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Interactive letters page may double in size

The Newcastle Evening Chronicle may be forced to expand its letters section due to public demand.

Assistant Editor, Jane Pikett, told HoldTheFrontPage that the number of letters received is growing week by week.

She said: “The letters page just seems to grow and grow. At the moment it is just on one page but we’re thinking of making it a two-page spread because of all the mail we’ve been getting.”

Jane believes one of the best features of the letters page is the ‘Searchline’ section, where members of the public can put out an appeal for people to find long-lost friends and relatives.

Jane said: “People don’t realise how effective a way of contacting people this is. Most of the letters that get placed result in contact being made.”

And Jane should know. Earlier this year she sent a letter to the Sheffield Star trying to trace an old friend from 34 years ago.

She explained: “My husband reckoned it would never work, but the success of our own Friday ‘Searchline’ had convinced me that newspaper appeals rarely fail.”

Jane’s theory was proved a few weeks later when her friend got in touch.

She said: “It only takes one person to see it and they can make the person who is being looked for aware of the appeal.”

The Friday ‘Searchline’ is now getting an average of 20 letters every week. There are plans to make it a twice-weekly feature to fit all the appeals in.

Another popular section in the letters page is ‘Your Questions Answered’. Inspired by the ‘Notes and Queries’ column in The Guardian, this feature allows readers to ask questions they have always wanted to know the answer to and then other readers can write in to give the answer.

Jane said: “‘Searchline’ and ‘YQA’ were brought in to try and make the letters page more interactive and they seem to have captured our readers imaginations.

“Newspapers have various methods of researching whether their readers enjoy certain parts of the paper but the letters page does its own research.”

Jane was quick to pay tribute to the dedicated team behind the success of the letters page.

She said: “Emma Walker, our Features Editor, should be proud of herself and her colleagues. It’s their commitment and dedication which has made the letters page so popular.”

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