I must say the initial response to my decision to begin imposing a 250-word limit on letters to the editor this week has been pretty reasonable.

Other than the two comments at the end of the original blog item, “Readers say tighten up on those verbose letters,” I’ve heard from a handful of people informally.

First, I was contacted by a member of our Reader Advisory Network on Sunday night who complained he couldn’t get his comments through our e-mail filter. He later changed the word in question – no, I don’t know what it is – and posted his comments to the blog.

Then, Nashua Alderman-at-Large Fred Teeboom pointed out how difficult it was to trim what ordinarily would have been a 400-word letter down to the new 250-word limit.

“I took you at your newly-directed 250-word challenge,” he wrote early Sunday evening. “After considerable re-writing and more re-writing and then more editing, I managed to get the attached letter down to exactly 250 words, while maintaining my central theme.”

Sheesh, talk about taking me literally. Fred’s letter, “Overriding cap wrong for tax reimbursements,” was published today.

On Monday, I heard from Ed Graves, of Nashua, an occasional letter writer, who suggested giving writers of well-written longer letters a second chance rather than rejecting them outright.

Ed also pointed out that it could be a challenge to rebut a much-longer guest commentary if limited to 250 words before closing with this: “Thank you and I appreciate the indulgence of letting me exceed the desired letter length in the past!”

You’re welcome, Ed.

State Rep. Jordan Ulery, R-Hudson, weighed in with what he labeled a “concern, not a complaint.”

“While I do understand the need to limit letters, the issues are so widespread, so deep, that the limit regional papers are imposing does not, in my opinion, serve the public well,” he wrote in an e-mail to me.

“A 300, 250 or 200 word limit reduces profound topics to mere sound bites. That is not fair to the reader, the writer or the topic. There are valid arguments on both sides of an issue that can and should be made public. Then again, being forced to be concise has its advantages.”

Finally, we received our first letter to the editor in response to my Sunday piece earlier today from Janet Ebsen, of Nashua; it’s scheduled to run in Wednesday’s paper, so check it out there or online tomorrow morning.

Several months ago – yikes! – I wrote a column titled “Do you think our letters are too long?” to seek your advice on, well, whether our letters to the editor are too long.
And as is usually the case, you weren’t bashful about offering your two-cents’ worth – and rest assured that your feedback was [...]

Like most of you, I’m sure, I’ve spent many of my 50-something years observing the Memorial Day holiday by standing along sidewalks at parades, attending solemn ceremonies or hosting family cookouts and the like.
Sometimes, the decision to show up and pay tribute was out of a sense of doing the right thing; other times, the [...]

It’s springtime in New England, and things are starting to bloom – crocuses, daffodils, tulips and other native flowers to the region.
But flowers aren’t the only things that seem to be “growing” around here this time of year.
So are our letters to the editor. (No fertilizer jokes, please.) That is, they seem to be getting [...]

Please play along with me for a moment while I try to make a point.
You’ve just walked into a company meeting, none of your closest colleagues are there yet, and you have the option of joining one of three ongoing group conversations:
A) What happened on the latest episode of “American Idol.”
B) Which colleges are going [...]

One of the things newspapers are doing much better today than when I first got into this business three decades ago is engaging readers in a conversation about what they do – or, for that matter, don’t do.
Much of the reason for that is technological, of course – there was no Internet, e-mail, instant messaging, [...]

I’ll be the first to admit there’s nothing quite like a presidential election year in New Hampshire, one of the benefits that comes with living and working here in the first-in-the-nation primary state.
Coordinating coverage for the 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004 New Hampshire primaries during my previous life here at The Telegraph ranks among the [...]

As I prepare for the start of my post-Christmas vacation – or what my wife prefers to call “working from home” – I thought this would be a good time to reflect back on 2008, my first full year as The Telegraph’s editorial page editor.
But before doing so, I wanted to express my sincere gratitude [...]

Who says editorial writers are just a few steps behind the dodo bird on their way to extinction?
(Note to self: Bad idea to use “dodo” and “editorial writers” in the same sentence.)
For most journalists – and editorial writers in particular – there is nothing worse than being irrelevant. You know the old saying: “Love me [...]

Now that Election Day has come and gone, I thought it would be a good time to share your responses to a couple of questions I posed before voting day.
As you may recall, I expressed some naïve bewilderment over the number of cancellations we received as a result of endorsing a candidate prior to the [...]