The Book on Marketing: Column Writing.

Column Writing.

A consistent column, whether it be in a newspaper, magazine, ezine, or offline newsletter, is a terrific method to position yourself as an authority in your industry. To support your sales letters and marketing materials, you can also distribute copies to your clients and prospects.

How does one describe a column? A column is news even though it is not a news item. In general, it provides explanations for why and how. When employing the first and second person, it is frequently personal (I and you). A column frequently expresses a viewpoint. According to others, it resembles writing an open letter. A column also features a typical head at the top called a by-line (name) and a title. They let the reader recognize you and your column.

Op-ed pages, often known as the opinion and editorial sections of newspapers, continue to be one of the most distinctive and well-read aspects of the print medium. The opinions presented in letters to the editor and by guest columnists have the power to affect the community and capture readers' attention. 

Writing a column or letter to the editor for your local newspaper is a great way to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry, a committed member of your community, and a vehicle for spreading the word about your company.

Choose a subject. There is undoubtedly no shortage of news—global, domestic, and local—to discuss, and doing so can make you the center of attention in the neighborhood. A businessperson like you may be uniquely positioned to shed some light on local events, such as an increase in parking meter rates, an increase in local business taxes, or a proposed noise ordinance. Topics may range from broad, all-encompassing issues like the current financial crisis and shifting political winds (with you giving a local perspective and sharing your own unique point of view) to local events.

Share a personal story. After stating the topic, go into detail, using examples from your own life, as to why you are particularly suited to make a statement. Explain how the lack of parking spaces has affected your business and others as the neighborhood has grown and why the construction of a contentious municipal parking garage makes sense for the neighborhood, for instance, if the topic is the lack of parking spaces in the area where your business is located (e.g., it will revitalize businesses in the area and generate more tax revenue).

Establish a relationship. Consult your local paper to find the editor in charge of the op-ed section once you've finished editing your column or letter and had a trusted second party with excellent grammar skills (such as a spouse or coworker) read it and offer their feedback. This can be done as easily as making a phone call to the newspaper's headquarters or visiting its website. It is usually better to contact editors via email as they are sometimes swamped with phone calls. Introduce yourself, briefly explain why you are writing the letter or column, and provide the submission as a Microsoft Word attachment in that communication. Since editors frequently want to confirm information, be sure to provide your contact information in the email.

Make it your own. Even as you express your distinct corporate perspective, don't forget to emphasize your connection to the community. Be sure to mention your high school graduation or the fact that your kids attend a particular grammar school if the discussion is about the public schools in your community. Promote the fact that you have owned a local business for X amount of years while mentioning the name of your company. (You should sign the letter or column with your full name, job title, and company name.)

Start strong. Come off strong by stating your perspective and why you are well-positioned to enlighten your neighbors, coworkers, and clients/customers on the subject. In the constant barrage of information hitting the public, it's critical to make your point clearly and attract readers' attention. They might decide not to read further if you don't.

Position yourself—carefully. Writing an opinion post is all about expressing your point of view, which is what you are doing here. It is one thing to express your view about a proposed law that would affect your company as well as others' and to associate your name with that opinion. But stay clear from very divisive topics (like some political ones, for instance), as doing so could harm your reputation, business, and connections with others in the neighborhood. This is where controversy works in limited amounts. Take a controversial stance on something, but not too controversial. 

Writing a column. 

Consider and choose the column's aim, audience, substance, and organization before you start writing. Why do you write? Is it to let the neighborhood know about a gathering? Does the editor of the publication, the neighborhood, or coworkers want it? Are you educating, entertaining, or both? Are you looking for exposure or an identity? Who are you attempting to contact? Who are you trying to reach? Choose who you want to reach. Write about topics that the audience needs to know or wants to know in their language and at their level. What topics will your column cover? How will you talk about it? Determining what will be aided by addressing why and how. Always keep in mind that columns should be truthful and based on facts. In a personal column, names are important. Despite the informal nature of personal articles, accuracy and source material are important. How will your audience hear your message? In addition to the personal column, there are various kinds of columns. Several of these focus on particular subjects or kinds of data. A "question and answer," "new concept," "how-to-do-it" piece, a "calendar," and "coming events" are just a few examples. There should be a lot of local names in personal columns. Also used are phrases like "I," "us," and "you."

Give the reader relevant, useful information while writing a column, establish a structure, and stick to it. Write often, use short, simple phrases and paragraphs to connect with your audience, whenever feasible, utilize local names and locations, allow others speak for you by using quotes and references, and be sure to understand the distinction between a column and a news article.

Avoid speaking in jargon or using new phrases, discussing the same subject repeatedly, providing too much information, or referring to yourself in the third person. Instead, use simple language that everyone in your audience can understand. Do not ever use self-quotes in your writing.

Some Best Practices.

• Write as you speak. However keep in mind proper language and usage. 

• Discover a "lead" or opening that will pique your readers' curiosity. 

• Utilize a mix of sources and don't stick to one topic. 

• Write about individuals. Try to use local people's experiences to tell the story when dealing with relevant material. 

• Write clearly. Avert using complex or technical terminology, extensive sentences, and lengthy paragraphs. 

• Avoid adding too many details to your column. Don't exhaust a topic; instead, try to pique interest in it. 

• When touring fields and residences, jot down ideas, names, numbers, impressions, etc. on a notepad. This offers the best column material available.

• Be on time. Maintain track of the impact of the seasons, weather, and other factors, emphasizing their importance locally. 

• Keep in mind who you are speaking to and provide facts to them in a way that will be helpful to them. 

• Send your columns to the editor or publication on time at all times. 

If you've been writing a column for a few months, you might want to think about taking the next step and pitching it to multiple publications. As newspaper readership is typically based on location rather than interest and consequently rarely overlaps, this is especially ideal for newspaper columns. As long as you are confident that there will be little "reader overlap," you can frequently sell the same column to newspapers in separate states, or even papers in different counties or cities within the same state. 

National syndication is a goal shared by many writers, but it is initially far more difficult to achieve. It's typically easier to launch your column by pitching it to a growing number of newspapers until you've amassed enough of a following to warrant a wider distribution. 

A column is only "self-syndicated" when it is made available, non-exclusively, to a number of newspapers that are not directly competitive with one another. Newspapers from your area should be your first stop. Such publications won't care if your column appears in the following county or even the following city because their readership is typically restricted to a single town, city, county, or region.

Choose a Topic.

You should select a topic that can be sold to numerous periodicals in a specific geographic area or that cuts across regional boundaries.’

Some topics, like parenting advice or health advice, are universal (or at least tend to work well within the bounds of your own country; other countries may have different health systems or different ideas about parenting). Nonetheless, some topics are more regionally focused than others. If you're writing a gardening column, for instance, you'll need to adapt it to the area you're familiar with, addressing the climate, soil, plant, etc. difficulties that are specific to that area. Selling a piece on gardening advice from the Pacific Northwest to an Arizona newspaper would be challenging. So, when choosing where to sell your column, the topic is frequently the top priority.

The less "commonplace" your column should be, the further afield you choose to promote it. Even though you could be the only parent contributing to your hometown newspaper, thousands of other authors are writing on parenting for various newspapers around the nation. You must therefore create a column that adds something distinctive to the subject in order for it to compete with other columns that cover related topics if you want to reach a larger audience.

This also holds true for "review" columns. Reviewers from different regions may disagree on literature, movies, and music (if you can create a compelling reason for an editor to buy your reviews rather than those of a local or nationally known reviewer). Yet, opinions about restaurants and activities are typically far more regional (though you might be able to pitch such a column to a travel page as a "destination" piece). 

In other words, it's not worth wasting your time trying to export a column that only has a little local value. Instead, concentrate on finding methods to expand the popularity of your column; alternatively, think about starting a completely new column that you may pitch to many magazines right away.

Select Your Markets.

The number of local newspapers in your state or region may surprise you. These publications can be found on any of the dozens of online "newsstands" that exist. The Gales Directory of Media Publications, which is located in the reference department of your local library, can provide you with even more specific information about several papers. While doing newspaper research online is more convenient, Gales offers the advantage of offering crucial details on circulation, frequency, and editorial staff. Consider turning to Gales if, for instance, you have determined that you only want to target daily newspapers with a circulation of at least 20,000.

The addresses and editors of U.S. and Canadian daily newspapers, as well as alternative publications and specialized publications covering topics like parenting, seniors, ethnic groups, and real estate, are listed in the Annual Editor & Publisher International Year Book, which is available in most libraries. You may find out useful information about a newspaper's frequency of publication (daily, weekly, bimonthly), circulation numbers, if it publishes a Sunday magazine, and a list of its regular sections and special editions in the E&P Year Book. It is a prudent precaution to pre-screen newspapers based on their circulation and content. You shouldn't waste time or money sending columns to weekly publications that are "shoppers" or that are obviously too small to have any budget for freelance (or at least non-local freelance) submissions. Also, if more than one newspaper serves a city or area, you shouldn't submit to both at once.

Local newspapers and major state or big-city papers both cover some areas. You must choose which to target first because you don't want your column to appear in both (or, more precisely, your editors won't appreciate it if your column appears in both). That might not be as simple a choice as it seems. Although a big-city paper may pay more (and will reach a larger readership), it is also likely to seek more rights, or even all rights, and is also more likely to want to post your material on its website, which might further restrict your ability to share that column elsewhere. Although though they sometimes offer lower compensation, smaller papers could be less rights-demanding.

Define Your Terms.

A straightforward explanation of the terms you are offering should be included in your fundamental submission package for syndication, such as:

•Column length (usually 750 to 1000 words is best).

•Column frequency (daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly).

•Rights retained and rights offered.

When a column is self-syndicated, rights are a crucial concern. In fact, you should start pondering "rights" as soon as you sell your first column to your first newspaper. This is much earlier than when you might think about self-syndication. 

All kinds of markets are putting more and more pressure on authors to give up their rights. Newspapers in small towns and other media outlets are increasingly asking columnists to sign away the rights to their work or even create it as "work for hire" (which means that the newspaper owns the copyright to the material from the beginning). You might discover that newspapers that only pay $10 to $50 per column nonetheless want you to give up all ownership of that content.

You must make sure that you have the rights to sell your work elsewhere if you want to do so. Normally, you should give a newspaper "one-time nonexclusive rights" to publish your column, potentially with the assurance that it won't be published by a rival outlet. Offering "exclusive regional rights" with a clear definition of what is meant by "region" is one alternative. If the paper is only read in Yakima, Washington, for example, don't let that stop you from selling the same column to another paper in Seattle or Tacoma. The region should be limited to the area of the newspaper's general readership.

A newspaper might occasionally demand "first" rights. If your first column sale is to your local newspaper, this strategy can work because it allows you to resell that column to all of your other markets a week later. However before granting this option, make sure to give it some thought since there can only ever be one "first" publication.

Refrain from agreeing to additional money for "full rights." The purpose of self-syndication is to get your article as widely distributed as possible, not to make a significant amount of money from any one publication. Remuneration for columns is typically pretty modest; even the biggest paper is unlikely to make you an offer for more than $500. You've already quadrupled that sum and perhaps even doubled your viewership if you can sell the same article to 20 newspapers at $50 each. (Your success will be heavily reliant on your audience numbers if you intend to move on to national syndication. It is preferable for a large number of individuals to read it throughout a variety of marketplaces rather than merely a huge number of people.)

The last step is to choose the lowest price you're willing to accept. Some smaller newspapers still pay as low as $10 for a column, but if you can sell your piece to other publications, the money can add up rapidly. The price for "Family Daze," a syndicated column by Debbie Farmer, is calculated using a conventional formula: 50 per 1000 subscribers.

Prepare Your Package.

Self-syndication has a drawback: cost. Many newspapers still favor receiving column proposal submissions via surface mail over email. A written proposal and set of samples are easier to share around than an email when more than one editor needs to assess a column proposal (or to have to print one out). This implies that you will need to spend money on postage, printing, and envelopes if you want to pitch your idea to other markets. Included in your submission package should be: a letter of introduction outlining the proposed column (be sure to list the terms you are offering); clips, three to six sample columns, and supporting materials.

You should certainly order a lot of these materials if you intend to submit your column to several newspapers. Print your cover letter on high-quality paper, and you can print your clips and column examples on standard 20-lb. bond. The majority of print facilities can also produce your reply postcard. Print your clips in double-sided format to reduce expenses and weight.

Follow Up and Move On.

Don't be afraid to follow up if your best prospects don't respond to your mailing after a month. Frequently, information gets misplaced on a busy editor's desk, and all it could take to seal the deal is a kind phone call. (A follow-up card or letter runs a high chance of getting lost in a flurry of paperwork.) It might also be appropriate to send an email.

If an editor wants to change the terms of your agreement, don't be shocked. Some people might want to propose a different word count or a cheaper fee. You are free to accept or reject such alterations. It might not be worth the work to customize the content for each magazine separately if you want to distribute your column to a lot of them. But, if your mailing garnered minimal reaction, this can be a fantastic approach to establish a strong relationship with one or two publications, which may eventually result in better rates and more jobs.

When you follow up on your original mailing and you still haven't heard anything, don't be shocked. You might never hear back from many of your markets because many newspaper editors simply don't react to submissions they don't intend to publish. Don't take it personally; just move on to the next potential client.

Self-syndication is an excellent method for increasing your portfolio. Request copies of the issues where your column appears, or at the very least, a tearsheet of your column, as necessary. You can list yourself as a "contributor" or "stringer" to a local paper once you have a regular column there (even if it's not local to you). This could be the stepping stone your column needs to enter the big leagues, like national syndication.

If your column is published, you could be well on your way to finding your community's voice and gaining beneficial exposure for both you and your company. Furthermore, when you gain recognition as a "expert" who has been cited in the neighborhood press, you might be contacted by one of the paper's writers for a news item about which you could contribute your knowledge or even by other media, such neighborhood radio, podcasts, or television stations.