Also, once you get published in a paper, you'll be more likely to get published in it again since you'll have an established relationship with the editor. If you are published in other papers, it may also improve your writing reputation, making you more likely to get published in your target publication. These smaller publications may have a smaller circulation, but they have less competition for space, so you are more likely to get published, letting you practice your craft before trying to get into the big papers. Before you start with a national paper, though, you may want to start writing letters to local community newspapers first. There are other papers out there with a similar readership and reputation as the WSJ (such as The New York Times), so you may want to attempt to get published there as well. While The Wall Street Journal is a particularly well-known and widely respected newspaper, if you want to get your point across, don't limit yourself to only the WSJ. Also, try to keep the sentences in your letter short and punchy so they are easier to follow, making your overall letter easier to read and therefore more likely to be published. Pay particular attention to your opening line, as this is what will draw in readers and make them decide to keep reading or move on to the next letter. While statistics can be useful in driving your point home, including too many can make your article feel too data heavy and hard to read, so use them sparingly. Be sure to mention the specific article or set of articles you are addressing in your letter, or it may seem like an op-ed. Try to be concise and express your point in as few words as possible because there is a lot of competition for a small amount of space in the paper, and the longer your letter, the more difficult it will be for the editor to find space for it.Īlso, write your letter as quickly as possible after reading the article that inspired it, as letters relating to particular articles are almost always published within a week of the original paper, and the paper will only publish a handful of letters related to an article even if they receive dozens of worthy responses to it. The Wall Street Journal editor contact email for Timothy Lemmer is for Writing a Letterīefore writing your own letter to the editor, become familiar with what makes a letter meet the WSJ's editorial standards by regularly reading other letters published in their letters to the editor section. They'll only use it to contact you prior to publication. Don't worry – they won't publish your phone number. Do not submit your letter as an attachment.įinally, include your day and evening phone numbers at the end of the letter along with your name since the WSJ, like many publications, will not publish a letter without first verifying that you wrote it. Start your email with a cover note that gives a brief summary of your letter followed by the letter itself in the body of the email. To submit a letter to the editor, address it to the letters editor, Timothy Lemmer of the WSJ. The letter must be exclusive to the WSJ, must be a response to an article in the Journal (or else it's considered an op-ed), must feature a strong argument about an issue, lack jargon or industry-specific terms so everyone can understand the content and must be between 400 and 1,000 words long. The Wall Street Journal letters to the editor and opinion editorial (op-ed) sections share similar rules for publication, which are posted on their website.