Letters From The Editor: Columns to change days

The Daily Pilot is home to opinion pieces that are often vibrant, thought-provoking and touching.

The Forum page, and its antecedents, is where our coastal community has debated issues of the day for more than a century.

One of the main reasons these pages are so worthwhile is our wonderful line-up of news columnists — a group of folks who live in the twin cities and write what they see from the left, right and center.

But we also get plenty of letters to the editor and reader commentaries. I try to publish most of them, even if all we can fit are a couple of sentences.

Everyone at the newspaper agrees that reader feedback is among the most important information we publish. Reader letters keep newsmakers — and the newspaper — honest.

A signed letter still carries more weight than anonymous Internet comments, and it’s a tradition I want to make a little more room for on weekends — the days when our readers can spend a little more time with the paper. I’d also like readers to enjoy our columnists more days of the week; right now we publish three news columnists on Sundays, but none on Thursdays.

So we’re going to stagger our five news opinion writers throughout the week and try to find a little more space for letters. This will give us one news columnist per day of publication.

Here’s the new lineup:

•Patrice Apodaca will remain on Sundays.

•Jim Carnett will remain on Wednesdays.

•June Casagrande will go from Saturdays to Thursdays.

•Jeffrey Harlan will go from every other Sunday to every other Friday.

•Jim Gray will go from Sundays to Saturdays.

We’re also bringing back Candice Baker, who previously wrote O.C. Bargainista, to do a new shopping column for the Friday Life & Arts section.

Our wonderful society writer, B.W. Cook, will continue on Fridays, as will our boating aces Len Bose and Mike Whitehead. Jim de Boom will keep telling us about the service clubs every other Wednesday.

Our On Faith columns by a group of religious leaders will continue to publish Saturdays.

But what you think is paramount.

So keep sending your opinions to dailypilot@latimes.com and put “letter to the editor” or “commentary” in the subject line. Your voices are every bit as important as ours.

JOHN CANALIS is the editor for the Daily Pilot, Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot and Huntington Beach Independent. He can be reached at (714) 966-4607 and john.canalis@latimes.com.