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Kirkland Views Letters to the Editor moved to sidebar

By on February 5, 2010 in Archived, Headlines, Opinion

Dear valued readers,

Recently, several suggestions have been made by readers as to how Kirkland Views can better present Letters to the Editor. Some have suggested that letters be placed deeper within the website, and off the front page. Others think that providing prominence to voices which would otherwise be unheard is an important public service of this website.

Kirkland Views is an open forum which welcomes all perspectives and we encourage readers to send us their opinions. In an effort to better organize the front page of Kirkland Views, we have moved Letters to the Editor to the sidebar. They now are removed from the main stream of articles on the front page, but they are still easily accessible in the sidebar.

We very much value the input you give us and we thank you for your participation in our community. We hope this new way of organizing content is helpful. Please let us know.

Thank you for your support.

Rob Butcher

About Rob Butcher

Editor and Scribbler of Kirkland Views.
View all posts by Rob Butcher →

  • Bob Style

    Kirkland Views is changing its focus. I think it’s become more about marketing than its original purpose, to provide an open forum for people with different views to express themselves not only to the editor, but to Kirkland.

    Maybe keeping controversial issues off the front page is necessary to keep and expand their audience. I don’t know.

    I do know one of the prime reasons for newspapers is to investigate and report. That’s changing. With the advent of Internet and blogs, ordinary news sources that use to be investigated and reported are on the wane because citizens can now do it themselves given the chance. They have less chance if the news doesn’t get out.

    Exposure of issues is important to the citizens of Kirkland. Letters on the front page do just that. Information in columns has a greater audience than letters to the editor. Letters to the editor misses out on most of the audience. I hope that’s not the reason for the change.

    Kirkland Views should keep focused on getting the news out. Having the letters on the front page is far more effective than putting them on a sidebar. These days, anyone can blog. Rob’s done a wonderful job with the Kirkland Views. I hope it doesn’t change.

    • http://www.kirklandviews.com/about/ Rob Butcher

      Kirkland Views is not changing its focus. We are listening to our readers and trying new ways to present the news and opinions of the citizens of Kirkland. This change has done one thing: it has moved letters to a column (which is still on the front page) to the right rather than on the left side with the articles. It is not as if the letters are buried deep inside on page E9. In fact, letters still get sent out to our subscribers via email, which is far more than some would like.
      As with most issues of this sort, you can’t please everyone. I fully understand you are not pleased with this minor change in format. I can assure you my email inbox is filled with comments from people pleased with the change. Some wish letters were removed from the front page entirely and removed from the free subscription email list as well. For them, any letter is one too many.
      Thank you for your comments.

      • Bill Henkens

        Rob,
        It seems to me as if you are caving into a few loud voices. There is no need to change anything. (Letters to the editor) People can choose what information they want to read from the front page. It appears as if your blog has been taken over by some vocal Kirkland employee’s as well as others that have ties to the city government. Giving a place for the citizens to voice their concerns is what makes you different. My hope is you will take a hard look at the folks who are complaining and not remove anything from the front page. If you want to change anything, encourage everyone who blogs here to use their real name’s. Only then will you know who is behind this reaction.

  • Bob Style

    Kirkland Views is changing its focus. I think it’s become more about marketing than its original purpose, to provide an open forum for people with different views to express themselves not only to the editor, but to Kirkland.

    Maybe keeping controversial issues off the front page is necessary to keep and expand their audience. I don’t know.

    I do know one of the prime reasons for newspapers is to investigate and report. That’s changing. With the advent of Internet and blogs, ordinary news sources that use to be investigated and reported are on the wane because citizens can now do it themselves given the chance. They have less chance if the news doesn’t get out.

    Exposure of issues is important to the citizens of Kirkland. Letters on the front page do just that. Information in columns has a greater audience than letters to the editor. Letters to the editor misses out on most of the audience. I hope that’s not the reason for the change.

    Kirkland Views should keep focused on getting the news out. Having the letters on the front page is far more effective than putting them on a sidebar. These days, anyone can blog. Rob’s done a wonderful job with the Kirkland Views. I hope it doesn’t change.

    • http://www.kirklandviews.com/about/ Rob Butcher

      Kirkland Views is not changing its focus. We are listening to our readers and trying new ways to present the news and opinions of the citizens of Kirkland. This change has done one thing: it has moved letters to a column (which is still on the front page) to the right rather than on the left side with the articles. It is not as if the letters are buried deep inside on page E9. In fact, letters still get sent out to our subscribers via email, which is far more than some would like.
      As with most issues of this sort, you can’t please everyone. I fully understand you are not pleased with this minor change in format. I can assure you my email inbox is filled with comments from people pleased with the change. Some wish letters were removed from the front page entirely and removed from the free subscription email list as well. For them, any letter is one too many.
      Thank you for your comments.

      • Bill Henkens

        Rob,
        It seems to me as if you are caving into a few loud voices. There is no need to change anything. (Letters to the editor) People can choose what information they want to read from the front page. It appears as if your blog has been taken over by some vocal Kirkland employee’s as well as others that have ties to the city government. Giving a place for the citizens to voice their concerns is what makes you different. My hope is you will take a hard look at the folks who are complaining and not remove anything from the front page. If you want to change anything, encourage everyone who blogs here to use their real name’s. Only then will you know who is behind this reaction.

  • Scott Brady

    Rob,

    If the majority is complaining about the letters, then the best bet would be to remove them from the list (as long as the majority is actually above 50% and you’re not superseding with a council-styled voting procees ;) ) .

    I think it would still be good to have a sidebar on the front page that lists a few of the titles of letters to the editor, but not any of the preview text. That might satisfy the majority by removing them from a main focus, and would definitely make it easy to keep up on what the most recent letters are without having to dig for them.

    Cheers!

  • Scott Brady

    Rob,

    If the majority is complaining about the letters, then the best bet would be to remove them from the list (as long as the majority is actually above 50% and you’re not superseding with a council-styled voting procees ;) ) .

    I think it would still be good to have a sidebar on the front page that lists a few of the titles of letters to the editor, but not any of the preview text. That might satisfy the majority by removing them from a main focus, and would definitely make it easy to keep up on what the most recent letters are without having to dig for them.

    Cheers!

  • http://kirklandzoo.blogspot.com/ Per-Ola

    In my view Rob can do whatever he likes with Kirklandviews, and if he feels that this is a better “product” by moving some vocal “repeat offenders” off the main page, I’m all for it.

    It has nothing to do with caving in to a few loud voices, I think on the contrary. He is standing up against them.

    I for one appreciates the time and effort Rob is putting in to this “venture”, and as I said before, if there’s someone not happy with the “the views”, nothing is preventing yet another blog poping up, focusing in Kirkland issues.

    I know how much time and dedication/committment it takes to keep a blog active and “actual”, so I prefer to once in a while just voice my opinion “here”…

  • http://kirklandzoo.blogspot.com Per-Ola

    In my view Rob can do whatever he likes with Kirklandviews, and if he feels that this is a better “product” by moving some vocal “repeat offenders” off the main page, I’m all for it.

    It has nothing to do with caving in to a few loud voices, I think on the contrary. He is standing up against them.

    I for one appreciates the time and effort Rob is putting in to this “venture”, and as I said before, if there’s someone not happy with the “the views”, nothing is preventing yet another blog poping up, focusing in Kirkland issues.

    I know how much time and dedication/committment it takes to keep a blog active and “actual”, so I prefer to once in a while just voice my opinion “here”…