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Letter submission guidelines

Columbia Gorge News encourages readers to submit letters to the editor for the weekly opinion page. Letters on all topics are welcome.

Writers must include their name and hometown (for publication) and daytime phone number (for verification, not for publication). Letters from an agency or group must be credited to the author or a contact person. Anonymous or “name withheld by request” letters are not accepted.

Letters must be 350 words or fewer. Longer opinion pieces may be published as a guest commentary from professionals or experts in their field at the discretion of the editor. One letter per letter writer per month will be accepted.

Columbia Gorge News reserves the right to edit all letters and to publish or not publish letters for any reason. Letters may be edited for length, grammar and spelling or for legal reasons.

Letters are published as space allows. Deadline for letters is noon on the Friday prior to publication.

The opinions expressed in letters are “your voice,” and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Columbia Gorge News, its staff, publisher or advertisers.

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To be published, consider the following; letters that do not follow the policy will be sent back to the writer, who is then welcome to resubmit:

Letters must be civil. Vulgar or inappropriate language will not be considered, nor malicious, false or misleading statements.

Letters attacking an individual, rather than an expressed opinion, are not acceptable. Letters attacking a class of people based on their gender, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, disability or age will also be rejected.

Letters criticizing a particular business over a particular complaint or grievance will not be considered.

Letters may be submitted online at www.columbiagorgenews.com: Scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Submission Forms,” then select “Letter to the Editor.” Letters also may be sent directly via email to news@gorgenews.com.

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In 2024, many letters were submitted without proper identification of sources and letter writers were thus asked to resubmit. To avoid this, keep in mind the following:

Opinions are "a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge" (merriam-webster.com). Though opinions are often presented as facts, that does not make them so. To give a better scope of how the opinion was formed, a source must be cited — even to say it is the opinion presented by another person or media outlet.

Sources can be listed within the letter or at the bottom. Sources count as part of the 350 word limit.