188: How to Write an Opinion Piece for a Newspaper

Are you itching to share your opinion on an issue facing your industry? Perhaps someone is taking you to task or you feel the local press is not giving you the press you deserve. Then it's time to write an op ed. The question is how? Welcome to the Indestructible PR Podcast, where we use current events and tested media PR strategies to help you manage a crisis and build an indestructible reputation. In this episode, I am speaking with an expert who helps clients draft and publish opinion pieces in local or national news outlets. Chad McLeod is the owner and principal of McLeod Communications. Chad and his firm are known for their ability to take complex issues and create simple messages that connect with people, specifically in the opinion area. With more than 15 years in the PR industry, Chad and his brother Joe have created a firm to help their clients locally in Florida, but really all over the country as well, land their opinions in a place that some people don't naturally think about going to the local press, the national press in the opinion section. So Chad and I spent some time talking about how to do that. He works with clients directly to help them land their pieces, but he also shares information for the do it yourselfers out there who who want to get their message across, particularly in a local paper. So if you want to learn how to write an op ed and land that op ed, we'll take a listen. Chad, welcome to the podcast to talk about a topic that I don't think many people talk about nowadays, Op eds.

Thank you, Molly. I'm excited to be here. I like to talk about op eds, so I may be one of the few who still talks about them a fair amount these days. And I'm more than happy to share with you and your listeners so some insights and things that I know and practice when it comes to op eds.

Fabulous. And that's the reason why I wanted to speak with you. Because working in the communication PR mix, I don't hear this as a tactic as much nowadays, as opposed to back in the day when I started in the 90s, early 2000s, when that seemed to be more top of mind with leaders and people kind of forget about it. But there are people like you who specialize in this very niche part of public relations and I still think think a very formidable one for managing a message or an issue. Wouldn't you agree?

Absolutely. And sometimes we will tell clients just in a discussion, maybe we haven't gotten to the point of picking a topic or deciding on an op ed as a tactic, but we will say don't Forget about op EDS in your strategy and planning and the issues that are important to you. We just had this discussion last week with a client, and as we heard the CEO of the company talking about some of the issues in their industry, and I looked over at Joe, who's my business partner, and my brother as well, and I said, I think this is an op ed. I just hear it. I hear this being formulated right now, and we can turn this into something that will really work and I think publications will be interested in.

Okay, so now, here we go. An op ed. Explain to me, when you explain it to your client, how do you describe an op ed? What is it?

Yeah, so assuming a client, most people, I think, have some familiarity with the editorial pages and you read opinion columns. And so that's basically it. An op ed is an opinion piece on a particular issue, and it's longer than in our field, the typical news release or something that's shorter. An op ed many times is about twice the length of a standard news release. So we're looking between 6 and 800 words. It has the ability to really get into more detail of an issue and to make a point and to take a position on something that is current. And that can be a range of things. It can be, if there's an issue that is in the national debate, if there's something that's in an industry that people are talking about, there are oftentimes opportunities for an organization to identify that and then to take a position and write a piece and offer a perspective that's a little bit different or that's unique, that maybe other people haven't published before, and then submit that to a publication, a media outlet, in hopes that they will run it, be interested and publish that now. So the op ed, the initial name, originally meant opposite the editorial page. A lot of times, people, well, we'll call it an opinion editorial piece, but the original meaning was opposite the editorial page. So you had the newspaper editorial writers who wrote their own column. And then on the opposite side was someone who's outside of the newspaper. It's a guest who's writing. And so that's where that term op ed came from. Now, the. And this may be more information than most people want, but several years ago, the New York Times said, we're doing away with the term op ed, and we're going to call it the guest essay, which is probably more appropriate for what it really is. You are a guest. You don't work for. For the publication. You're not a reporter or writer. For their editorial staff, but you are writing this column for their publication.

Okay, so since most people don't know that OP originated as opposite, is it still now considered an opinion piece from someone in the private sector?

It's very much still an opinion piece. And I think that's one of the main ingredients that we look for as op ed writers for clients is there has to be an opinion in there somewhere. So you take a position on an issue, and sometimes that opinion is stronger than others. But it's some things that an op ed is not. It's not your standard blog post. It's not a promotional piece. It's not something about a new product or service. It can be an opportunity to feature your organization in the work that you do, but in the context of a broader issue of the opinion that you're offering. And that's an important distinction because we've had clients come to us before who, when we've worked with them on op EDS in the past and say, I've got an idea, or sometimes I've even written something out, a first draft. We want to run this as another op ed. We want to do another one because we liked the first few that you did, and we're able to get those published. And we look at it and say, well, it may work in another format in another medium, but it's not fitting for an OP ed. If we pitch this to a media outlet, there's no way they're going to run it. And we don't want to put ourselves or you as the client in that position to send them something and they don't want it. And we really want, when we're going to an outlet with a draft op ed that they know, hey, it's coming from us, we've submitted other pieces before, and they will give it consideration even if they don't run it. And sometimes you'll run into a situation where maybe the outlet published something on that issue recently. And some publications have policies that they will not run something on the same issue, even if it's a different perspective for so many days. Or maybe it's from the same author. If you have a CEO who is published in a certain newspaper, we have found before that sometimes those outlets may not run that same author again for a certain amount of time. And so those are just some of the rules of the game that are important to know and that we can help clients kind of steer and find their way through that.

Now, chad, your firm, McLeod Communications in Florida, you happen to work in an area where there are never any issues. No one ever talks about Florida or things happening in Florida ever. But let's say, for instance, that something was bubbling up. I noticed at the time of this recording, Governor Ron DeSantis has a now picketing and protesting, you know, signing a bill into law. What if there is a client that wants to chime in on an issue like that? You working as a communication advisor, is there some type of initial vetting that happens first, where you determine what. What is the right topic to start writing an opinion piece?

Absolutely. What a great question, Molly. And thinking about a number of different issues that many times have connections to legislative efforts or legislation that's being discussed, debated actions by governor, presidential administration, different kind of political connections. And so for us, there's always that initial discussion of. And I think this kind of gets back to just the practice of pr. But what are your goals as an organization? What are your goals as a client? If you think you might want to chime in and want to be public, what are you hoping to achieve with that? What if we publish the opinion that we're hearing you voice and what you think you want to say, if that is published and then there's a lot of attention on it and people see that and share it, and your organization is now part of that discussion? What does that look like for you and your other messaging efforts? How does it support if you have a legislative strategy, lobbying efforts, can this be complementary? Sometimes we work in that as well. And in fact, I think some of the early OP eds that we did for a client were part of a legislative strategy just to try and really be part of the discussion, but hoping that opinion leaders and lawmakers and people who would be reading the opinion pages, editorial pages, would see the perspective of the client and why they felt a certain way about legislation. So I think oftentimes those go hand in hand. But then there are issues sometimes where maybe the stakes are high and you have to walk through, do you want to publish an op ed or is there another way that you want to engage on this issue that might be more effective?

Chad, have you ever told a client after they've written an op ed or they want to, that they shouldn't do it? It's not the right channel for them.

We have, and I think most of the time it's just been the wrong, as you said, channel. It's light on opinion, or there's not a strong perspective or a tie in to an issue to a current issue. And we will either say, can we rework this and let's make it stronger. Let's find an issue that would fit for your organization or let's just find another place where we can publish this. Is it somewhere on your website? Do you have an e newsletter? Do you want to do something that maybe it just goes to your customers, your audience that you already have versus trying to make this an op ed?

Let's go to the basics. Let's go right to the beginning.

Sure.

When someone decides that they want to do this, how do you start? How do you begin? What's the formula for creating the perfect op ed?

I wish I could say we have a toolkit that has an exact formula that we use every time. And I will say, so I mentioned my business partner who is Joe, my brother. So you've got two brothers here in Florida who are in the PR business and in a business together. And that's an interesting dynamic in and of itself. And we get along well most of the time. But like any business partners or siblings, we have times where there are disagreements. There are times where Joe will say, I think this makes a good op ed. And I will say, I don't think it does. And so we argue behind the scenes before we get to the client to say, okay, here's what we recommend. Now, having said that, he is very good at this. In fact, Joe in college just decided. He said, I think he was into reading newspapers and opinion pages. And he said, I think I'm going to try and publish an op ed. And so he picked a topic, and I believe the first one was the Palm Beach Post. He was in college down in West Palm beach, and it got picked up. And so that was his first entry into this world. And so over time he brought me into it and we have just developed it, but it may look a little different depending on where the client and organization is in the process. Is there an issue that exists that they're involved in, where there's a strong position and it just makes sense, or is it more of kind of. It's an idea, but it's loose and they haven't put a lot of details to it. We always sit down and get as much information about what they envision. And then we go back to the drawing board and really just try and frame out some of the major message points. That would be the, I would say, building blocks for that op ed to see. Is there enough here that we can write the kind of. The sweet spot is about 700 words. So I mentioned six to 800 we have submitted. So this is another interesting thing. Sometimes is we'll had a client who sent us a draft op ed. They had already written most of it, which we tell people like that's what you hire us for. We can get on a phone call and then come away and bring a draft back to you. But as you, I'm sure experience from time to time, clients may want to take the first stab at writing something and send it to you. And we had a client send us a draft that was about 1200 words. And so we said, well, there's a lot here, but we've got to really pare this down to under 800. But even that we have had outlets come back to us and we've submitted something that's 800 words and say if you can get this down to 725 for 700 words, then we'll run it. But, but it's getting a little bit long once you get over 750 words.

And so when they're publishing it nowadays, like when I see it in print, I think of the Sunday paper, I think of the editorial section where they will list all the opinion pieces there they land online. Correct. With your clients. So you'll see them in the paper edition and traditional. And then they'll live online, which is obviously even better for SEO and long term Internet visibility. Correct.

For sure. And there are some outlets that are digital only. And so whether that's Huffington Post or there's some outlets here in Florida, FloridaPolitics.com is one that is only online. But they will publish op EDS from time to time. And so there's some real value in those, even if there's not a traditional print copy that is delivered. But for most of the outlets, yes, there's still the opportunity to be published on both sides.

So Chad, what if someone does not have someone like you or your brother Joe around to help them draft an op ed? So if they're sitting down and they decide in their local community they're dealing with an issue, perhaps there might be an issue where they feel the press might be leaning towards the opposition on this, that they, they want to start framing their issue. And if they have to sit down, what type of formula are you going to give the DIY type of op ed? How are they writing it? What's the structure?

Yeah, that's a great question. And so I think there's several things to consider. And one would be just to distinguish between an op ed and a letter to the editor.

What's the difference?

And those depending on the paper, the publication will usually Provide a lot of detail on letters to the editor. Now, sometimes the op ed takes a little more digging or they may not even advertise what that criteria is. But for a letter to the editor, it's usually 200 words or less. It's a lot shorter. And there's an opportunity for a citizen, an engaged resident, just someone who has a perspective they want to offer. It's an easy win many times to be able to publish your point of view in the form of a letter to the editor, the op ed. And it doesn't have to be necessarily a CEO or the leader of an organization, but I do think it helps if there's credibility on the topic. Now, sometimes that varies. Maybe it's again, it can be a resident of a community. It can be someone who's connected to or has a personal impact or something they have experienced around this issue. It doesn't always have to be the leader of the company. In fact, we have done for clients, we have found somebody who's connected to their brand or had a positive experience in their program and written an op ed from their perspective. But I think someone just kind of diy, I'm going to sit down and write my own. And we have had this before where someone, maybe in our network, another PR practitioner has been tasked with publishing an op ed and they've never written one. And they said other boss wants them to do this, but they're not in a position to hire an outside firm. And so we always say just begin with the end in mind. What is it that when you've written your piece that you want readers to understand, to know, to walk away with? Try to be concise. I know it sounds 6 to 800 words may sound like a lot, but if you're really framing an issue and trying to give examples and sometimes statistics, it can, as I mentioned, the example of the client who came to us with over a thousand words, it can easily get away from you. So try to be concise. You do have a little bit more time with an op ed compared to a news release to get to the point. So sometimes you have a few paragraphs where you can set up the issue, the context, but you still need to get there to that issue. What is the main issue? What new information do you have to offer? That's something I always look for. Is there a new nugget of wisdom or some perspective that hasn't been shared? Or do you think people are missing that you want to draw out as part of your op ed piece? So be looking for that and then.

Chad, let me ask you this. Is there ever a reason why someone would write an opinion piece within a news release? Or should opinion just be kept to an op ed, to an opinion piece?

We could probably spend some time and gather our PR colleagues and debate that one. Should opinion be in a news release? I would lean toward no, you know, a news release. We're announcing news. It's more of a. We want the media who are receiving that to know it is news and not opinion. Now, sometimes that opinion kind of spills over into news release in the form of quotes and things like that. But I think that's our job as good PR practitioners to rein that in and manage that. But a true opinion, we want to give an opinion, a personal view on something belongs, I think, in that editorial section. That's really the format. That's why it is a little bit longer. A good tip that I give for people is pick a publication and read the editorials, read the op eds that are being published, and kind of get a sense for the style, the types of issues, the way that they're written. Because it is different. The style is different than that hard news, inverted pyramid news release format. That doesn't apply necessarily to the op ed. And different writers may sound a little bit differently, and that's okay. But that helps just to read that type of the format and get a feel for it.

What do you think? And here's gonna be my last question before we wrap up. Is there some hook or some trick or tip that you notice that works for publication? Is there something that is embedded in an opinion piece that you know, oh, they're gonna run?

Always helps. If it is a current topic that people in your community, your media market, the state, the nation, are talking about right now, and if your organization has a connection to that, if you have a perspective that makes it timely and it makes it relevant, doesn't guarantee publication. But that's a good starting point, because if you pick an issue that no one's talking about, it's not impossible. But I think the threshold is a little bit higher to try and get the attention of an editor. Now, it still may be a very important issue, and you can make that case and get there. But I do think that having an issue that is current, that's part of the debate. Again, depending on which outlet you're trying to pitch, whether it's a regional issue, statewide or national, or even international. And I think having personal stories and connections, and I say connections, it's connection to the issue, but offering that perspective of what you have seen, what you have experienced, and can harness that as a storyteller in the op ed format, that makes it really powerful. And so if you've got something that, okay, we've got the issue, then we know that's going to be appealing to the editors. And we've also got the way we've told the story and its impact and its personal, the experience of the author. That's a powerful recipe. And so for us, when we have all of that, it's rare that we can't get it published somewhere. In fact, we really as a firm pride ourselves on that and being successful. And that's because we try to have a high standard for what we will pitch and the types of OP eds that we will actually go to the media and pitch those. And not just anything that's coming our way or maybe the client's initial idea of what they think would be a good op ed.

So, Chad, at the end of every podcast, I like to leave an indestructible tip. And that's one of those easy leave behind tips. If there's one thing that someone can remember about this topic that might really let that op ed piece shine or something that you think is just truly beneficial to their reputation or the reputation of the organization, what would that be? What do you always tell your clients that one tip.

I love that question and I should remember that because I've listened to a couple of your episodes, but I should have known that was coming at the end.

You should have known and had I prepared it because I realized in the questions I did not give you the. So you are on the spot, Chad.

Yeah, and I've shared a couple of tips. One thing that I think I would tell people, if you're considering an OP ed and you're speaking out, offering an opinion, oftentimes there is another side. There is another perspective. There's another issue. Do your best to address the criticisms and some of the concerns as objectively as you can. And that for an organization, sometimes coming into it, they're so passionate about why this position is right or this legislation is good or it's bad. And here's what we've seen and, and I think it strengthens your argument and your op ed if you stop and within that now, you don't have a ton of time. But if you can address. We understand some people, here's why they believe this or feel this way. But let us tell you the other side or our experience, I just, I think that is strong and it's powerful and it can be easily left out if you don't intentionally stop and say, well, why are other people would be opposed to our position or are they saying something else? Address that and take that on. Make that that part of the opinion piece.

Chad, I love that answer. Always think about what is the other side, of course, because it draws people in and it shows that you are acknowledging what it is. You're thinking objectively on it, and people will keep reading. It's not just the rantings of a crazy person. It's someone who's truly thought about both sides of the issue and why their issue may be more pertinent. Oh, that's fabulous. All right. Well, chad from from McLeod Communications, you and your brother Joe are really putting together quite the media empire there, you know, helping a lot of clients, especially in Florida with Florida politics.

No issues at all here, as you said.

None, none, none.

No.

Hey, just a quick aside. Have you worked with any clients who had to write an opinion piece about Disney?

We have not. No, we haven't. And we. No, we haven't. Doesn't mean that that will never come our way. But so far we haven't.

Okay. Yeah. Because, gosh, there is so much going. No wonder your business is doing so well.

Right, right, right. No shortage of issues or the need for public relations, as we say these days. So, yeah.

Yeah. Well, thank goodness for both of us. All right, well, Chad, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. I know this was incredibly helpful to a lot of people. Where would be the best place that people can find you?

Thank you, Molly. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate the opportunity and it's just great to talk about this more. You can find me@mcleodcommunications.com I always like to emphasize McLeod is MC. So that's mcleodcommunications.com that's the hub of our business and our podcast is there and contact information and all of that. And would love to have your listeners connect down the road.

Absolutely. I'd highly recommend that they listen to your podcast on message as well. All right, Chad, it was great speaking with you. I learned a lot, so I appreciate you taking the time.

Thank you, Molly. It's great being here.

My thanks to Chad McLeod from McLeod Communications for joining me on the podcast. You can find more information about Chad in the show notes. And also, don't forget to listen to his podcast on message. It can be found anywhere you listen to your podcast, like where you're listening now. That's all for this week. Bye for now.