Sharing your opinions
There are many things asked of your local newspaper.
Members of its staff are expected to give you fair coverage of what’s going on around your community. Readers want them to report about what’s happening with their city and village councils, county commissioners and other boards and organizations that are entrusted to run their governments and spend tax money. That transparency is a critical component of making sure there are checks on government actions.
Police reporting ensures readers that the men and women who make up our law enforcement agencies are doing their jobs.
Telling stories about the good things individuals and organizations are doing helps to reminder everyone about the importance of giving back, whether it’s through volunteering at a church, helping to raise money for a nonprofit or serving as a board member of any of a number of agencies that work to make the region a better place.
One of the most important aspects of the new newspaper, though, remains its ability to give local residents a voice in how their communities are run — and a forum to speak against — or in support of — government officials and community leaders.
That’s a role our letters to the editor and opinion sections continue to provide, and it’s something the Herald-Star has more experience with than any other publication or media outlet in the region. Readers have taken advantage of the opportunity to let their opinions be known and voices heard since the first edition was published on June 6, 1806.
This past year has been no different. During the past year, we have published 184 letters and 52 guest columns on our opinion pages. When you add all of those submissions to the other contributions that appear on a regular basis — the History in the Hills column written on a bi-weekly basis by Paul Zuros, the executive director at Historic Fort Steuben, and the religion columns that are submitted by area pastors on a regular basis, you will discover that more than 300 local opinion pieces have appeared in the paper during the past year.
Traditionally, the number of submissions for a given week has peaked in the last few weeks before an election. This year was no exception — the greatest number of letters run on a single day this past year was 10, and that happened on Oct. 27, the last opportunity readers had to submit a letter before the Nov. 5 election. And, if you add the two letters that appeared in the Oct. 25 edition, that made the week’s total 12.
Eight letters appeared on Oct. 20, one week before the cutoff.
Six was the next most frequent number of submissions, and that total appeared eight times — Jan. 28, Feb. 25, March 10, April 7, July 21, Sept. 8, Sept. 15 and Oct. 13. Seven letters appeared four times — April 14, Aug. 11, Aug. 25 and Sept. 1.
All of those numbers represent pieces in a forum that remains open to anyone who wants to write. No matter what you might have heard or read somewhere else or have been told, we publish just about every letter that makes its way to our office. There are no topics or public officials that are off limits — as long as a submission meets a very few simple criteria, it will be published.
While we always have the right to reject or edit any submission, the two most common reasons for a letter to be rejected are length and frequency. There is a limit of 500 words for a letter to the editor. It’s a restriction that helps to ensure that the section will remain available to a wide range of writers who want to share their opinions. That’s also the reason why we limit an individual writer to one submission every four weeks.
Guest columns can run a little longer than letters, typically as long as 1,000 words, depending on the topic.
One of the most frequent comments we receive from those who submit letters is that the 500-word limit can be difficult to stick to. Yes, it can be, but if you insist that you just are not able to edit your 709-word submission down to 500 words, we will not be able to publish it.
Letters that are determined to be slanderous, libelous or personal attacks will not be published. Any time we reject a letter or a guest column, we will contact the writer and explain the reasoning behind the decision. The writer then will have a chance to edit or rewrite and refile the piece.
Remember that letters and guest columns represent the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the newspaper. That said, writers who choose to share their opinions in a public forum must be willing to accept that not everyone will agree with their perspective, and that others are welcome to share their responses.
Responses to those responses by the writer of the original piece are not permitted, though. Put simply, if someone writes in response to a letter you have written, you will not be able to respond in return. That would lead to nothing more than a continual back-and-forth on the same subject. You will have had your say, others will have had their say and then it’s time to move to another topic.
It’s easy to get a letter to us. You can drop it off in person at the newspaper offices; you can send it by e-mail; you can use our Virtual Newsroom; you can send it by fax; or you can use the traditional United States Postal Service. E-mail and the Virtual Newsroom are the preferred method of submission –if you give us a letter in any other format, someone else will have to type it into our system before it can be published, which slows the process and increases the possibility of an error.
We do not accept anonymous letters, known form letters or letters with multiple signatures. And, every submission must contain the town the writer lives in and a telephone number where the writer can be reached.
Those numbers are used as part of our confirmation process and to make it easier to contact the writer if there are questions about the letter. They are never published or shared with anyone.
The deadline for submitting a letter for any given week is noon on Thursday. There are some exceptions at various times during the year, such as letters concerning an election or when a holiday falls during the middle of the week. Those exceptions will be published well in advance.
Whether you are looking to write about the state of local or national politics, want to support a particular issue or candidate or just say thank-you to an organization that has helped you or the community, we’re proud to be able to continue being able to provide an opportunity to share your thoughts with your friends and neighbors.
(Gallabrese, a resident of Steubenville, is executive editor of the Herald-Star and The Weirton Daily Times)