The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Storytelling V: “The Op-Ed Done Right”

By Chris Terry

Vice President, Communications Strategy

Telemetry

Like “The Stunt,” the fifth habit of my “Seven Habits of Highly Effective Storytelling” is a time-honored habit of good practice, but has fallen out of favor with many practitioners: developing, pitching and successfully placing an opinion piece, better known as the op-ed.

Today, the bar is high and the challenges are increasing, especially as Google’s AI summaries wreak havoc on media web traffic. That said, serious outlets still run op-eds. The more serious the outlet, the more serious and timely your message and delivery need to be; the op-ed page is the marketplace of ideas, not products or services.

“So what can I do to improve my chances of having our op-ed selected to be published by reputable outlets?”  

Good luck favors the well-prepared; start with two editorial imperatives: 

Be Timely, Be Topical: I’ve noted the need to be “timely. " The corollary is being contemporarily topical. The odds that you’ll break news are low, so your subject, argument and conclusion must rhetorically seize bigger trends and players in order to be selected.

Bring Enlightenment to Wear-Worn Topics:  The erudite minds of the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute Director Dr. Henry Liu and Mcity Managing Director Greg McGuire have a special knack for pointing out the undiscovered obvious regarding autonomous vehicle technology and public policy.  They point out the sheer insanity of having unlicensed AV “drivers” legally driving on public roads.  Why should every 16-year-old have to pass a driver’s test, but autonomous vehicles don’t?  Why has no one thought to ask State and Federal lawmakers and regulators the question?  With legislative and regulatory audiences in mind, we targeted The Hill, which recently ran Mcity’s op-ed on this issue.

And what if you just strike out? Your piece may be diluted by editorial-by-committee; resist the urge to insert all of your key messages into the piece. If your subject matter expert(s) can be timely and topical and bring enlightenment to familiar topics, your fallback can always be pitching an interview to the right reporter at the right time. It helps if your agency partners are boundlessly enthusiastic and relentless.  Contact us, we'd love to help.

You just might get lucky. 

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