Media Group 31 Letters to the Editor policy.

Media Group 31 Letters to the Editor (Op/Ed) policy.

Media Group 31, owners of Mason County Press, Manistee County Press, and Oceana County Press, encourages the submission of opinion pieces by our readers. The following guidelines have been established:

1. Letters must be submitted by email to [email protected] and must be in a format that can be copied and pasted (no PDFs) — plain text, Word, Pages.
2. Letters must include the writer’s name, full mailing address, town or township of residence, and phone number. Only name and town of residence will be posted. 
3. Letters must be about topics relevant to the respective county. Letter writers must reside in or have a direct connection to the county.
4. Letters endorsing a political candidate will not be posted unless the topic is related to the writer’s personal experience with that candidate.
5. Candidates are not allowed to submit a letter endorsing themselves; they do have the option of purchasing advertising.
6. Letters endorsing a ballot proposal will not be posted unless the topic is related to the writer’s personal experience with that proposal.
7. Media Group 31 reserves the right to edit letters to the editor in order to meet the Style Standards of MG 31.
8. Submissions should be sent with minimal grammatical errors.
   • This includes proper capitalization and punctuation. 
   • Use of exclamation marks should be limited to one or two per submission.
   • Avoid using all-caps, bolding, italicizing, or underlining to make a point. 
   • When using acronyms, spell out the proper name on first reference. 
9. Media Group 31 reserves the right to edit letters that may contain libelous content.
10. Use of vulgar language will not be allowed.
11. Media Group 31 reserves the right to reject any letter to the editor.