{Former New York Times editorial page staffer Maura Casey is back with a follow up to her recent post about op-ed writing. Once you write your masterpiece, you’ll want to get it placed. Here, Maura walks you through how.}

Now that you have written a compelling commentary on a public issue, there’s no reason to hold back — after all, it won’t have any impact unless you can get it published where the public can see it on the blog, web page, or newspaper oped page of your choosing. For many, this is the hard part.

It’s understandable: Making phone calls or sending e-mails to get editors excited about your point of view feels like a pitch for approval. But don’t think of it that way. Instead, put yourself behind the editor‘s desk.

Editors see you as a potential solution to a daily challenge: they want to publish compelling opinions and they have less and less of a budget to pay for them. They are publishing fewer syndicated columnists than ever and are always on the prowl for fresh, often local points of view. To the extent that you can solve their perennial problem, they care not just about what you have to say, but how you say it. Present an interesting, provocative and well-written piece, and editors’ doors will fly open to you. Read More…

The Gray Lady wants to charge folks to partake of her online work; you know, because she likes having a staff, a budget and paying rent.

We live in a world that loves now and expects free.  I admit to fueling that fire, but we get what we pay for. I’m tired of shoddy reporting–I’ll not call it journalism. It’s not that reporters want to write poorly or get stuff wrong–no one enjoys being factually incorrect. It’s that there are like three people left in America’s collective newsrooms. With one part-time copy editor.

A newspaper can’t do amazing stuff like this, or make folks cry like this, without experienced journalists and a budget.

For some reason, we want to be paid for our own talents and services, but can’t seem to wrap our heads around why newspapers would require–or even desire–compensation. It blows my mind.

So, newspapers of the world: charge me. I’ll pay it in a heartbeat if it helps reinstate a well-stocked newsroom, thoughtful editorials, heart-pounding investigative work and a fact-checker or two. I admire The New York Time‘s move and hope other papers follow suit posthaste.

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Chris Brogan took a field trip to Gannett (USA Today et al) and offers up an insightful report card on the big media umbrella (ella, ella).

Unlike most bloggers out there, Brogan isn’t screaming bring out yer dead. His post is a narrative of social media guru humility and realism. Quite refreshing:

I never presume that companies ???don???t get it,??? at least not the companies kind enough to indulge my visits, and seek out what I think might come next. But I guess I do still have some bias around what I perceived would be the level-set of people inside a big news organization like Gannett.

I need to keep myself open to the perspective that these big companies ???get it??? just fine, and that my role is to help further augment their visions with my industry learnings and implementation guidance, instead of thinking that I???m going to bring fire to the natives every time.

Sure, not every company gets it, and yes, every company has different views of how this will all go, but with my eyes opened by all the bright minds I encountered in my long day at Gannett, I feel that I???m going to presume that there are voices and minds inside who see the future just as clearly as you or me, and I???m going to listen better.

It’s great to hear someone, especially Chris Brogan, give these mammoth media peeps a little credit for their effort to evolve into a real digital media contributor. Sure, some of their efforts might come across as social media for social media’s sake. But there are plenty of PR efforts and corporate accounts of which we could say the same.

I never thought I’d see the day when our largest daily had a Twitter account. They even have a staff videographer. No matter what happens to print big guns in the end, I’m thrilled that they are at least giving digital information sharing the old college try.