one of three forms: (1) as an attached Word document (.doc file), (2) in the text of the E-mail, or (3) as an attached text file (.txt).

Address. The best and quickest way to send releases is in an E-mail addressed to daseditor@dasma.com. If sending via hand-delivered mail, send it to:
Door & Access Systems Newsmagazine
1300 Sumner Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44115-2851

Writing Style. Please write your release as a news story, not as advertising copy. We adhere to standard journalistic practices, presenting news as unbiased information. Consequently, we delete unnecessary promotional language ("complete peace of mind," "extremely durable," "top quality," "spectacular," etc.) and unproven claims ("the leading innovator," "safest," "lowest cost," etc.).

Please keep releases as short as possible. We condense all releases to maximize their appeal to our readers. We believe this increases the likelihood of your release being noticed and read. Shorter releases will generally receive less editing.

For style and grammar, we follow the Associated Press Stylebook, except we use the serial comma before the last item in a series of three or more items (e.g. "… the first, second, third, and fourth items …".

Product News. We encourage you to submit news of new products that interest our readers. However, some companies submit releases about products that were announced several months or years ago. These releases are omitted, unless they contain some information that is legitimately new and of interest to our readers.

People News. We welcome news of promotions or additions of people whose new positions are of interest to a wide geographic range of our primary coverage area (U.S. and Canada) and to a high percentage of our readers. That includes presidents, most VPs, new marketing managers, product managers, sales managers, and anyone who has impact on dealers in a large portion of the U.S. and/or Canada.

News releases about territory managers, district sales managers, or distribution center managers are generally omitted because of their appeal to a small geographic area. However, we welcome news of new positions that indicate a significant new direction for the company, such as international sales, strategic planning, etc.

Company News. We publish news of significant company events that are of interest to our primary audience. However, some releases are purely promotional and contain little news value to those who do not sell your products. If in doubt, feel free to submit it.

Catalogs. We presently decline to publish news of new or updated product catalogs or product literature. We believe its news value is minimal and that the sponsoring company has generally already informed its dealers of this new literature.

However, if your new catalog has some new products in it, send us a release about the new product(s). We welcome news and a photo about any new product.

Web Sites/Technology. Since the Internet is a relatively new medium that carries some news value for our readers, we currently publish news of new or updated Web sites. However, as this medium becomes more commonplace (like product catalogs), we expect Web site news to carry diminished appeal to our audience.

Many companies are producing software for their dealers. Like Web sites, news about updated software currently has some appeal to our readers. However, we expect such news to gradually have diminished appeal to our readers. In time, these releases will likely be treated like releases about updated product catalogs.

Web Site References/Contact Data. Many companies include their Web site address, toll-free number, and other contact data in all news releases. As a service to our readers, we include your company’s Web site address in Product News. Your Web address is not published elsewhere, unless the address is pertinent to the story.

Submitting Photos
Color Photos. We encourage the submission of color photos with all releases, wherever possible. Black and white photos are accepted, but color photos are generally more appealing to our readers.

Specifications. Please send quality photography with sharp clear focus and good contrast. Print photos are acceptable, but we prefer digital files E-mailed to us as a .tif or .jpg file (min. 300 dpi, approx. 3"x3" or larger). We accept photos in CMYK or RGB colors, but prefer an RGB format.

Cropping. We generally crop most photos. To minimize cropping and maximize quality reproduction, please fill the photo frame with the items that are pertinent to your release.

Multiple People. If specific people are to be identified in a photo, we prefer photos with no more than four people (unless the photo is a general "crowd" shot). If more than four people are identified in a photo, each person's face ends up being very small. The reader loses interest, and your pertinent items are not noticed.

Deadlines
The standard deadline for each issue of Door & Access Systems is the 15th of our deadline months (February, May, August, November). If you request additional time, we may extend the deadline until the 25th of the month. Click here for our Editorial Calendar and Deadlines.

Questions/Concerns
If you have a question about the acceptability of any release, or if you believe your release was improperly edited or omitted, we encourage you to contact the editor or publisher:

Tom Wadsworth, editor, 815-285-3861, daseditor@dasma.com
John Addington, publisher, 216-241-7333, jaddington@dasma.com