Adding a News Story or Event

1. Go to Posts → Add New

From the WordPress admin sidebar, hover over Posts and click Add New. If the site has a dedicated Events feature, use Events → Add New instead — look for a separate menu item in the sidebar.

2. Add a clear, specific title

Titles should be descriptive enough to stand alone in a listing page, search result, or social share — e.g. “Harvest Festival Service This Sunday” rather than “Update” or “News”. Clear titles also help SEO and make the admin post list easier to scan.

3. Write your content

Use the block editor to structure the story:

• Heading blocks for subsections in longer posts
• Paragraph blocks for body text, kept short (2-4 sentences) for readability
• Image blocks for any inline photos — separate from the Featured Image below

4. Set the correct Category

In the sidebar panel, tick the relevant Category (e.g. “News” or “Events”). This determines which listing pages the post appears on — getting this wrong is one of the most common reasons a post “goes missing” after publishing.

5. Add a Featured Image

Find Featured Image in the sidebar and click Set featured image. This is used on listing pages, social previews, and often the banner at the top of the post. A landscape image usually works best, as most themes crop to a wide aspect ratio.

6. Add an Excerpt

Scroll to the Excerpt panel (enable it via the three-dot menu → Preferences → Panels if it’s hidden). Write 1-2 sentences summarising the story — many themes use this on listing pages instead of an auto-truncated snippet, so it’s worth writing rather than leaving blank.

7. Event-specific date field

For events, check for a dedicated Event Date field, separate from the post’s publish date. It’s easy to publish an event post today and forget to fill in the actual event date, which can break sorting or display on a calendar view.

8. Preview, then Publish

Use Preview to check formatting and images before going live. Then:

• Publish, if you have the right permissions
• Submit for Review, if the site uses an approval workflow and your role requires sign-off

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Tip: Keep a consistent style for titles and categories across your team so the news listing stays tidy and easy to browse.