Trees. Climate. Dams. Parks. Fish. Airports. Elections. More fish.
These are the topics weighing most heavily on readers’ minds, according to the submissions that have been flowing into the oped@seattletimes.com email inbox. The list reads like one of those “say you’re from Washington without saying you’re from Washington” memes.
Don’t get me wrong — if writers are hot about those topics, that likely means a lot of readers are, too. An old journalism adage advises that every person who writes a letter represents around 30 people who feel the same way. That metric is decades old and pre-personal computer, so each letter or opinion submitted in 2023 likely represents thousands of people.
As the chief wrangler of op-eds, or guest essays, in The Seattle Times, I welcome all these trees, dams, parks and fish. As 2024 looms, I encourage more of you to share your (well thought-out) opinions, hot takes and unique points of view on not just these topics, but any others that contribute to a robust, healthy and, importantly, civil debate about the issues of our time, large and small.
Part of The Seattle Times’ commitment to a free press is curating and publishing a broad range of ideas and opinions, from a broad range of people. What if it contradicts our editorial board’s stated position? Doesn’t matter. That has no bearing on what we choose to print. Neither does your age, education level, religion, ethnicity or whether you hail from a city or a farm. I want to hear from you, and your fellow readers do, too. The more perspectives we offer one another, the more we learn. The more ideas we take in, the more curious, and empathetic, we become. It’s nice how that works.
So what does make a piece more likely to be selected for publication?
It gets to the right mailbox. Type your op-eds and My Takes in the body of the email and send it to: oped@seattletimes.com. Do not send Word attachments or PDFs. It’s an old-fashioned method, but Word docs are easily misplaced by Outlook and PDFs don’t play nicely with our content management system. You only live once, and I don’t want to spend time on this earthly plane wrestling a PDF to the metaphorical mat.
It sticks to our word length. Op-Eds, which run Mondays-Fridays, and My Takes, which run on Saturdays, should be 650 words, max. Our weekday editorial page is exactly that, one page. It’s home to an editorial, a syndicated column and an op-ed, or guest essay, and at least one letter. (Shameless plug: Many regional newspapers no longer curate a full slate of editorial content. And hundreds of U.S. counties don’t have newspapers at all, depriving readers of the chance to learn about their neighbors and share their own points of view.) I have received pieces with a good kernel buried in an eye-glazing 3,000 words; that’s impossible to trim in a coherent fashion, even for me, with my nearly three decades of machete-wielding editing experience.
It has a strong point, clearly made. An op-ed, or guest essay, stands out from news stories because you, the writer, take a stand. What’s the issue? What’s at stake? What needs to be done to fix it? Tell readers — and me — why we all should care. Keep it focused, acknowledge detractors and keep it credible with hyperlinks to established sources. I have room for eight op-eds per week. The bar is high. Tell people something they may not know. Make your op-ed succinct and make it sing.
It is of local/regional interest by a local/regional writer. We give priority to Northwest writers who address issues unique to our region. Of course, some topics are universal — human rights, health care, the fentanyl crisis — and we consider those, too. However, our readers can get opinions about big national and global issues lots of places. There aren’t many places they can read an opinion from someone in Naches, Sumas or Royal City.
It is exclusively ours. We do not publish op-eds that have appeared elsewhere, and that includes on a website, social media platform or blog. That’s unfair to the folks who follow our guidelines and give The Seattle Times the right of first refusal; like the pythons in Florida, those crowd out native species.
It is civil in tone. No name-calling or derogatory language toward others allowed. Don’t call people moonbats, wing nuts, soy-drinking vegans or MAGA idiots. Don’t accuse another person or group of something. Don’t start out with “I bet you won’t print this.” If you are determined to get off on the wrong foot, you’re right. I won’t.
Things that an op-ed is not:
A petition or open letter: We limit bylines to no more than three. Letters belong in the Northwest Voices section, whose guidelines are here: seattletimes.com/opinion.
An admiration of a problem: That’s a submission that does some hand-wringing but not much else. We know climate change is bad, AI and TikTok may not be good for us, orcas are endangered and housing is unbelievably expensive. Now what?
An advertisement: Please disclose in your author bio if you have a financial tie to the subject. That doesn’t automatically bench you; sometimes, for example, if a law affects only business people, it makes sense for someone in that line of work to submit an opinion. We will give it a closer going-over, however, to ensure it’s a timely topic and isn’t easily mistaken for a way to drum up business. In other words, does the topic and expertise outweigh the financial tie?
An article that cannot be trimmed or altered in any way; in other words, every word is a pearl: If I make substantial changes to your op-ed, I will send you a draft for review for accuracy. You may disagree with the changes, and we can discuss; you’re free to withdraw your op-ed and go home if you find changes too egregious. Also, please do not resubmit new drafts after I’ve sent you confirmation of my intent to publish. If you have a heart-stopping moment about something that must be changed because it is inaccurate, let me know; otherwise, multiple submissions merely gum up the works and greatly increase the chance of an incomplete version being published.
A complete set of guidelines is at seattletimes.com/opinion.
The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.