NOT Calling time on writing letters
I’m pleased to note that the below was generally met with indifference. However it was posted just after midnight on April 1st and there is a tradition involved with that….
So in fact I have no immediate plans to give up Flettering. That said the trends I outline below do exist. The countervailing point is that the published letter still has value. It can be discovered and recovered for future reference in a way that many other ‘for the moment’ comments cant or wont be. Whether this will continue to be the case does very much depend on the continuation of the print format, even if it does become more of a niche than a mass medium.
According to my (not particularly accurate) Wiki entry I’m a ‘prolific letter writer to the British press’.
That bit at least is true. I write less these days but I haven’t stopped, despite occasional suggestions that I have.
I started in the mid-1980s writing to the Guardian (which I still do)with the expressed aim of trying to provide some historical perspectives to a media that seemed even then to be obsessed with out of context for the moment reports.
The letters don’t and never have covered just that though. Beer, beards, cricket, cheese and of course socialist politics all feature.
Now however I’ve decided after 35 years or so to call it a day.
While I still see the value of the edited (in effect moderated) letters page compared to social media and below the line commentary, the sad reality is that the audience for letters to the editor has diminished over the years. So too have the publications that one can write to, as many either go on-line only or close altogether.
What’s Brewing, the monthly paper of the Campaign for Real Ale, has just published its last print edition. I used to write letters regularly, but no more. Beer discussion has moved almost entirely on-line some time since.
I comment on Twitter and Facebook and run a blog. All excite considerable comment on occasion. I’m afraid published fletters mostly pass by more or less un-noticed by comparison. Those that ask me, for example, if I’ve stopped writing to the Guardian I suspect mostly don’t read the print edition anymore (nor do I) where the letters are prominent in the comment section. The letters appear in the various Guardian digital versions (which I subscribe to) but you have to search them out.
If you do actually want to read what I’m saying a good point of entry is on twitter @kmflett. If you don’t you wont come across me inadvertently as you’re flicking through a paper or magazine anymore
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