If you’ve been in the area for a while and/or if you read our weekly Kicks entertainment guide, you know the Myrtle Beach area has officially entered fall festival season.

This past weekend was filled with such varied activities as a doll and bear show, breast cancer awareness events, a high school band competition, at least three community festivals, two library book sales, a blessing of the animals, a Mustang car show, Oktoberfests and a fundraising dance gala. Oh, and there was also the fall Harley-Davidson rally and all of its related activities.

Why do I mention this? Because obviously we can’t get to them all and I spend a fair amount of time explaining why we cover some things but not others. It certainly isn’t an exact science, but to clear up some of the mystery, I thought I’d share the main criteria we use to make our decisions.

First, we do our best to let folks know in advance when something is coming up, largely in our weekly Kicks publication, but also through some news articles and the daily Kicks calendar, on the assumption that even if you can’t provide coverage, you must at least get the word out before the event so residents and visitors can decide what to attend.

When it comes to deciding what we cover, here are a few questions we ask.

• Is it unique?

• Does it affect a large number of people in the area?

• Does the person involved have an interesting personal story that will resonate with readers?

• Does it involve how our tax dollars are spent?

• And, when it comes to festivals or other events, how visual will it be? That means if we send a photographer, will there be ample activity to capture a storytelling image or gallery of images?

On the flip side, we may also ask an event similar to something we just covered? For example, we photographed a high school band competition two weeks ago, which was one reason we didn’t attend the event last weekend.

We also try to spread the coverage around so our coverage reflects what’s happening across our broad and diverse region, which is one reason we were in Conway, Surfside Beach, and downtown Myrtle Beach on Saturday.

If you want us to cover your event, you must make sure we know about it. Send an email to sneditors@thesunnews.com with all the details at least a week in advance, longer if it’s something that should be listed in one of our entertainment calendars.

I can’t promise that we’ll cover the event, but I can promise that we’ll put it on our coverage calendar and consider it when the time comes.

And if we can’t make it, you can always send photos and a short write up about the event for our Neighbors section, which is published on Thursday. If that’s the case, send them to neighbors@thesunnews.com.

I’ll be talking a bit about our coverage philosophy Tuesday as a member of a media panel at the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce annual meeting. I’m also always happy to visit area groups or businesses to talk more about dealing with the media in general, or with The Sun News specifically.

Meanwhile, thanks for your calls and for reading what we write, viewing what we photograph and watching the videos we post.

Contact CAROLYN CALLISON MURRAY at cmurray@thesunnews.com or follow her on Twitter at TSN_ccmurray.