Breaking into newspaper writing can be the first step to success as a writer. Getting an article published is a great way to jump start a writing career.
Breaking into newspapers is a great way to get a writing career off and running. Whether it’s a small town weekly or a large metropolitan daily, a local newspaper can be a great first step to publication credits and writing success.
To get an article published start by reading the paper and keeping informed about local and area issues. When one of these issues pushes a writer’s buttons, one that gets a gut reaction, write down some thoughts. Take a position, argue it, and leave room for disagreement. Then write it down.
Find out what the policies of the newspaper are by contacting them on their website, or call the editorial staff and ask for their guidelines. Don’t forget to find out how often they accept guest writer’s opinion pieces, word limits and submission deadlines. For example, a local newspaper, the Amarillo Globe-News owned by Morris Communications, has a guest editorial policy of one article per quarter, 600-800 words, by three working days before publication. Others will have different limits.
Letters to the Editor in response to an op-ed column are a great way to jump start a writing career when the competition is stiff to get an op-ed column accepted. After an editorial page accepts several of a writer’s letters they will be more likely to print their editorials. The editorial staff will feel more confident that it knows the piece will meet their standards, and most editorial pages prefer to print newcomers because it shows a wider readership.
Talk to other writers. Call, or write a letter to, local columnists who appear in the newspaper. Most are happy to help an aspiring writer.
Always have someone else read through work before submitting it. It’s easy for a writer to miss typos or mistakes, even with spell-check and grammar check features on word-processing programs, and another set of eyes can spot holes in an argument easier than the writer can.
If writing opinion columns doesn’t interest a writer then they can look at other sections of the paper for possible contribution, such as Around the Town, Community Activities, the religion section, recipes, home and garden, or other unique sections that are in a local newspaper. Do these sections have reader letters? Do they take interviews or articles from local guest writers? Find out. These kinds of pieces are a great option to get work published, and they supply a variety of subjects which permit a broad range of styles to explore. If a writer has a unique form of expression then this may turn out bigger than expected!
If local schools, churches, or other organizations are having an event, offer to cover it for the community part of the paper as a freelancer. Keep informed. Ask other writers questions. Most of all, keep submitting, and stay in a “willing to learn” mind-set.
The art of writing has many avenues for expression, and no one is comfortable or talented at doing them all. But it’s also true that writers don’t know what they have a talent for until they try something new, so if a writer is ignoring the newspaper because it’s too obvious, try writing something for it anyway.
Then send it in.
Then don’t be surprised if it ends up a favorite outlet for work.
