The fall is always a time when we see an increase in the number of letter-to-the-editor submissions, which makes sense.
Election season tends to bring out more opinions, and the letters page has always been a great forum for provoking thought and discussion about candidates in all levels of government.
One challenge we face in managing the letters page, though, is how to run as many submissions as possible from as many different voices as possible. That's a primary reason we have a letters policy, a policy that appears on the Opinion page every day.
We limit the number of published letters from an individual writer to one per seven days. This prevents one or two people from flooding the letters page with daily submissions. On the other hand, we don't want to establish a policy that allows people one shot - and one shot only - at getting a letter published. At The Citizen for many years, a week has been a pretty good place to draw the line.
We also limit the length of a letter to 300 words. If we didn't establish some type of maximum, we'd open the letters page up to lengthy diatribes, which ultimately would cut down on the number of letters we could run on a given day in the space allotted. Our word limit is more generous than many papers, but we still get plenty of submissions that go beyond it.
My point in writing about these policies is to get some feedback on whether we should make any adjustments.
I ask because The Citizen and plenty of other newspapers are seeing fewer letter to the editor submissions these days, largely as a result of the Internet. Now we have Web sites that allow people to post their opinions with few restrictions. Unlike in a printed paper, where we have a finite space for content, there's little need to limit lengths or frequencies of comments online.
While our print edition letters page still generates a healthy amount of submissions, I can't help but wonder if we'd generate more by adjusting our policies.
Tell me what you think about the word limit. Is it too long or short? I can tell you that this column averages about 450 words, so right now our maximum letter is about two thirds of that.
And should we allow people to be published more or less frequently? Think it through. Would you like to read more from some regular writers? Would that be worth reading more from others that perhaps you don't care to read?
In the end, we may make no changes at all. But it seems like a good time to think about it, and a good idea to ask readers to help guide the decision.
Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's columns run Saturdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net
One challenge we face in managing the letters page, though, is how to run as many submissions as possible from as many different voices as possible. That's a primary reason we have a letters policy, a policy that appears on the Opinion page every day.
We limit the number of published letters from an individual writer to one per seven days. This prevents one or two people from flooding the letters page with daily submissions. On the other hand, we don't want to establish a policy that allows people one shot - and one shot only - at getting a letter published. At The Citizen for many years, a week has been a pretty good place to draw the line.
We also limit the length of a letter to 300 words. If we didn't establish some type of maximum, we'd open the letters page up to lengthy diatribes, which ultimately would cut down on the number of letters we could run on a given day in the space allotted. Our word limit is more generous than many papers, but we still get plenty of submissions that go beyond it.
My point in writing about these policies is to get some feedback on whether we should make any adjustments.
I ask because The Citizen and plenty of other newspapers are seeing fewer letter to the editor submissions these days, largely as a result of the Internet. Now we have Web sites that allow people to post their opinions with few restrictions. Unlike in a printed paper, where we have a finite space for content, there's little need to limit lengths or frequencies of comments online.
While our print edition letters page still generates a healthy amount of submissions, I can't help but wonder if we'd generate more by adjusting our policies.
Tell me what you think about the word limit. Is it too long or short? I can tell you that this column averages about 450 words, so right now our maximum letter is about two thirds of that.
And should we allow people to be published more or less frequently? Think it through. Would you like to read more from some regular writers? Would that be worth reading more from others that perhaps you don't care to read?
In the end, we may make no changes at all. But it seems like a good time to think about it, and a good idea to ask readers to help guide the decision.
Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's columns run Saturdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net
