Putting it all together
Recently we asked readers to send in their questions about how we screen, compile and edit letters at The Times. You wanted to know about everything from how much mail we receive to whether we open hard-copy mail to how our political opinions influence what ends up in print. We answer a few of your questions here.
-- Eryn Brown, letters editor
What is the typical volume of letters you receive about a given story?
Most days, the letters page receives several hundred e-mails, as well as a few faxes and letters sent by mail. I sort through them all and delete any spam, letters addressed to more than one publication, letters that arrive with attachments, form letters, obscene letters and incomprehensible letters. The rest, usually a couple of hundred on any given day, are sorted by story for further review within seven days.
There is no typical volume of mail -- it depends entirely on the topic at hand. A human interest story might inspire just one or two letters. A story about Israel, immigration, Proposition 8 or Rush Limbaugh is likely to generate dozens of responses. (For more on what topics bring in the most mail, see the weekly Letters Top Five tally at opinion.latimes.com.)
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Who selects the letters and what department does the editor report to? Is the selection influenced by any other parts of the paper?
I select the letters.
I report to Jim Newton, the editor of the editorial pages, and am on the editorial pages staff. Letters selection is not influenced by editors or reporters in the news sections.
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With e-mail, you can receive a response the day a story runs and publish it the next day. Does snail mail have any chance?
The tough truth: Snail-mail letters don’t have much chance of being published. Typically, I wait two to three days (and up to a week) to publish letters responding to a story. But it sometimes takes a week for hard-copy letters to find their way to The Times’ mail room and, after screening, to my desk. If you want your letter to be published, your best bet is to send it as an e-mail.
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What are the criteria by which letters are selected for publication?
Many readers assume that letters are chosen to promote a political agenda. This is not the case.
Generally, I try to publish letters that reflect the mix of letters we receive. If a story or subject generates a lot of response, I work to include a good number of letters about that subject on the page. I also try to choose letters that reflect the points of view expressed in the letters received. If we get a dozen letters slamming an editorial about, say, the stimulus package, and only one or two in praise, I try to run a preponderance of “con” letters and maybe just one “pro.”
Other factors come into play too. As the letters guidelines state, we do not run letters that are obscene, that contain factual falsehoods, that are part of letter-writing campaigns, that are unsigned or signed with a pseudonym, or that run much longer than 150 words. We require that letters respond to stories that have appeared in The Times. And with a few rare exceptions, we publish letter writers only once every 90 days.
If a letter alleges error in a news story or bias on the part of a reporter, I first send it to the Readers’ Representative office, which handles reader questions about Times standards and practices, for possible correction in “For the record” in the main news section. (Corrections to editorials and opinion articles run in the editorial pages.) If the Readers’ Representative does not think a correction is warranted, I then review the submission for the letters page.
Then the fun begins. From those that remain, I pick the letters that I find most illuminating, articulate and entertaining. I like letters with attitude, as well as letters that bring new information or a surprising perspective to a discussion. Generally, I do not like letters written by people who “dare” me to print them, or who otherwise act like third-graders. I try to strike a balance between in-state and out-of-state writers (with a slight preference for local readers) and between “experts” and “regular folks” (with a slight preference for the “regular folks”).
We feature one letter, often with art, at the top of the page. Typically, I choose a letter for this space that lends itself to illustration and that makes its point with panache. Again, whether or not The Times’ editorial page agrees with the sentiment expressed in this letter is immaterial.
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Why do you publish letters that make blatantly untrue statements?
We try not to! Much of the time and effort that goes into editing letters for publication is devoted to fact-checking. When we cannot verify a factual claim made in a letter, we excise that claim or toss the letter.
Letter writers are permitted to express conclusions based on fact -- opinions -- that may seem false to other readers. This is not the same as a factual error.
Occasionally, factual errors in letters do slip through. When that happens and we find out about it, we set the record straight on the letters page.
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Do you automatically discard letters that are over the 150-word limit?
No -- just as we also don’t automatically discard letters when writers have forgotten to include their city of residence or their phone number (which we use only to verify a writer’s identity). Rather, if they seem like good candidates for the page, I will cut them to an appropriate length. I also edit for clarity, correcting grammar and diction where appropriate.
That said, I have to work quickly, and a very long letter is a less-appealing candidate than a succinct one.
Some well-written long letters are good candidates for publication as a Blowback -- an expanded letter -- on the Opinion website (latimes.com/news/opinion). I forward these to the editorial pages’ Web editor.
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When do you include the title of the letter writer?
We include a writer’s title when it is provided in his or her letter and when we deem it relevant to the subject discussed.
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Do you keep a file of who has submitted letters (both accepted and rejected) in the past, and if so, does the editor refer to this when deciding about a new letter?
Not exactly. I do keep hard-copy files of letters that have been published in the newspaper, and The Times’ proprietary database also lets me see if and when a writer has been published in the past. I do not, however, keep any record of writers who have submitted letters that haven’t been published. E-mails and hard-copy letters are deleted or discarded within two weeks.
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I’ve tried sending letters in literate prose./ If one gets printed God only knows./ I think I’ll now send them in verse./ The results couldn’t be worse.
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Special thanks to reader/poet Leon Schwartz, of Altadena, for this question.
Many letter-writers wonder why their submissions never, or rarely, make it into the newspaper. It’s a numbers game over here -- out of the several hundred letters we screen every day, only a dozen make it onto the page.
A would-be writer’s best bet to get published is to keep sending in relevant, clearly written, fact-based letters.
And, while we run a poem occasionally, prose is just fine.
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For more, visit the Letters Factory page at latimes.com/letters-factory. Note: This Q&A; applies only to letters responding to articles in the main news, Opinion and Sunday California sections. Sports, Business and Calendar maintain their own letters sections with their own procedures and guidelines.
