S1:E23 - Action Lefty No. 3: Letters to the Daily Planet

4:34PM Jul 22, 2021

Speakers:

Lynda Woolard

Keywords:

lefty

letter

lte

louisiana

letters

printed

publications

submit

provide

readers

monitors

requires

elected official

editors

information

writers

issue

writing

organize

volunteers

Welcome to Louisiana Lefty, a podcast about politics and community in Louisiana, where we make the case that the health of the state requires a strong progressive movement fueled by the critical work of organizing on the ground. Our goal is to democratize information, demystify party politics, and empower you to join the mission because victory for Louisiana requires you. We hope you enjoyed Season One of Louisiana Lefty. This month we're on summer break. So while we won't be releasing new interviews until August, we will be providing you with some Action Lefty mini pods to fill in the gaps until then.

The last couple of weeks, I've talked about ways to organize and share your message online. But not everyone has social media accounts. In order to get your content in front of as many eyes as possible, don't forget old school methods like good old fashioned Letters To the Editors. In addition to reaching a wider, more varied audience, the letter section of newspapers is often monitored by elected officials, so you never know who will see your piece.

First, if you're working for a candidate or an organization, a little time on the front end, setting up your LTE operation will help you submit faster when the time comes. Create a spreadsheet in your organization's Google Drive, where you list all the publications you might want to send letters to, and enter columns for submission links or email addresses, as well as word limits and any other requirements they offer on their site. Don't forget to include weekly community papers and targeted publications that cater to the issues you organize around on your list. The smaller the newspaper circulation, the easier it is to get your letter printed.

Then put your organizer hat on and recruit a team of folks who are willing to write letters for you. Have them at the ready, so you don't have to track someone down when you need to get a letter out quickly. I found it helpful to choose an experienced Letter To the Editor writer and have them do a coaching call with your new LTE writers. Then you can either communicate with your team through something as simple as an email chain, or a Facebook group, or even a dedicated channel on Slack. And managing that line of communication is certainly something you can hand off to a volunteer leader.

For big name publications, letters have the highest chance of getting printed if they respond to a specific article, op-ed, or editorial they've printed in the last day or so. For that reason, part of the job of your LTE army should be monitoring the local media. Your letter then can serve the purpose of countering information they presented or bringing up information they failed to address in the original piece. You can occasionally push a paper to print a letter on an issue they have not written about by opening your LTE with your concern that they're not addressing this important topic.

If you have a few volunteers submit letters on the same subject to a big media outlet. Not all will get printed, but at least one of them will stand a better chance of getting published, because you'll create the impression that your issue is on the minds of many readers. And now that you have several letters that you're shopping around, worded differently, but on the same theme, you can send each one to a different smaller publication, increasing your chances of getting each of them published.

For the body of your letter, here are a few tips to keep in mind. Follow the paper's directions on how to submit. Most now use a form that you submit through online, so that you're forced to stick to their word limit and provide your contact information. If you're submitting by email, you'll need to ensure that you're keeping within their guidelines and providing the contact info they require. Mention your main reason for writing in the first sentence, and stick to one or two main points.

You can provide your LTE writers with some talking points and data, or even a sample letter. But they should feel comfortable editing your content, so that the letter is written in their own voice. Share what connects you to the issue you're writing on. Are you a constituent writing about an elected official who's done something you're especially appreciative of or disapprove of? Or are you writing about energy issues and you have solar panels on your roof? Or are you a doctor talking about health issues. Make that connection for the readers. End your letter with a call to action, letting readers know how they can get more involved or learn more about your subject.

Make sure your letter writing team knows that editors will contact them by phone or email to confirm that they sent the LTE, so they need to be available to respond. Have your media monitors keep an eye out for your pieces in those publications. When you get a letter printed, make sure you then share those links all over your social media to further amplify your message. And celebrate that success with your volunteers. Whatever your method of communicating with your team, you should always give a shout out when you get a victory, because that's what keeps folks engaged. And because we need to take our wins whenever and wherever we can get them.

Don't forget to check our podcast notes for resources. And tweet us at @LouisianaLefty if you have any questions. We'll be back next week with another Action Lefty mini-pod.

Thank you for listening to Louisiana Lefty thanks to Ben Collinsworth for producing Louisiana Lefty, to Jen Pack of Black Cat Studios for creating our Super Lefty artwork, and Thousand $ Car, for letting us use their swamp pop classic, Security Guard, as our Louisiana lefty theme song.