Panelists:
- Trish Hall, writer and former Op-ed Editor at the New York Times;
- Naomi Schalit, Senior Editor for Politics and Society at The Conversation Opens in new tab and former Opinion Page Editor at two Maine newspapers owned by the Seattle Times
- Otis R. Taylor, Jr., writer on the Investigations Team at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Lecturer at the School of Journalism at UC Berkeley.
Moderator: Steven Vogel, Chair of Political Economy at UC Berkeley & Co-Chair of The Network for a New Political Economy (N2PE)
How can you get your opinion pieces placed in prominent media outlets? How do news organizations decide which opinion pieces to carry? What makes for a successful pitch? And what makes for a persuasive column?
This event is co-sponsored by the Network for a New Political Economy and the UC Berkeley School of Journalism.
Trish Hall is a journalist and author who helps clients develop and write Op Eds. She spent much of her career at The New York Times, which she initially joined as a food reporter. She eventually oversaw all the feature sections as a member of the masthead. For almost five years, she served as the Op Ed editor. She expanded the reach and the nature of digital offerings, winning an Emmy for an Op Doc produced by her team. She also created the Sunday Review, which since its inception has been one of the most popular sections at the Times. Her book for Norton, “Writing to Persuade,” was published in June 2019. She lives in New York City.
Naomi Schalit is the senior editor for politics and society at The Conversation US. She began her journalism career at the San Jose Mercury News in the days when that paper was a cash cow for Knight Ridder and interns got to fly the length of the state on reporting junkets. She subsequently worked as a reporter and producer at Maine Public Radio and edited the opinion pages for two Maine daily newspapers owned by the Seattle Times. With her husband, John Christie, she founded the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting in 2009, a non-profit news outlet that produces investigative and accountability reporting about Maine government and public affairs and where her reporting led to the unelecting of a few miscreant legislators and the tightening of ethics laws that allowed lawmakers to send lots of money to the organizations they ran.
Otis recently joined the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s investigative team following a reporting tenure at the San Francisco Chronicle. He reports on race, equity, housing and policing, while delving into history, culture and politics. As a columnist for the Chronicle, Otis investigated police violence in a Bay-area police department, mistreatment of ICE detainees and corruption in Oakland. He also tackled people-driving stories on race, housing, immigration and cannabis. Otis spent more than a decade writing about arts, culture and entertainment at The State in Columbia, S.C., earning a reputation for page-one enterprise and watchdog stories. He is a native of South Carolina and studied English at Clemson University.