Thank you for writing a Letter to the Editor!
Please read through our Letters Policy and then send your Letter to editor@southingtonoutsider.org or P.O. Box 912 Southington, CT 06489.​
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Your letter must include your real name, address and phone number. We will use this information to verify that your letter was written by you, but we won't publish any details beyond your name and town, and we won't store, sell or use them in any other way, unless we are legally required to.
You may include a cover photo for your letter if you like, but that is not required.
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Letters Policy
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We welcome Letters to the Editor written on any topic so long as it is in some way connected to the town Southington.
All submissions will be published that meet the terms of this policy and have passed through our editorial process.
The two main goals of this policy are to ensure that letters are the work of actual persons (not automations of some kind), and to promote civility in our public discourse by reviving some of the conventions of traditional newspaper editorial pages. As a non-profit we are also prevented by law from supporting political campaigns or engaging in certain forms of commercial activity.
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Here are the rules:
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1. Letter writers must include their legal first and last name, telephone number, street address and town of residence in their submissions. Your name and town will be published along with the letter.
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2. Letters must not include text that has been copied from a source (print or digital, human or AI) without attribution.
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3. If we receive two or more letters that are entirely identical in their wording or differ only in small details, the first one submitted will be considered for the publication, but the rest will not.
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4. In order to keep the letters section to a manageable size, individuals may submit no more than two letters in any given month. An exception may be made for writers who are considered Southington Outsider columnists.
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5. Letters should be addressed to the editor (beginning “Dear editor,” “To the editor,” or the like) and any criticism or praise of persons should be in the third-person (“John Doe has done a great job/terrible job.”) Here again, an exception may be made for columnists.
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6. Any criticisms that are made must aim at things, not persons. “The speech John Doe made at the meeting was shameful” would be allowed, because it criticizes the speech. “John Doe was shameless” would not be, because it criticizes the person.
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7. We will not print content that is potentially defamatory – basically, trying to harm the reputation of a person, business, institution, or social group by making false claims about them. We will not print obscenities or comments on the physical appearance of actual persons.
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8. Letters must be that: letters. We will not publish decontextualized memes, cartoons, bullet-point lists, etc. An exception may be made (at the editor’s discretion) for graphics, images, or charts created by the writer if they are immediately relevant to the opinion being expressed.
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9. If a letter that is submitted violates any of these principles 1–8, it shall be up to the editor to decide whether to reject the letter outright or to send it back for revision.
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10. We reserve the right to correct spelling and formatting and to shorten letters that are in excess of 500 words.
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11. If an author wishes to refer back to a previous article or letter, or provide a source for a claim, we will include the necessary hyperlink.
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12. Elected officials may submit letters in their official capacity that aim to educate the public about activities being undertaken by the government, including activities in which they are involved. Letters that contain language announcing or promoting their candidacy or advocating against the candidacy of others will not be published.
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13. The owners of for-profit businesses may submit letters on matters relating to Southington and may refer in them to their own business activities. Letters which are largely advertisements for their own goods or services or which advocate against other businesses will not be published.
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14. Publication of a letter does not constitute an endorsement by the Southington Outsider of any opinion expressed therein, nor does it express any judgment by the Outsider about the validity of its claims.
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15. Our policy of printing all submissions prevents us from aiming at ‘balance’ in our letters section. If there is a preponderance of letters favoring one view over others, this is simply due to there being more people willing to write letters in support of it. The remedy for any perceived imbalance would be for opponents to submit more pieces spelling out their own views.
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Note: this policy is intended to apply to all Letters to the Editor as well as pieces submitted by our Guest Columnists. In effect, our columnists are just submitting Letters to the Editors with greater freedom as to length, rhetorical framing, and frequency of submission.
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