Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! Evan Signature
Evan Carmichael Top Header
Share for a Cause









Turn Your Opinion Into New Biz: How to Get Your Op-Ed Published

Written by: Pam Lontos

Article Overview: In business, companies are constantly looking for new ways to stand out over their competition, but don't always know how to. Most turn to marketing and advertising tactics, but the truth is, publicity could be even more effective. Publicity can come in many forms, but writing and getting an op-ed published gives businesses the opportunity to share their opinion, bring awareness to an issue or comment on a controversial topic, all while getting their name published and read by the masses. The editorial page is considered the most prestigious real estate in the newspaper, but how can you appear there?

Free Download - The Fifteen Most Common Publicity Mistakes Businesses Make By Pam Lontos
Name: Email:

Turn Your Opinion Into New Biz: How to Get Your Op-Ed Published

While there are many ways to appear in the media, writing an op-ed piece is an excellent way to make yourself known and establish yourself as an authority with the public. Like letters to the editor, op-ed pieces should put forth a point of view – but the op-ed piece is longer than a letter and generally gets better play.
Op-ed stands for “opposite editorial,” referring to the page facing the editorial page – the page on which the newspaper publishes its own institutional statement of opinion.
When it comes to choosing an op-ed topic, the more controversial the better. An op-ed piece isn’t a research treatise or a summary of information. Rather, it’s an argument, a strong statement of position, and the promotion of a point of view. And you will develop your argument in a short 500 to 700 words.
The opinion pages are considered the most prestigious real estate in the newspaper, so you must ask yourself, “Why should the reader care?” As with a news release or a story pitch, the reason your topic is important right now should be made crystal clear. The first few sentences must enlighten the reader as to why your topic is relevant and pressing.
For instance, here are some op-ed headlines from some of the nation’s leading newspapers:

“Health Care Can’t Wait” – Washington Post.

“Relief When Imus Returns” – Providence Journal.

“Why Women Need Katie Couric to Succeed” – Chicago Sun Times.

“The Phantom Tax Cuts” – Palm Beach Post.

Academicians, scientists and researchers have a tendency to save their juiciest conclusions for the end of the piece (mostly because that is the structure expected in an article submitted to peer-reviewed journals). The structure of the op-ed piece is the complete opposite. The conclusion or most compelling fact must come first. Well-crafted arguments should follow, making a clear case and concluding with a call to action.
Before attempting to write an op-ed piece, read several of them in local and national newspapers to gain a feel for how they are done. At large organizations, it’s not unusual for the op-ed piece to be ghostwritten by a staff member or freelancer, then submitted to the newspaper under the byline of the CEO (or other relevant expert). If you don’t have the time to pen your own op-ed piece, you should be able to easily find someone in your local public relations community who can be hired to draft the piece for you.
Your op-ed piece will hit home with editors if you can combine a gutsy, passionate approach with logical analysis of a situation. As with any other form of writing submitted to the news media, language must be clear, punchy and direct. Editors will read for clarity. They will screen out any piece that lacks appeal to the average reader. They are looking for plain English, an argument stated simply, complete with concrete imagery that helps the reader comprehend.
A brief bio-note outlining your credentials should be added to the end of the piece to save the opinion editor from the work of tracking that information down. Editors are often likely to be most receptive to pieces written by someone within the local community, so be sure to submit to your hometown newspaper as well as to all the newspapers in your state.
However, don't limit yourself to simply a local or state marketplace for your ideas. True, some large newspapers will demand that you submit to them exclusively. (You can ask the editor’s preference when you submit your piece.) But many opinion-page editors understand that op-ed pieces are distributed to newspapers throughout the country.
If you have expertise on a particular topic or have written a book on the subject, be sure to mention it. Experts have an edge on the op-ed page. For instance, the opinion editor of the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia was happy to receive a piece on the dangers of secondhand smoke written by the dean of the nursing school and the director of the cancer center at West Virginia University.
Both the dean and the cancer center chief, a medical doctor, were able to write authoritatively – and not only because they knew about the latest research on secondhand smoke. They also had personally seen patients who suffered from cancer and other lung diseases as a result of secondhand-smoke exposure. This gave them credibility with readers and also made their piece attractive to the paper's opinion-page editor.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when crafting an op-ed piece:

Be provocative, original, timely. Try to say something current. For example, tie your subject into a natural disaster or social trend or the consumer news of the day.

Give examples. Use facts and statistics. Explain why you have come to the conclusions you are drawing.

Write about ideas you feel strongly, even passionately about. Tie your argument into your own experiences. The most effective op-ed pieces have arguments based on values and emotions, not simply dry reasoning. While the op-ed pieces take a more complex approach to a subject than a letter to the editor does, the ordinary reader still needs to be able to relate to the piece.

Keep these ideas in mind and you will have no problem developing op-ed pieces editors will value and publish.

Related Articles
  Dear Richard (Posner), Love Richard (Thaler)
  "True Green @ Work"
  In My Opinion
  Defamation and the risk with online forums
  How to write an article that will get published

Home > Public-Relations > Pam Lontos > Turn Your Opinion Into New Biz How to Get Your OpEd Published
Article Tags: academicians, chicago sun times, clear case, conclusions, ed piece, ed pieces, katie couric, letters to the editor, news release, opinion pages, palm beach, palm beach post, pitch, point of view, providence journal, sentences, statement of position, tendency, treatise, washington post

About the Author: Pam Lontos
RSS for Pam's articles - Visit Pam's website

Pam Lontos is president of PR/PR, a public relations firm based in Orlando, Fla. She is author of "I See Your Name Everywhere" and is a former vice president of sales for Disney's Shamrock Broadcasting. PR/PR has placed clients in publications such as USA Today, Entrepreneur, Time, Reader's Digest and Cosmopolitan. PR/PR works with established businesses, as well as entrepreneurs who are just launching their company. For a free publicity consultation, e-mail Pam@prpr.net or call 407-299-6128. To receive free publicity tips, go to www.PRPR.net and register for the monthly e-newsletter, PR/PR Pulse!

Click here to visit Pam's website
Dashed Line

More from Pam Lontos
Seven Public Relations Secrets that Get Your Business Noticed
Famous From One Hit Dont Hold Your Breath
Turn Your Opinion Into New Biz How to Get Your OpEd Published
The Fifteen Most Common Publicity Mistakes Businesses Make
Does Your Press Release Suck 7 Ways to Keep Your Release Out of the Trash Can


Related Forum Posts
Re: Ways to Boost Productivity Re: Ways to Boost Productivity - 1. Give Employees More Than a Paycheck 2. Provide Better eSupport Channels to Promote Self-Service 3. Complete your most dreaded tasks first thing in the morning. 4. Outsource as much as possible 5. . Turn off the TV.
On Escalade On Escalade - I've seen the ad for "Turn you on" on TV here in Toronto but not the others. Yeah my girlfriend liked that ad too and started telling me wouldn't it be great to have one, I had to quickly remind her that one of the reasons we moved downtown was so that we could get rid of the car and plus we don't have a parking space for it. Honestly, I was seriously considering it.
Re: Getting *back* to the next step Re: Getting *back* to the next step - I think small things can make a big difference. Cut corners when ever possible. To the point that you don't lose any business. For example: start using cheaper products around the office. You'd be surprised how much money you can save just by going to a less expensive brand for the same items. Start soliciting referrals. People are happy to give you a good one if you've done a good job. You just have to ASK. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising and it's the least expensive = free! Turn off lights and computers and even pull plugs on appliances on the weekends, or even every night if you have time and aren't using them. This saves a lot of energy in the long run and you should be conserving energy anyway. Dare I say this......shake the printer ink and make it go another 50 copies. Over a year you can save quite a bit in ink costs. There are other cuts you can make that won't impact the quality of your service/product if you sit down and really think it over, but this is a start.
Useful Business Cards Useful Business Cards - At one point in my business I branched out into many other avenues and had multiple divsions within the main company. I was in a rush to get the word out, so I ordered business cards for each division. Several months later I brought in a marketing director and manager to help out and the first thing she did was to redesign my cards. I still use the cards she created. They have business name, my name, contact info, website, tag line and license and insurance info on the front. Turn the card over and there's a list of the services we offer. A couple of the advantages she pointed out to me were - 1 - I only had to keep up with and hand out one card - 2 - multiple services listed on one card gives the opportunity for clients to have us do additional work. Our yellow page ads use a similar plan and have helped us do repeat work and additional work for many clients. Chris
Green Gardener Goals Green Gardener Goals - - Grow Revenues in 2007 towards seven figures or set stage for 2008 - Turn a Profit in 2007 - Develop online marketing capacity in ecological interms of web traffic (not sure about metrics) - generate 1000 sales leads via online, print, personal contacts events - Christmas ecological product lines - Have an email newsletter of between 1500-2000 recipients - generate $50,000 in online sales of plants, seeds, gardening accesories and Ecological Gifts in 2007 - develop community based marketing program based on lessons learned in pilot - systematize sales, admin, operations and Real Time Enterprise Capacity - feel good enough about 2007 to go on vacation in Jan 08 - buy land in country


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.



Featured Article


Bottom Footer
Share for a Cause












Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Name:
Email:
Popular Articles

Civility in the Workplace---Is it Decreasing?

Selling What Sizzles vs. Delivering Real Value

Smart & Simple Internet Techniques

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.