Styf: A refresher on how to best reach out to our staff

As you might be aware, there have been plenty of changes with the Northwest Herald in the past year – starting with myself – so this week, I’ll give an overview to our readers on who we are and how to send us stuff.

For starters, we always are looking for news tips. The best place to send those are to me (jstyf@shawmedia.com) or City Editor Hannah Prokop (hprokop@shawmedia.com).

If you're got a news release to send us, or you're a government entity and have an agenda, the best way to send it is in plain text format, with a photo and caption of who is in the photo, to copydesk@nwherald.com.

We also have reporters with beats throughout the area.

If you've in the Crystal Lake area or Algonquin, Lakewood, Oakwood Hills or Prairie Grove, that reporter is Daniel Gaitan (dgaitan@shawmedia.com).

If you're in McHenry, Woodstock, Richmond, Hebron, Johnsburg, Spring Grove, McCullom Lake, Wonder Lake or Bull Valley, it's Brittany Keeperman (bkeeperman@shawmedia.com).

If it's regarding McHenry County government, townships, Cary or Fox River Grove, contact Ed Komenda (ekomenda@shawmedia.com).

If it's related to Huntley, Lake in the Hills, Marengo, Harvard or Union, the best reporter to reach is Drew Zimmerman (dzimmerman@shawmedia.com).

And if it's related to courts in the county, or sometimes Lake or Kane counties, the best point of contact is Katie Smith (ksmith@shawmedia.com).

Shaw Media Group Photo Editor Matthew Apgar (mapgar@shawmedia.com) is a jack of all trades as it applies to our photo departments, as well.

If you've got something that would be good for our neighbors pages or a business photo, send it to neighbors@nwherald.com.

If you've got a feature story idea, send it to lifestyles@nwherald.com. I'm also the person to talk to for those ideas.

And if you have an event, make sure to post it on our event calendar at planitnorthwest.com. That’s where we get all of our calendar information, and it’s where we look for items to run with our weekly “5” things to do in the county.

If you have a sports idea or comment, the best point of contact is sports editor Kyle Nabors at knabors@shawmedia.com, and if you're a high school coach, please send your results to sports@nwherald.com. You probably know Joe Stevenson (joestevenson@shawmedia.com) and Sean Hammond (shammond@shawmedia.com) in sports, as well.

The high school sports season is approaching, and it’s always good to see those results – win or lose – to recognize the athletes.

Speaking of athletes, we’re excited to start another year of our Most Valuable Athlete awards. All the athletes of the week honored throughout the year will be invited to DeKalb for our regional event June 12 at Northern Illinois University.

The week before, the Northwest Herald plans to host its event June 6.

Both are great ways to recognize the success of those local athletes who stand out throughout the school year.

It’s a great time to be here. Reach out and connect with us.

We’re looking forward to hearing from you because you, our subscribers, continue to be who we work for and the reason we are here covering the area you care about so much.

• Northwest Herald Editor Jon Styf can be reached at jstyf@shawmedia.com or 815-526-4630.