Media coverage is important to most of our clients. And it makes sense, considering a well-placed article is one of the fastest vehicles for drawing attention to—and shaping public discourse about—an issue. There are many approaches to generating coverage but if you have a specific issue you’re raising awareness about, a targeted op-ed placement is an excellent option for elevating your issue and generating broader support.
Short for “opposite the editorial page,” an op-ed is a written prose piece that expresses the opinion of an author not affiliated with the publication’s editorial board. It requires the author to write and pitch a fully written opinion piece to a relevant news outlet.
Below, we break down the why, when and how to write an op-ed with examples of placements we’ve landed for our clients in the past.
WHY
While an op-ed placement may require a little more upfront effort and may not be the brand feature you were initially envisioning for your organization, there are two key benefits to writing and placing an op-ed rather than securing a traditional news story by a reporter:
- You get to control the narrative and express your opinion about a certain issue in your own words; there’s no room for misinterpretation
- Publishing an op-ed positions you as an authority and resource on a topic and indicates to readers that your issue is important and timely
WHEN & WHERE
Timing is critical. Newspapers are most likely to publish op-eds about topics that are already happening in the news or are on the horizon (i.e., election season or holidays). To maximize your chance of placement, create a hook that provides a fresh perspective on an issue readers are familiar with or use an existing trend to make parallels to your issue and its impact.
Before writing your piece, identify 2-3 target outlets that you can tailor your piece around. Everyone wants the New York Times, but regional newspapers have loyal readers who trust their local paper—if your issue is geography-specific, it can even lead to greater action from the community too.
HOW
CURA has helped clients successfully place dozens of op-eds in national, regional and trade publications. If you’re thinking about writing an op-ed, here are our three tips to help get you started:
- State a single opinion and do it well. Use your personal, active voice to express your opinion. Do so in the opening paragraph and have a clear call to action by the end.
- Answer the question, “Why should readers [at this publication] care?” It’s best if you have a newspaper in mind to help answer this question. Bonus: We love regional placements for advocacy issues because regional newspapers have a loyal readership that’s ready to respond.
- Address the counter argument(s). To be a resource on the topic, you must acknowledge differing viewpoints. This gives you an opportunity to clarify and strengthen your argument as well.
EXAMPLES
From policy to consumer science, we’ve placed op-eds in a wide variety of publications to reach our clients’ target audiences. Here are just a few examples:
Psychedelics may ease cancer patients’ depression, anxiety
I was Kaiser Permanente’s infection prevention director. I sanitize my nose and you should too.
To lower drug costs, define ‘cost’ to mean net cost after rebates
Mental health crisis: We must speak with one powerful voice in 2020
