I've been thinking a lot about letters to the editor (LTEs) over the past week or two. It was started by the diary by MikeBaseball on his having an LTE published in the "New York Times" (
see here), and the many interesting comments his diary prompted. I also noticed a lot of comments earlier this week concerning using LTEs to push the Allen-macaca story into the press, in case reporters either didn't pick up the news or reported it incompletely.
Over the last two years that I've been reading DKos, I've seen lots of people get angry about some particular news story, and post here on DKos the LTE that they've fired off to the offending newspaper or magazine. While some of those LTEs looked great, others made me feel discouraged by the small chance that they would get printed. More below the fold.
In this diary I'd like to discuss some of the experience I've had from getting LTEs published (the "Washington Post" and elsewhere) and from teaching workshops on writing effective LTEs. I'd also like you to share your experiences with LTEs, in the hope of getting even more of our LTEs into print.
LTEs are worth doing. LTEs are one of the most-read sections of a newspaper. LTEs can be a voice of the community, giving you a chance to speak directly to your neighbors. LTEs can reach people who aren't plugged in to the Internet. LTEs can challenge misinformation in news articles and biases in editorials and op-ed pieces. Elected officials read LTEs to assess community sentiment. And even if a particular LTE you write isn't published, it can influence which other LTEs the newspaper staff choose to print and what they say in the editorials that they themselves write.
Below are some of my suggestions. While good writing skills are important, also notice that a good strategy can help you get your LTEs into print.
STRATEGIES AND TIPS
Focus on your local paper(s). Sure, send letters to the "New York Times" and the "Washington Post." But you know your local newspapers and their readers best of all, so you can write a more persuasive LTE for that particular audience. Papers prefer letters from their primary circulation area. Your local press may be just one paper. However, for me, in the Washington, D.C., area, there are multiple local papers that accept LTEs. Besides the "Washington Post" and the conservative "Washington Times," there are a bunch of county-focused newspapers in the suburbs, neighborhood papers in D.C., two free dailies targeted at commuters, and an alternative weekly. So think about all the local papers in your area.
Large papers and small papers require different strategies. Smaller papers are easier to get into, but they have a smaller audience. A large paper will normally require exclusivity, that is, you must offer your LTE only to them. A smaller paper might think it's OK if you send the same LTE to another small paper outside their circulation area. A large paper normally expects you to comment on a particular news article or editorial that they have published. Smaller papers often don't require that, and they're also more likely to run a series of letters from readers arguing back and forth on a particular topic.
Use Google News Advanced Search to track issues and particular newspapers. Google News Advanced Search (see here) is a great tool for identifying target publications for your LTEs. You can search back 30 days to identify papers that have carried news stories, editorials, and op-eds on, say, voter fraud or the death penalty. You can limit the search to a particular paper, such as the "New York Times," or the publications in a particular state or country. (This week, I've been doing regular searches to find out how Virginia newspapers have been covering the Allen/macaca incident. I've also checked on what newspapers in India have reported.) If your search produces hits, you can have Google News send a regular email Alert with updates. If you're working with a political campaign or an issues organization, those Alerts could be your ongoing "shopping list" of news articles, editorials, op-eds, and other LTEs to respond to.
Respond quickly. If you want to comment on a news event or on a news story or an editorial that the paper has published, try to do that within 24 hours. Newspapers will often pick the LTEs to publish from among the first ones that they receive. Sending your LTE by email is generally the fastest way to submit it.
Keep the letter short. Papers rarely run letters of more than 250 words. Try to keep your LTE to 150 words or less. (If you want to do a more in-depth analysis, consider writing an op-ed piece, which may be around 600 to 800 words.)
Stay on point in your letter. Organize your letter clearly. It's best to cover only one major topic in your LTE, with just two or three key pieces of information to support your point of view.
Cool down before you finalize and send your letter. Your passion can get your creative juices flowing. (A student in one of my workshops said she decides which news stories or editorials to respond to by the ones that make her spit out her coffee in the morning.) I love reading ardent postings on DKos, but that inflammatory wording may be too strong for a broader audience whom you're trying to persuade.
Check your grammar and spelling. If your LTE has a lot of typos in it, it reduces your credibility, and the paper is more likely to choose another letter that will be faster and easier for them to prepare for publication. If possible, have a friend proofread and comment on your draft letter.
Stress your experience, expertise, or other "credentials." If you have specialized knowledge (for example, a Ph.D.) or special experience (such as a veteran discussing military issues, or a college student talking about public funding for universities), mention that in your LTE. That lends credibility to your opinion. You can also use your "experience" to get around newspapers' preference for LTEs from local residents. A vet, for example, could write with greater authority about defense issues for any paper in the state or the nation. Your "experience" can even include where you grew up, or where you have relatives living--so consider writing to the papers there. Another example: If you're a resident of Connecticut, you have the "credentials" needed to write an LTE to any paper in the U.S. and comment on the Lamont-Lieberman race. Virginia residents can send LTEs to any paper in the country that has a news story, editorial, or op-ed on the race between Jim Webb and George Felix Allen.
Do your research. Make certain that your facts are correct. As needed, use Google or another Internet search engine to check the information that you include in your letter.
Have a good closing for your letter. Finish the LTE with the idea that you most want readers to remember, such as the broader point that the specific details in your letter illustrate.
Include your full contact information. Put your name, address, telephone number(s), and email address in your LTE. If a newspaper likes your LTE, a staff member will generally contact you, to make certain you are the person who actually wrote the letter.
Use Google News "Alerts" to track your results. If you've been sending out LTEs to a lot of papers and want to know if any of them have been published, you can set up an automatic email Alert using Google News Advanced Search (see here). Put in your name and your city of residence as the search terms. However, for the Alert feature to work, the Advanced Search has to find at least one hit for that search within the preceding 30 days. So, after you get your first LTE into print, set up the Alert in Google News. Or, if you and colleagues are mentioning the name of your organization in your LTEs ("The Virginia Association for the Fair Treatment of All Macacas"), then use that as the search term for the Google Alert.
Don't get discouraged if your letter isn't published. Over the last two years, I've probably sent about two dozen LTEs to the "Washington Post," and they've only published two of them. But remember that your ideas can still influence what other LTEs and editorials the paper publishes.
Apply your analytical and communications skills beyond LTEs. A paper that carries one of your LTEs will likely impose some waiting period before carrying your next one. So go off and write for other papers. If you've been focusing on your smaller local papers, then send an LTE to a major national newspaper. Write an op-ed ( see here for a DKos diary with a number of helpful suggestions.) Call a talk radio show, or send them an email suggesting a topic for a program segment ("What did George Felix Allen REALLY mean with that Macaca thing? How much of a racist is he?") Post a comment to a newspaper's blog. Send a story suggestion to a newspaper, radio, or TV reporter (see here). Monitor your local radio and TV stations, and contact them and praise their balanced news coverage or criticize their biased or incomplete reporting.
SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU
I have a lot of experience in reading, writing, and teaching about LTEs, but there are some things I haven't tried. Can you help with your experience on these things?:
How do small-town newspapers handle LTEs? I've mainly targeted the "Washington Post" (two letters published so far) and the "New York Times" (none published so far). I've also tried to look at LTEs published in medium-sized papers in Virginia. If you live in a small town and have written LTEs, what's been your experience?
Have you tried any of the on-line "mass mailing" systems? Some Internet systems will allow you to send the same LTE instantly to several dozen papers that you have chosen. I'm pretty skeptical about this approach; for large papers, it would violate their exclusivity requirement. But does this work, for example, with several smaller newspapers that are outside each others' circulation area?
What other strategies and techniques do you use? What suggestions would you add to the listing above? Do you disagree with any of the recommendations?