I receive frequent requests from those who submit letters and guest opinions to be more flexible with the word limitations. Letters are restricted to 250 words or less and guest opinions must be between 550-600 words.

Limited space is the main reason for the cap on such pieces. But I also get frequent requests from people who would prefer to write a guest opinion as opposed to a letter to the editor.

Again, the reason we limit guest opinions is a lack of space — there’s only so much room on a news page. But in so doing, we also have established a policy of when to approve a guest opinion and when a letter seems most appropriate.

Guest opinions are reserved for people representing a specific group or who might be considered experts on the topic about which they want to write.

For example, a school superintendent would be granted a guest opinion is he wanted to discuss school financing or problems or issues associated with his school system. He would be considered an expert because of his high position in the district.
Likewise, we might grant a guest opinion to a financial expert talking about retirement funds or a Congressman or state representative talking about a bill or pending legislation.
Along this line, we generally try to offer our elected officials, from those on the local level to those in state and federal government — a chance to discuss a bill or topic that may be in the news.
Also, we would grant a guest opinion to someone who is an officer in some group or organization or a representative of a group.
Again, because of space limitations, we can only run one guest opinion per month per writer. Also, when politicians are involved, we request that the piece be written solely about a brewing controversy or specific topic. We don’t want the guest opinion to turn into a political campaign piece.
Space is always the reason for any word limitations or for allowing people to write just letters and not guest opinions.
But amid the constant problem of no space, we do try to be fair. So, we try to be as flexible as possible within the perimeters of the Opinion Page.

I’m always open to suggestions — and we would try to institute any “reasonable” ones.

Please, let me know.