Let us explain...

Editorial comment

Editorials offer the opinion of The Riverdale Press. Virtually all of this newspaper’s editorials are written by the editor, but they do not represent just his or her personal opinions. That is why they are unsigned — editorial comment is the newspaper’s institutional voice.

Although The Press does not convene a formal editorial board, as many newspapers do, the editor confers regularly with members of the staff about the topics for editorial comment, the position they will take and the way they will state that position. When the editorials are bound to cause controversy, they are subjected to repeated scrutiny and go through several drafts.

Most editorials respond to developments in the news, but they are often based on independent reporting as well as discussions with beat reporters to gain information that goes beyond what has appeared in print. The publishers also meet with advocates of causes and sometimes seek information or advice from experts in the community to help them formulate a policy or opinion. In election years, they meet with candidates for office.

In its first issue in April 1950, The Press declared itself independent politically. Although it has editorialized vigorously about issues in political campaigns, it has not made endorsements for public office, believing that its role is to guide the voters with information and analysis.

Most of our editorials are about local issues, but we see no reason why the newspaper should not speak out about questions of national and international concern that are part of the lives of our readers. Usually, we try to address those concerns from a local perspective, since that is what we know best and what makes us different from the daily newspaper or weekly news magazines you read.

We pride ourselves on being forceful and hope we are not strident. The purpose of our editorials is to make readers think and, frequently, to call them to act to preserve what is best in this very special community.

Guest columns

We began the “Point of view” column to give staff members who disagreed with the paper’s editorial stance a place to express their own opinion, but it has become, instead, an increasingly popular place for readers who have something to say and need more space than a letter affords to publish their views.

There are virtually no restrictions on what may appear here. We have published poetry, light essays and weighty controversy in this space. We do not, however, publish every submission. 

Space limitations require us to ask that essays be 500 to 750 words long. 

Although many “Point of view” articles arrive unsolicited, inquiring through a letter before submitting an article can be helpful to both writers and the paper. We may already have scheduled an article on your subject or have a backlog of pieces awaiting publication.

Like letters, “Point of view” articles are subject to editing for space and may be lightly edited to help the writer make a point more elegantly.

“From other pens” is an occasional column that continues a tradition as old as newspapers. In it, The Press reprints editorials that have appeared elsewhere, usually in weeklies in New York State with which we exchange papers.

We don’t necessarily agree with the opinions advanced in the editorials published in “From other pens” or “Point of view” columns. Our Opinions pages seek to offer you a broad range of opinions and to inspire you to form or sharpen your own.

Photographs

One picture, they say, is worth a thousand words. The Press usually uses this space either to illustrate an editorial or to publish a picture that is itself an editorial comment, such as our popular series, “Eyesore of the week.”

The photo may also show a scene from local life, simply to brighten the page and your week. 

On the Op-ed page, photographs, drawings by members of our staff, or a cartoon, illustrate “Point of view” submissions from our readers.

Masthead

The box that lists the names of a newspaper’s staff is called the masthead. The Riverdale Press masthead offers a tour of the newspaper and a thumbnail guide to how it functions.

Richner Communication and Associate Publisher Mekea Hurwitz-Fishlin guide the paper’s business affairs. Kate Pastor heads the news department, writes most of the editorials and advises on news policy.

The large advertisements, often illustrated, that appear throughout the newspaper are called display ads. The display advertising department sells these ads and helps clients decide what they will say and how they will look. The artists in the advertising production department design them.

Because the small ads at the back of each week’s paper are arranged by heading, they are called classified advertisements. They are the responsibility of the classified advertising department.

The masthead also provides other useful information, including the paper’s age and the names of its founders, its address, the cost of a subscription and notice that the entire contents of The Riverdale Press are copyrighted.

Letters to the editor

“Your opinion is the most important opinion in this newspaper,” we wrote in an editorial  years ago. Since we believe that is so, we publish virtually all the letters we receive.

Such a policy has its pitfalls. Many letters seem to us to be dull, or just silly. We risk turning readers off to the gold by making them sift through the dross.

Should we publish prejudiced letters? The answer is yes. We can’t pretend that such attitudes and practices don’t exist in our community. If we are to fight them, we have to meet them head-on. Censoring bad speech allows people to escape their obligation to answer it.

What about vituperative attacks on local people or institutions? That’s a more complicated question. The law of libel applies to letters to the editor with the same force as it does to anything else we publish. Both the letter writer and this newspaper can be held accountable for heedlessly damaging a reputation.

Moreover, a protest read in more than 14,000 households can inflict disproportionate punishment on an offender. For that reason, we will not, for example, publish a letter that denounces a drycleaner for harming a garment. The punishment of public obloquy just doesn’t fit the crime. 

Within those boundaries, however, we will publish forceful denunciations, though we sometimes find it painful to do so. Robust public debate takes precedence over our feelings or those of people who have entered the public arena.

In order to accommodate all the letters we get, most issues include a second Opinions page. It is called the Op-Ed page, because it is opposite the editorial page. 

Nevertheless, there are space limitations, and letters may have to wait to be published. Long or repetitive letters are edited. Letters are also lightly edited for clarity and to excise profanity.

People who regularly write letters to the editor are like old friends, though we have never met most of them. Nevertheless, with some exceptions, we limit publication of their letters to no more than one every six weeks or so, to avoid the too-frequent repetition of familiar viewpoints and to give others the opportunity to have their say. 

We require that letters be signed. We would no more publish an anonymous letter in the newspaper than we would base a news story on an anonymous phone call. In addition, we need a daytime phone number and an address so that we can verify that the letter is genuine. Phone numbers and addresses are not published.

We are reluctant to publish letters from people who are unwilling to stand openly behind what they have written. Only if a letter states a valid reason to withhold a name will we do so.

We love to get letters. No matter what they say, they tell us that you’re paying attention and that you care. Publishing them fulfills what we regard as the newspaper’s most important function: providing an open forum where people can speak their minds, share their concerns with their neighbors and exercise some power over our communal life

From the web

We occasionally publish in print readers’ comments from our website. Although we maintain that letters to the editor be signed, we would be stifling the open nature of the web if we required the same online. However, we will only publish in print those comments that meet the same standards as letters to the editor and do so to offer print readers a sampling of what can be found on the web.