Writing to us

Last week, public unrest concerning a letter to the editor published in the Feb. 26 edition of The Manchester Enterprise caused quite a stir. Though the Enterprise is not retracting this letter, I, as editor, felt the situation could be used as a springboard to better explain how letters to the editor are handled.
The particular letter I am talking about involved concerns over the Enterprise’s lack of coverage of the competitive cheerleading team and overabundance of coverage of the football team. Though the letter’s author did not indicate his intention to not have it published, that intent was conveyed to the editorial staff after the fact.
Letters to the editor are a tricky beast in themselves –– any newspaper no matter how big or small will tell you the same thing. It is our policy to accept any letter submitted no matter how positive or negative its tone may be (including letters that question or complain about the Enterprise or its staff).
Because any letter to the editor represents the opinion of someone and because these letters are published on the opinion page, the duty of the editor is not to question or censor someone’s opinion.
However, once a letter comes to our office, it is our responsibility to fact check the letter for accuracy (if the letter is addressing a particular person, place or business), edit the letter for length and grammar as well as coherency.
It is also our policy now, following this incident, to confirm the author’s intent of the letter. To this effect, I acknowledge better communication between the letter’s author and my office could have prevented this private letter to the editorial staff from being printed.
In the future, we request all letters that are brought to our office before, during or after business hours, be signed by the letter’s author. The letter must also include the author’s printed name, address and phone number. Every attempt will be made to contact the letter’s author before publication. If the letter is a complaint or a personal observation about an individual, place, or business, the letter’s author must return the newspaper’s phone call confirming authorship before the letter can be published. If any of the above mentioned criteria are not meant, the letter will be given a nice home in our “dead letters” file.
This is our policy moving forward.
Also, any author who submits a letter to the editor with defamatory undertones will not be published. Those letters that may include blatant accusations of a person, place or business, must have documented proof to support their argument. Careless letters of malicious or facetious intent (including letters about any staff member of the Enterprise) will not be tolerated.
On a separate but similar note, I feel also compelled to address the myriad “thank you” letters we receive.
Unfortunately, it is the policy of the company that letters which address thank you’s to several businesses for their contribution to a fundraiser –– be it a nonprofit group, school or community-sponsored event –– are not a letter to the editor. Letters thanking businesses for their financial or in-kind donations are considered “thank you” ads and are not free (the amount for these ads varies depending on the size of the ad requested by the paying customer).
I understand this policy can be frustrating for some groups. However, please understand the newspaper is a business just like a restaurant, grocery store, pharmacy or gift shop is. And just like these businesses, the newspaper needs to make money in order to remain viable. Otherwise, these letters provide free advertising to businesses, which has not been pre-negotiated with our ad department.
The policy for “thank you” ads has been a policy that has been in place long before I took over as editor.
Letters thanking individual residents or letters that do not list off businesses by name, are considered letters to the editor and will be published for free.
For those who may have questions or concerns about how to submit letters to the editor, feel free to contact me at dlai@heritage.com. The deadline for letters is Monday at 3:30 p.m. for the current week’s edition. Letters that are submitted online or in person after 3:30 p.m. Mondays will be held for the following week.
These policies are to ensure my staff and I continue to bring our readers a quality product.