We’re keen to publish timely, thought-provoking blog posts on discussion-stimulating topics to show what’s happening across the government digital space.
And that’s where you come in. We want you to tell us about what you’ve been working on — in your voice. But you don’t have to do it alone. We’ll guide you through the process and work with you to get your blog post ready to be published.
Send us an email if you want to contribute, ask a question or just chat about your great story idea.
The Digital.govt.nz team manages the blog schedule and can suggest dates for publication. Once we’ve agreed a date, you’ll need to send us your blog post a week in advance for review and approval.
Write your blog post
We suggest your post follows this structure:
Page title — let the reader know what to expect and why they should read on
Introduction — why the work is important and why you’re talking about it
Body — explain the work, give facts, details and support with images or video
Conclusion — what you learned, why it matters and what’s next.
Contact details — who to contact to find out more.
Aim to write 500–800 words. If you’d like to contribute a longer blog, we can publish in 2 parts (or more).
Break up your blog post with lots of headings to make it easy for readers to scan.
Make images, graphs and videos accessible
We’re responsible for meeting the New Zealand Government Web Standards. We take this seriously, and we won’t publish anything inaccessible. But you don’t have to be an expert — we’ll help guide you through what’s needed.
Complex images and video need to be accompanied by long descriptions to make them accessible.
A transcript of any spoken content will also need to be provided for video.
Send your post to info@digital.govt.nz (along with your bio and profile photo) at least a week in advance, or earlier, to give us enough time to work with you to prepare it for publishing.
Work with us to prepare your blog post for publishing
We’ll work with you to:
identify any unclear content or gaps/missing information
present your message clearly (for example, plain language)
structure your blog logically
ensure content is accessible (for example, alt-text for images)
add links to supporting information.
The goal is to make your writing the best it can be. What we don’t do is change your ‘voice’, message or the intent of the post.
Share your blog post
Your blog post will be published on the day it’s scheduled.
Be sure to share your post with your team and anybody else who might be interested.
