We’re back at work and have begun 2012 with a lead story that I think will get a lot of the island talking.
Examiner readers now know that Dixons Retail plc (owner of Currys and PC World) is sniffing around a site in Douglas.
We exclusively reveal the details on page 1.
After the Examiner goes to press, we usually plan the week ahead in the Independent and the Courier, which is what I did at lunchtime with the news editor, production editor, sports editor, deputy news editor and Lottie Ray, who edits What Where When, the Independent’s features section.
Things are beginning to get back to normal after Christmas and the New Year.
However, usually at this time of year, our postbag is light.
But today I was pleased to see that we have a lot of letters for this week’s Independent. It’s mainly down to a letter written in last week’s newspaper by a John Craine, from Buck’s Road, Douglas.
He wrote to say he didn’t believe that the Manx government should spend any money helping the flood victims in the Philippines.
Some of his comments were not very pleasant. And I have to admit I had qualms about publishing.
However, we have to uphold the right to free speech and like to be the forum for opinion in the Isle of Man.
At the end of Mr Craine’s letter we put an appeal asking for anyone with an alternative point of view to write in.
We’ve had six letters since about that subject alone. So it’s something that’s interested a lot of our readers.
Our letters pages are still, by far, the best way to get your point across to the Manx public.
While we love to read comments at the bottom of our stories, they are read by a lot fewer people than our letters.
And our letters pages are read by far more people than those who happen to be listening to the wireless during the lunchtime phone-in shows.
Our market research shows the letters pages are among the most popular parts of the papers.
So if you’ve got something you want to get off your chest, drop us a line.