For Washington State: TOP TEN TIPS ON PUBLISHING LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

[chicagoexpat]

(As one follow-up to "Don't whine about the news/polls/attack ads... ORGANIZE!" http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/chicagoexpat/gG5FMS )

Obama campaign help on writing letters to the editor:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/speakout

or go to Gregoire's campaign site, it also has help under "Get Involved"
http://www.chrisgregoire.com /

TOP TEN TIPS ON PUBLISHING LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

1) It is best to keep the letter short, to the point, and polite. Remember you are trying to persuade your undecided neighbors to vote for Barack Obama for President.
a) Newspapers generally don't print anything over 200 words, or about 20 lines
b) Stay on message, and stay with one message per letter

2) Write informally and conversationally in tone, you’re writing for your neighbors. Use your own language, don't try to sound like a reporter or an editorial essay writer. Be yourself.

You can appeal to people’s emotions with your own style, imagery, phrasing, or varied sentence structure if you want. Passion is fine, but be polite. A letter from a young person, noting their age or grade, is also very effective.

Also, successful "letters to the editor" are often based on a strong news hook or a timely response to a current issue covered by your news outlet (like the political conventions, or when Obama comes to your state for an event, or an article about the campaign, or when the Presidential debates are held).

But if you want to write a letter, you don't have to wait for this to happen: JUST DO IT!

3) You can personalize it with something specific that happened to you or something in your community. Did you hear Obama or Gregoire give a speech somewhere? (No one hears Rossi who isn't invited).

The important thing is to write about something that matters to you about supporting Barack Obama for President.

4) Send it on appropriate letterhead. That is, if you're speaking only for yourself, don't use your business or organization letterhead but only your personal letterhead (if you have any).

If you're announcing an endorsement or official position of your organization or business, then you can use organization letterhead (check with the boss though!).

5) Include your contact information to verify you wrote the letter; some outlets do not publish letters until they verify who wrote the letters sent to them.

6) In general, letters should be typed up (newspaper editors will not want to decipher anyone’s handwriting). Also proofread and spell check your letter before sending it.

7) Choose the newspaper to send it to. Check your local paper for the correct address and editor to send it to. Many papers now have on-line, internet access for sending letters-to-the editor.

Don't forget weekly community newspapers. The major daily newspapers in your area have the most readers, but the smaller, weekly community newspapers are also important. They are also usually more likely to print your letter than a major newspaper.

Besides the help at the Obama and Gregoire web sites, one site list newspapers across the nation, broken down by state and locality, at http://www.newslink.org/

You can find others by using any web search engine. For finding addresses for community weekly papers, e.g., you can go to a search engine like Google and type in your metro area and keyword, like "Pullman, Washington, news media" or "Vancouver, Washington, news media."

8) If you don't get your letter published, it may not have been published simply for space or deadline reasons. You can always send it again, or send it to a different daily, weekly, or community newspaper.

9) Please send a copy of your letter to your local party HQ or Obama campaign, it will lift their spirits.

10) Example of letters people have already written include:

"Another Pro-Obama Letter To the Editor" that was published as a blog post.
(at http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/dobrocat/gGx42L )