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As I mentioned here, I& #39;m taking some time to commission and edit pieces for @PostOpinions. A ton of you pitched me after I made that announcement (I owe many of you responses, for which I thank you for your patience). Let& #39;s talk a little bit about what makes a pitch work for us.
First, it& #39;s important to distinguish between a topic and an argument. If you email me and say that you want to write about the media coverage of Trump, that& #39;s a start, but it& #39;s not actually an *argument*.
An argument needs to include both a proposition and a persuasive defense of that proposition. In our hypothetical example, that might mean that you want to argue that the media institute a total blackout on coverage of Trump& #39;s tweets. And then you& #39;d have to convince me.
Second, I& #39;m rarely going to accept personal essays. That& #39;s no bias against the form, which when well-done, I like. But there are a couple of things that make it a difficult fit for an op-ed section. Personal experience is rarely inherently newsworthy. And it& #39;s generally anecdata.
It& #39;s one thing if, say, your relative is being held hostage by a foreign power, or you& #39;re a lawmaker who had an experience that changed your views on an issue. But most of us are not in that position.
And if your personal experience is representative of a wider phenomenon in a way you can back up with data, there& #39;s a strong chance that it& #39;s been written about before. As with all things, there are exceptions to these rules. But it& #39;s unlikely your pitch will be the exception.
Topic selection matters a LOT. One of my specific mandates is to find the subjects we& #39;re *not* covering, which was why I was so delighted to get @namygoswami writing on the new space race. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-new-space-race-pits-the-us-against-china-the-us-is-losing-badly/2019/01/10/bcdcad10-14f9-11e9-b6ad-9cfd62dbb0a8_story.html?utm_term=.fc698cebf302">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/...
Framing matters a great deal, too. @harrisonstephen& #39;s great piece on @Wikipedia& #39;s 18th birthday caught my eye because he had a sharp observation about what makes it different from other social spaces on the web. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/happy-18th-birthday-wikipedia-lets-celebrate-the-internets-good-grown-up/2019/01/14/e4d854cc-1837-11e9-9ebf-c5fed1b7a081_story.html?utm_term=.f26cc7572493">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/...
Pieces that cut to the heart of our mass psychology are always going to appeal to me, which is why I thought @MorganJerkins on our obsession with Ruth Bader Ginsburg& #39;s mortality worked so well. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obsessing-over-ruth-bader-ginsburgs-health-is-bad-for-her-bad-for-us-and-bad-for-democracy/2019/01/13/94065d9a-15ae-11e9-803c-4ef28312c8b9_story.html?utm_term=.5fc31376ac38">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/...
And I like pieces that cut against a mass reaction, like @fuggirls& #39; defense of caring about Congressional fashion. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/04/talking-about-pelosis-pink-dress-isnt-sexist-it-means-youre-paying-attention/?utm_term=.2d0038b0cb4d">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/...
Original research and reporting are going to be big sells, too. I have a piece I& #39;m editing now where the author just went out and counted something and came up with some smart observations about what she counted. Help me see something I wouldn& #39;t have noticed on my own.
I& #39;m interested in bringing new voices, but I hope won& #39;t feel constrained by your identity. If you& #39;re a @WritersofColor, you don& #39;t have to pitch me about race. If you& #39;re conservative, you don& #39;t have to write about the GOP. If you& #39;re LGBT, you don& #39;t have to write about LGBT issues.
We can, and should, play with form, with some limitations. I& #39;m interested in smart pieces about culture, but I& #39;m more likely to accept pitches that identify trends than reviews or essays that talk about a single piece of culture, unless they open up a larger conversation.
For example, if you want to pitch me on "Green Book" or "Vice," those are movies that are stirring up bigger discussions. But this is a place where the work is the *peg*, rather than the actual subject. That& #39;s a useful distinction to keep in mind for culture pitches.
