Audience – Readers

Last term, back in November, I had the good fortune to see the Washington Post run a piece I had written which shared my views about how parents can avoid predatory practices in college admission.

I’m writing this piece to the Lawrence community to encourage those of you with a compelling, interesting and/or insider’s view to share on a topic to share that view.

(Encouragement—and the help of others—is necessary, as I learned when I went through this process myself.)

As you might know, to help get the Lawrence story “out there,” we lean on the expertise and connections of others, which is why we work with a public relations firm, Morrison & Tyson (which recently married another firm, Dick Jones, and gave up its name in the arrangement). Our contact there, Maggy Ralbovsky, has many contacts in the media world and knows how to help place articles written by members of the Lawrence faculty or staff, which she has done for colleagues like Jason Brozek, Tim Troy, Peter Glick and Dena Skran. She is the one who helped my article see the light of day.

… but it took more than two months of darkness before it actually saw that light.

I wrote the piece back in late August, right as the school year was starting at Appleton North, and right after my wife and I received a letter trying to manipulate our hopes and fears about the college admission process for our son into financial gain for its sender.

I originally intended to submit it to the Post-Crescent, but first sent it to Craig Gagnon and Rick Peterson in our communication office, to get their feedback on it. (As our media relations expert, Rick is particularly adept at helping shape pieces I and others have written so that they are in a form and have a view that is likely to gain traction with a newspaper. He has pitched thousands of stories himself, so he knows what might work and what might not. Tom Ziemer, our editor, has considerable experience with journalism himself and is another great asset we have on the communication team.)

Craig and Rick then shared my piece with Maggy to see whether she thought it might have a chance at a national audience. (She did.) She read it, made a handful of edit suggestions, some of which I accepted, others of which I rejected, because—at least in my mind—they would have obscured my voice.

Maggy then sent the piece out to her network of cascading options. She thought it might get some traction with the Washington Post, so she started there. If it didn’t catch, we would go with plan B, and plan C, and plan D. (She had at least that many plans.)

After about a week, Maggy contacted us to let us know that Valerie Strauss of the Post had, in fact, expressed an interest, and that she was planning to run the piece within the week.

So we waited a week.

No article.

And another week.

Still no article.

Maggy told us she hadn’t heard anything back from Valerie for a couple of weeks, but that we should sit tight, that it would be worth it.

So we waited another couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, Maggy had tried a couple more times with Valerie Strauss, to no avail.

We asked Maggy if we should go with Plan B. She advised that it would be my call (like any author’s call) to pull and move to Plan B, but gently suggested that we wait a little longer, that these things take time.

Another month went by.

And then—poof!—it appeared on Tuesday, November 1, 2016.*

As Craig Gagnon has pointed out to me, this was definitely worth the wait, because the “multiplier effect” of the piece—and others written by members of the Lawrence University community—can be significant as we not only raise the visibility of Lawrence, but also inform people’s views of how we think and work here. (Such efforts matter as we strive to make more people in the world aware of this special place through earned media, in addition to bought media.)

Start with the Washington Post, which runs the piece in print and online, including its social media channels. Their readers, viewers and followers refer, repost or retweet it, and it spreads from there. (If Lawrence grad and ABC Chief Foreign Correspondent, Terry Moran, retweets it, his 1.2 million followers will see it.)

News aggregators, like UBDaily (Undergraduate Business), may pick it up a few days later and re-run it.

Kasey Corrado, Lawrence’s social media director, will also post pieces where Lawrence is mentioned or where a member of the community publishes a view that may be of interest to our followers. She promotes the pieces through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat … how she keeps up with all of the channels, let alone manages them as strategically as she does, is remarkable. (Like Rick, Kasey provides sound advice on what may gain traction and has excellent ideas on how to frame a piece for social media.)

As my mother will often say, “To make a long story short” (usually when she is in the process of making a long story longer), if you’re thinking about writing a piece for a national audience, please write it.

And know that the route from your mind and fingertips to the minds and eyes of general readers far beyond Lawrence may be of indeterminate length and windiness but that your piece will find its way there.

Thank you to all of you who have submitted pieces like this that have appeared in national and regional publications.

And thank you to those of you who have yet to do so, but will.

Your work matters.

*It should be noted that this is but one example to illustrate the value of patience. Many/most submissions do not take as long to see the light of day once an editor indicates an interest. (CG)