Opinion changes reflect need for more voices, engagement
By tradition, opinion has long been the section were readers found the institutional view of The Commercial Appeal. It is also where you read guest commentaries, local and syndicated columnists, letters to the editor, editorial cartoons and, of course, the daily Bible verse.
Starting this week, we are moving away from that approach to one that showcases more community voices, puts an emphasis on analysis and an expanded newsroom engagement with Memphis through community events we sponsor.
Readers have repeatedly told us that they want to see more locally produced guest commentaries and letters to the editors. And we want to deliver more of what you want.
Some things about the Viewpoint section won't change.
The Sunday section, much like the one you have today, remains our weekly powerhouse. It will still include compelling commentary from regular columnists such as Lynn Norment and Arthur Cyr.
Sunday is also where we will publish detailed news analysis packages on local, state and national issues as well as locally written guest columns. We also plan to publish more reader letters. And you'll see more frequent columns from me about The CA, its news gatherers and our decision-making process.
On Monday, we'll devote much of the Viewpoint page to letters to editor. The Wednesday and Friday Viewpoint pages will remain largely the same.
To devote more time to analysis stories and community events, we are dropping Viewpoint on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. But we are are going to use that news space to run more news stories and photos those three days.
Of course, we'll still occasionally do editorials under the banner of The Commercial Appeal Editorial Board.
To showcase more local voices we need more engagement from this community. Simply put, we need more letters to the editor and guest commentaries. You can send letters of no more than 200 words to letters@commercialappeal.com. Please include your name, phone number and address.
If you want to submit a guest commentary of no more than 500 words, please also send it to letters@commercialappeal.com. Please also include your name, phone number and address.
Mark Russell is the executive editor of The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at mark.russell@commercial appeal.com, on phone at 901/529-2302 and you can follow him on Twitter: @Markrussell44.