PublishaLetter Blog

The rage over the lavish ( 693,000 Pounds-a-year ) pension payment to the failed former Chief Executive of Royal Bank of Scotland, Sir Fred Goodwin, boils over and letters pour in. In typical British fashion, the letters are often short, witty and dripping with understated sarcasm and humor. Here is an excellent example:

A letter titled: Goodwin Pension

At last, the formula:

Appointed above Ability x Abject Failure
—————————————-  = Luxury Retirement
Crass Insensitivity

Slundog Millionaire is a uniquie movie. No, not because it won so many Oscars. It is because it generated such a wide gamut of reactions. In India the movie was as much a part of National Pride as National shame. One letter, in particular captured the conflicting sentiments in India. Here are some excerpts form a letter written by Deepika Rao…………..It’s been a week since the movie Slumdog Millionaire has released. We have got to hear a large number of reviews saying that “Oh it is a must watch”, “Oh it’s the best movie of the year”, etc.etc., but on the other hand, many of the Indian “BIGGIES” don’t seem to be all for the movie!!! “Why?” Is the big question!

The movie is realistic. It, in a very comical way portrays our existing situation! After watching the movie, the person sitting right beside me didn’t tell how the movie was, because the first thing that came out of that person’s mouth was “SHAME ON INDIANS”!!! …….

If a person like Arindham Chaudhary can comment that a movie SUCKS, then I have no problem in telling that our Indian mentality only SUCKS.

People are skeptical about the stimulus package. And they are concerned. What are they concerned about? Judging by the letters received, they are concerned that it is more a political package than a true bailout package. They don’t think that the politicians read the bill since they were busy spinning their political views. They are very concerned about Fairness. Why are the big businesses (read banks) being bailed out when their executives are not making many sacrifices or are slow to learn their lessons.

The Fairness issue, according to the writers, is especially troublesome in the housing bailout plan. Why are people, many of whom were irresponsible, being bailed out? What about the responsible people that made many sacrifices to stay current with their payments? In a carefully crafted letter, a writer asks - What about the renters (who stayed renters because they were fiscally responsible) who have seen their 401K melt down? Where is the bailout for them?

New York Times wrote an article on February 10,2009 - Battle Plans for Newspapers. The article described the severe challenges being faced by many newspapers as they struggle for survival. The article drew many responses. Here is the response by PublishaLetter.

All said and done, Newspapers deliver only two things to the readers – News and Opinions. The above article and comments only address the news portion. The salvation of the newspaper business could be the opinion segment. People may be willing to pay for a well written editorial or an opinion piece by a columnist (despite NYT’s failed experiment with paid opinions). The Opinions also need to be more participative – changing from I (the Editor) write, you (the reader) read to - I comment, you comment and perhaps eventually to - you comment, I comment. For example, the site, publishaletter.com is dedicated to the idea that most letters to the editor deserve to see the light of the day, rather than the handful, the editor deems printable. And finally, if the editorial pages are valuable real estates, why not run some ads in there?