Is ‘letters to the editor’ a dying newspaper page?

Anyhow, many readers took advantage of this space, penning out letter after letter to the extent they became very recognisable names in the media and public. A few of them quickly come to mind: Paget Kintu (Jinja), Alan Tacca (Jinja), J. Kavuma-Kaggwa – the “old man of Kyaggwe”, and Rev Aseete of Toroma.

The letters came in mostly by post or courier and a few by email which was only beginning to gain popularity. The managing editor sorted them and passed on to the sub-editor for typing and editing.

Many years later with better technology to enable writing and editing, the “letters to the editor” page has changed significantly – not for the better, in my view! It now almost always has three long “letters” (read opinions) and is far less engaging. And this is not just for Daily Monitor but for New Vision as well.

What is the explanation for the dampening of a very important and active readers’ space? Are the readers writing too few “letters to the editor” so newspapers must fill the page with long opinions labelled letters?

Daily Monitor’s op-ed editor, Janet Napio, explained that it is the page design that has locked in three “letters” on a page and that she averagely receives 20 letters a day, but they are mostly long essays.  Wanyama Wanga, a senior editor at New Vision, said few readers are writing and when they do, they do not write in the format of newspaper letters of old; just long winding opinion essays.

For perspective, it is important to understand the importance of “letters to the editor” in a newspaper.

“You feel strongly about an issue, and you want to let people know what you think. You believe you can even influence people to take some action if you speak your mind. But, you want to reach an audience larger than just your friends or your group membership.” – Write What Matters, Amy Minervini et al.

“Unlike editorials, letters frequently comment on issues that are not present in the news column. Usually most newspapers receive more letters than they have the space to print. Letter to the editor is a way by which the editor knows the response of his readers.” – Todd Mills.

“They allow the people who read the newspaper to gauge the positions of the general public on a variety of issues, policies, and positions.” – Christopher Murano.

Newspapers certainly would have loved to keep it this way but technology has not just disrupted the “breaking news” element, it has also given readers new platforms to talk to each other, to raise alerts, to complain and to rail against authority – social media! Therefore editors are not to blame.

Social media has come with several advantages: one can post/tweet whatever they want without censorship from editors, it is instant in action and reaction (recent Buddo school government driver breaking student’s suitcase incident is a good example), greater reach, communal feel, and one can tag message directly to the subject of interest. There is of course a downside to this, but that is for another day.

What should newspapers do about the “letters to the editor” page? Continue publishing long essays that many don’t read because they’re winding while pretending to call them letters? Shorten the “letters”? Merge space with Op-ed page, killing the label and accepting that the old “letters” format is dead?

I do not know! What I know is many newspaper readers (old school like myself) miss the old letters page, now migrated to Twitter and Facebook. Alan Tacca told me as much when I spoke to him on Wednesday: the letters on the page are too long and uninviting to read!

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