Contribute
The Valley Signal is a lean operation, and we intend to grow by bringing people in. This is a community paper, and the community has a role in making it.
What we publish
The best feedback we've gotten from readers is the plainest: "factual reporting, way overdue." "Thank you for covering the valley." That's the bar for anything that runs under the Signal's banner.
We aim straight down the middle. We ground our news coverage in the documented record. Our opinions don't shape it.
Opinion is different, and we welcome it. We publish pieces written to persuade someone who doesn't already agree. That means arguments that take the facts seriously and engage the strongest version of the other side. Push the reader somewhere new, not just register a reaction.
We're not a channel for routing complaints or personal grievances from one person to another. If you're writing to a council member, write to the council member. If you're writing to our readers about what the council member did, we want to see it.
We want the Signal to host the valley's discourse: writing aimed at persuasion, not applause. Go hard at a decision or an argument where the evidence supports it. What you can't do here is make it personal. Go after what someone did, not who they are.
Write for us
We need contributors who want to cover a beat, report a story, or fill a gap in the valley's conversation.
You don't need a journalism credential. You need to know the valley, care about accuracy, and report straight down the middle no matter where you stand. We'll work with you on structure and sourcing. We can't teach knowing the place and giving a damn about it.
We need help covering government meetings and school board. Planning and zoning. The outdoors, public lands, agriculture, healthcare, local business. There's more valley than there is Signal right now, and if you see a story we're missing, you're the person to cover it.
To pitch: Email [email protected] with "Pitch:" in the subject line. Tell us what you want to cover and why you're the right person.
Send a tip
If you see something or know something, send it. Meeting agendas nobody's looking at. Documents you think we should request. A story happening in your neighborhood.
Tips don't need to be polished. That's our job. Yours is to get it to us.
We protect sources. If you want to share something sensitive, email us first and we'll figure out the right channel.
Tips: [email protected]
Write a letter to the editor
Letters are how a community talks back. We read all of them and publish the ones that add something: information, a counterargument, a perspective we haven't heard.
Keep it concise. Sign your real name and town. Make sure the factual claims you're standing behind are ones you can stand behind. We may edit for clarity. We won't edit your argument.
Submit: [email protected]. Put "Letter:" in the subject line.
Submit an opinion piece
Opinion pieces are argued positions on issues affecting the valley. We publish commentary from residents, business owners, and local officials writing outside their official capacity, from people with knowledge and a stake in the community.
Agree with us or don't. Make an argument, support it with facts, and own it with your name. Disclose relevant affiliations or conflicts. We publish the disclosure alongside the piece.
We'll work with you editorially. Final decisions are ours.
Submit: [email protected]. Put "Opinion:" in the subject line.
Support the Signal
The Valley Signal is free, independent, and answerable to the people who live here. No corporate chain.
If you're a local business and you want to put your name in front of Teton Valley readers, we'll talk. If you want to throw money at independent local news because you believe in it, we'll take it.
Email [email protected] and we'll have a real conversation.
Say something
Question, gripe, correction, or something you think we should know. [email protected]. We read everything.