The panelists for “How Weblogs are Transforming the Media Landscape,” at the Community Media Workshop’s Making Media Connections conference: (left to right) Andrew Huff (Gaper’s Block), Barbara Iverson (moderator, Columbia College Chicago) and Eric Zorn (Chicago Tribune). (Photo by Jason Pettus on Flickr.com)

The web has made it easier for us to get our stories out, but what about our events? Most journalists will admit that covering a nonprofit event such as a fundraiser won’t make the headlines unless you have some untouchable “newsworthy” guest or if you are savvy enough to bridge the event to current breaking news features.

But what most people don’t know is that news sites often have “community calendars” where users can submit their own events or tips to be published on their site and in some cases featured in the day’s news broadcast or news publication.

Take TribLocal for instance, you can register to be a user, log-on and submit your events to their calendar as well as story ideas, photos and more. In some cases, user’s stories become published in the local newsprint editions specific to their location where the paper publishes -six counties all together in the Chicagoland area.

This concept is called “crowd-sourcing” an inherent phenomenon of the social web allowing sites to gather content across its users to be shared with other users.

Although some of these sites below may not feature your event in their newscast or feature column, its a great way to get your event out to the public and possible take some notice by the publications themselves.

Community Calendars

WBBM/CBS News Channel 2 (not a community calendar but you can submit your news tips here)
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/tips/

WMAQ/NBC News Channel 5
http://www.nbcchicago.com/contact-us/
*Currently does not have an open community calendar, but you can still provide feedback and submit newstips here.

WLS/ABC News Channel 7 Chicago
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=resources/lifestyle_community/community/events&id=5791620

WGN News Channel 9
http://www.wgntv.com/community/calendar/

FOX News 32
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/subindex/about_us/contact_us
You can choose the “Community Calendar” topic for the contact submission on the site here.

CLTV News (Cable)
http://www.cltv.com/about/station/cltv-communitycalendar,0,6762249.story

WLS-AM NewsTalk 890
http://www.wlsam.com/calendar/AddEvent.asp

Crain’s Chicago Business
Submit entertainment, performing arts events, theater, street festivals, restaurant special events, charity benefits, etc. to 10things@chicagobusiness.com.

WDRV-FM / The Drive
http://www.wdrv.com/yourevents.php

Tell of other links or community news calendars you use or should be posted here to share with others!