It’s no secret that traditional newspapers have been a dying medium for a long time. The community newspaper that was the staple of watercooler gossip and kitchen table conversation for generations have become a rare institution in favor of conglomerated newspaper organizations like Gannett, News Corp., and Shaw. As a result, many believe the oped has fallen out of vogue, hidden behind substantial subscription paywalls and buried on websites that readers aren’t voraciously consuming as they did with the newspaper 30 years ago.
The reality is the opinion piece has changed. Validation is no longer only earned by the publication that chooses to run your piece, but also by the engagement your engagement can drive. We live in a time of access, engagement, and reach – where a unique enough opinion recounted in an engaging way posted at the right time to the right platform can reach millions in a matter of hours. One person’s ability to amplify the content of another – and the execution of that amplification plan – are crucial to the success of both placement and proliferation of your opinion piece.
When planning out an opinion piece, start with a couple key frames of mind:
- What makes your opinion different, and thus, interesting?
- Why are you the person that others should be listening to on this subject?
- Who is the audience you’re trying to influence with this opinion? No, it can’t be “everyone”
At K2, the next step is identifying the voice and style with which we are approaching the issue. Considerations include:
- What is the voice of the author? A conversation about the somber reflections of Memorial Day from the perspective of a combat veteran will vary greatly from a piece about the ridiculousness of bureaucratic red tape from a community activist.
- What is the style of the publication? I have written things that have been published in papers big and small across the country, from the Chicago Tribune to the Des Moines Register to the Grant County Herald Independent and getting a piece placed requires careful attention to the issues each paper cares about and a willingness to meet them in the middle – find out what they are LOOKING for and make your thought process fit
- Who can help us expand our reach? Along with the publication itself, what supporters are available to us to boost our reach and enter as many new social networks as we can? How can we be ready to deploy them?
The op-ed isn’t dead, it’s just changing. Placement of a piece used to be the end of the line. It went where it went once the publication took it and printed it. Now, that link is just the beginning. Finding the right place and time to post, engage, and promote each piece opens a whole new world of potential readers that simply weren’t there before.
-Justin Giorgio, Vice President of Strategic Communications