Strong opinion pages are usually the backbone of strong newspapers and we’re trying to strengthen ours.
We’ve decided to change our limits on the sizes of letters and guest columns we print. As of next week, we plan to keep letters to fewer than 400 words and guest columns to fewer than 600 words. The opinion pages are some of the most read pages in any newspaper. We’d like to keep it that way. We’re trying to avoid 1,000-word diatribes that hog
the pages. We’d like to open them up to more writers. During the election season, we sometimes run three and even four pages of opinion. When things are slow, we may only run one.
We get letters from people around the world, yet rarely do we run notes that are focused on subjects outside Jefferson County. It wouldn’t make sense because the vast majority of our readers live in one of Jeffco’s four largest cities: Lakewood, Arvada, Wheat Ridge and Golden. At times, a Jeffco person will write about a national or worldwide issue and we’ll run it.
Quite often, readers will call to complain or sometimes applaud about something they’ve read in the paper. We always encourage them to drop a line. It’s an excellent way to make opinions known to neighbors, politicians and others.
Let us know what’s on your mind. Send letters to newsroom@
jeffconews.com, fax to 303-279-7157, or snail mail to Sentinel and Transcript Newspapers, 1000 10th St., Golden, 80401.
The Bowl turned out to be fairly Super this year. It’s nice when the game maintains a higher level of excitement than the multi-million dollar commercial advertising minutes. As I recall, the Broncos gave New England all they could handle on Monday night earlier this year. Nevertheless, congrats to the Pats who beat the Cats 32-29.