As a nonprofit newsroom, a big part of our mission is to help connect the community with our public-service journalism. Now we’re ready to add another way to foster community connection: letters to the editor.
The OCN team hopes that readers will submit letters that raise the level of civil public discourse, shine light on interesting perspectives and community solutions that help readers walk away with a better understanding of their neighbors’ opinions and ideas.
Please check out OCN’s standards and consider getting involved!
Standards for submission of letters to the editor
- Oviedo Community News welcomes the opinions of its readers through letters submitted to the editor-in-chief, Megan Stokes. Letters should be original, not someone else’s words copied by the submitter. Letters should not be previously published elsewhere, and should be relevant to readers of OCN.
- All letters may be edited for clarity, brevity, objectionable content and grammatical and spelling standards, though meaning and intent will not change. Not all letters submitted will be published, and the right to decide which will be published is that of the editor. The decision to publish a letter is not an endorsement of its opinions, but an opportunity to share a viewpoint that may be of interest to readers.
- Authors’ names and the city in which they reside will be published. OCN will not publish anonymous letters. Whistle-blower letters are always accepted, whether anonymous or signed, though such letters will be used as the basis of story research rather than for publication on their own.
- Submissions of any length will be considered for publication, though letters exceeding 250 words are more likely to be truncated or otherwise reduced in size. Profanity, personal attacks and anything subject to penalty under libel and defamation laws will not be published. OCN is a nonprofit news organization, which limits by law its ability to promote or oppose political candidates or ballot measures. As such, letters that promote or oppose a political candidate cannot be published.
- Letters should be submitted to contact@oviedocommunitynews.org for consideration. The editor may use your email address for communication regarding questions about the content of the letter and to confirm your identity. The deadline for submission in the next edition of the Early Bird is 5 p.m. Monday, the week of publication.
