In less than three weeks, readers have written thousands of letters to The San Diego Union-Tribune. They have mirrored what this community is feeling in the wake of the Sept. 11 attack; they reflect the sorrow, anger and thirst for information that is gripping the nation.
Because of the outpouring beginning the day of the attack, a decision was made to increase the space devoted to Letters to the Editor. “We felt it was extremely important, after a national tragedy such as this, to give readers a forum to say how they feel about what happened and what should happen next,” said Bill Osborne, senior editor for opinion.
Between Sept. 12 and Saturday, letters filled a full page each day with the exception of two Mondays when they shared space with this column and the work of my colleague, James O. Goldsborough.
Yesterday, the letters page returned to its normal format, sharing the space with opinion columns, in this case pro and con articles about Brown Field.
The public’s need to share ideas became apparent through the instantaneous increase in the volume of mail, said Thomas Nolan, who edits Letters to the Editor. From Sept. 11 though Sept. 16, the Union-Tribune received between 400 and 500 submissions a day. “Virtually all of them were on the attack,” Nolan said. After Sept. 16, the daily numbers dropped in half, but continued to surpass the previous volume of up to 150 letters a day.
Nolan, who has been letters editor for four years, said the numbers are unprecedented. “The fact that the volume has been consistently high is pretty incredible,” he said.
Most of the letters — 75 to 80 percent — have come via e-mail. Readers also have faxed their letters to the number at the bottom of this page and have sent them via the U.S. mail. But there’s no doubt e-mail has facilitated readers’ ability to be heard. When I asked Union-Tribune research librarian Michelle Gilchrist to check the archives to measure response after other historical events, she could find nothing comparable.
With the exception of Saturday — when letters traditionally take up a full page — the Union-Tribune prints about 10 letters a day. Expansion to a full page made it possible to run 13 to 19 letters a day, plus a cartoon or illustration.
Even with the full page, the chances of getting published remained small. Because of this, letters from local readers, as always, were given priority over letters from people outside the San Diego region, Nolan said.
As is his habit, Nolan goes through letters searching for those “that have a chance of making the cut” and finally settles on the most promising of all letters for publication.
Expansion to the full page allowed for some longer letters to be printed. Also, Nolan noted, the San Diego region has a number of retired military and other experts who contribute to the dialogue. However, because of a rule that allows publication of only one letter a month per person, Nolan said he has had to reject some otherwise promising letters.
Brevity remains desirable when it comes to Letters to the Editor. Nolan also advises against redundancy. If it’s an idea or opinion that has been expressed in previous letters, the likelihood of publication drops sharply. Letters also must include the true name of the writer, a telephone number, and his or her community.
Nolan said that a number of readers have sent in poetry. As a rule, the newspaper is not the venue for poetry, especially not the Letters to the Editor page.
Osborne said the letters page will continue to share space with opinion columns unless something happens to prompt another flood of letters.
Readers also have had other outlets in the paper to let their feelings be known. One of them is Reflections, a public service page by the newspaper that allows readers to share their thoughts on the Sept. 11 tragedy. The first full page of Reflections appeared Tuesday; another one is scheduled for tomorrow.
While the letters page has provided more opportunity for opinions to be voiced and the Reflections page has provided an outlet for inspirational messages, efforts also have been made by the Union-Tribune to satisfy readers’ need for more news. Since the attack, the space devoted to news has increased dramatically. First, there was the eight-page Extra published on Sept. 11. Then, on the following day, space for news in the A-section was tripled. From Sept. 12 through Sept. 16, the Union-Tribune A-section devoted the equivalent of 42 ad-free pages more to news than it would have under ordinary circumstances.
