Opinion editor
opinion@dailylobo.com
So it’s that time of year again, everyone: The school year begins anew, students return to their hallowed halls of learning and the opinions begin flying around on campus and in the newspaper about everything from Chelsea, formerly Bradley, Manning’s imprisonment and request for hormonal therapy to what exactly Lobo Athletics is doing with all of that money.
As such, the opinion section of the Daily Lobo is only as relevant to its readers as the content that it prints. And the content that it prints is only as relevant to its readers as the content that is submitted by its readers.
I’m here today to encourage all of our readers to submit letters or guest columns to opinion@dailylobo.com as often as they like. Everyone’s got opinions about something happening in international news, national news, local news or campus news.
Why keep those opinions to yourself or to your local circle of friends? Share them with all of the thousands of readers the Daily Lobo reaches on a daily basis.
You never know, you might get some good comments online or you might even earn a full-length response, printed in the paper, from someone.
Also, I’ve seen rather frequently online, and heard rather frequently around campus, that people complain about the quality of opinion content, both letters and columns, in the Daily Lobo. They also complain about perceived biases in the Daily Lobo’s opinion content.
If you have those thoughts, it means that there are issues that you want to discuss publicly that you believe are being ignored, or that you have some rebuttals you want to make to a piece I ran.
I say go for it.
There is a vibrant online community in the Daily Lobo opinion section, and I’ve seen wonderful back-and-forths and wonderfully written rebuttals made to content I’ve published. For months I’ve read comments from many users who have the capability to write wonderful letters and columns that would allow the wider off-line community to be exposed to their ideas.
To my online community, I encourage you all to submit content to me to publish in the print issues of the Daily Lobo. Although it seems everyone has Internet access these days, you never know who you might reach, and who might write their own letter and debate you, by publishing a written letter or column.
If I’ve convinced you by now to submit some content to the opinion section, here are some basic guidelines to keep in mind when writing letters and columns.
Letters should generally stay between 200 and 600 words. Shorter ones will generally not run since they are not an efficient use of page space. Letters longer than 600 words will be considered a guest column and the byline will be changed accordingly. Guest columns should stay between 600 and 800 words, although I will consider pieces up to 1000 words.
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Also, if you’re a student, feel free to apply to be a staff columnist on unmjobs.unm.edu. Apply under the “columnist” job link. If that isn’t present, apply under the “freelance reporter” job link, and specify in your cover letter that you’d like to work for the opinion section as a columnist.
All letters and guest columns must be submitted with a full name and a phone number, and no anonymous pieces will be printed.
If you would like to simply email the Daily Lobo to respond to a letter or column, but do not want the response printed, please specify that in your submission.
Finally, the Daily Lobo reserves the right to edit all submitted opinion pieces for length and content. Submitters will be contacted if there are any major content changes that need to be made before the Daily Lobo runs their piece.
I hope that all of the readership will reconsider their relationship with the campus paper, and I’m confident that this year will bring many new, varied voices to the Daily Lobo.
