Hi folks. Not folk music, but I thought with the range of experience here, someone here might be able to give me some good starting points.

As part of a student project, I need to write an article or two for newspaper publication - most likely a free local community paper, but possibly a major city daily too. Some things I am wondering about newspaper norms are:

1. Do newspapers in fact publish things sent in by random non-journalist types? Or do they just want to get press releases and compose the texts of articles themselves?

2. I know that magazines, scientific journals etc. expect you to send a query letter first, rather than just sending them an article. Is this also the custom with newspapers? If not, do I need a cover letter to accompany it?

3. I'm assuming that I'd submit something by email as a word document attachment - any reason why I shouldn't do that?

4. Is it bad form to offer an article to more than one paper at once? If I do send it to more than one, and more than one want to use it, is that OK?

5. If I'm presenting something as a press release - should I be stating the facts as baldly and briefly as possible, or trying to write something that could be published as is?

Thanks for your help,

Marion (who did not go to nursing school in order to become a journalist)