This is reasonable because many of the periodicals published reader submissions and some consisted only of those. The phenomena itself is worth study but it also makes it possible to address questions about the readership.
My recently begun PhD research will focus on Inrikes Tidningar, a state-run newspaper that published submissions from all around Sweden. Why did people want to read and write for Inrikes Tidningar? My hypothesis is that the newspaper was able to create a sense of community, using Benedict Andersson’s concept, an imagined community.