March 26, 2026

This week in the Echo Chamber:

💡Refine: The five questions you must ask before you start your next op-ed draft to ensure your message actually moves the needle.

🚨Read: How Greg Gershuny is connecting a wide range of industry voices to move Aspen Ideas: Climate beyond high-level conferences and toward a practical blueprint for action.

📢 In the News: Echo Founder and President Chris Moyer quoted in the New York Times on how the clean energy industry needs to build power in DC.

By Dan Crawford
Senior Vice President

For as long as I’ve worked in communications, I’ve heard the same complaint. “It’s harder than it used to be to place op-eds.” It makes me wonder, when was this mythical era where top-tier outlets were handing out column inches to everyone? The truth is, op-eds have always been hard to place—but there’s no denying that as media consolidates, local outlets shrink, and more outlets turn towards in-house contributors, there are more people than ever pitching op-eds to fewer and fewer outlets.

Meanwhile, op-eds seemingly have less of an impact than ever before. And they can be tortuous. We’ve all been there: a good idea for an op-ed turns into weeks of drafting and approval, only for your target outlets to pass. Before you know it, your piece isn’t relevant and you’re back to square one.

That said, op-eds can still be a useful tool—if you’re realistic about what you’re trying to accomplish. Here are some questions to ask before you start writing one.

Everyone wants the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. Legacy national outlets have wide readership and the prestige that comes with it. The brand name looks great on a slide at your annual board meeting. But name alone doesn’t move the needle. It’s more important to have the right readers than simply the most readers. If your goal is to influence a vote in Congress, you’re better off pitching to key members’ hometown papers. If you’re trying to reach investors, you’ll have more impact in a niche trade publication.

Editors are drowning in submissions. Why should they pick you over the hundreds of others—or the experts they already have on speed dial? You must be the definitive voice, backed by either deep expertise or unique lived experience. Being a CEO or nonprofit executive isn’t enough on its own.

This is where, even if your communications team is taking the pen, the author needs to be involved. Editors are looking for authenticity, which doesn’t happen if the name behind the piece doesn’t read it until the final draft. Moreover, your submission has to fit into the news cycle. That means acting quickly—not giving legal, policy, gov affairs, and your executive director several days to make edits.

Be honest. And no, your organization announcing a new initiative doesn't count (with rare exceptions). Your piece won’t appeal to editors unless it brings value to their readers. It has to offer a unique perspective on an issue or event that readers care about. It should be something they can’t find somewhere else—a unique topic, a counterintuitive take, or a missing piece of the puzzle. If you aren't adding something new to the conversation, you aren't writing an op-ed; you’re writing an ad.

Op-eds are a great way to get people to read about your POV, but what if the people you’re really trying to reach aren’t flipping to the op-ed section of their local paper every morning? A proper op-ed strategy will pull every lever you have to get your piece in front of the audiences you care about—that means sending an “In Case You Missed It” to your press list, putting it in your newsletter, sending it to partners, posting it on social media, getting your champions and stakeholders to share it, and so on.

The biggest communications story over the past few years has been the rise of “owned” media. LinkedIn, Substack, YouTube, and even company blogs are all available to leaders looking to make announcements or insert their voice into a conversation. The bar for posting on your own platform is lower, the timeline is quicker, and the ROI is often much higher. And here's the thing—the people following you on LinkedIn or subscribing to your Substack actually want to hear from you. By cultivating owned channels, you are growing a built-in audience that has opted in to hearing from you. And if your announcement or point of view truly is newsworthy, reporters will pick up on it regardless.

Ultimately, an op-ed is just one tool in a much larger communications toolbox, and it is often the most expensive one in terms of time and effort. Before you commit to weeks of drafting and endless cycles of approval, be honest about whether you are chasing a brand name for a board meeting slide or actually trying to move the needle. In a world where impact and prestige are rarely correlated, think about the quickest path to your audience, because success in comms isn't about getting published—it's about being heard.

Greg Gershuny, vice president and executive director of the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program and co-director for Aspen Ideas: Climate, is focused on redefining the climate conference into a tool for implementation. By bringing together a wide range of industry voices—from global CEOs to inventors—Gershuny is helping build a blueprint that moves beyond talk to the actual work of modernizing the electric grid and providing practical climate solutions.

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As we’ve done over the first four years, and will continue this summer, we are focused on solutions to the climate and energy challenges and how we can move toward progress. Our four core pillars are infrastructure, adaptation, health, and trust, and how they intersect with innovation, economic opportunity, and technology.

A few of the areas that are most exciting are finding solutions to dig into the future of the electric grid, especially with so much demand growth and the urgent need for new clean energy sources.

I’m also really looking forward to discussions about water policy, in particular the issues facing the Great Lakes states as well as the Colorado River. Lastly, every year our most engaging and impactful sessions are about messaging and communications, which shows just how critical it is not only to have solutions, but how to connect people to them in meaningful ways.

After three years successfully hosting this event in Miami, we were looking for a region and a city where we could build on the good work already happening and constructively add value to the community. What ultimately drew us to Chicago, and the Midwest more broadly, was that they are actively building, investing, and thinking deeply about their future and the climate solutions needed to adjust to that future. And more than that, it’s a region not just talking about the energy transition but forging it.

The last thing I want to spend my time on is one more conference on a heap of conferences. What we believe sets Aspen Ideas: Climate apart stems from our mission: to help people, organizations, and governments take greater action on the climate and energy challenges of our time. To do that, we bring together people from a wide range of sectors, corporate, government, non-profit, and also from a variety of roles and levels, including everyone from elected officials and CEO’s to inventors who work in their garage to students.

The thing all of these folks have in common is that they show up with open minds and ready to listen and learn, and we hope to equip them with new ideas and a newfound sense of energy. AIC’s success depends fundamentally on the strong regional backbone we develop in preparation for the convening. Building from our partner, the Chicago Climate Corps, and our academic thought partner University of Chicago Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth, to the regional leaders on the steering committee. Their work ensures that the conversations at AIC don’t happen within the context of what’s already happening across the Midwest and help to bring in key players who will help implement these solutions.

But what ultimately sets AIC apart is our belief that there is no single answer to solving climate change. We want to lay out a wide mix of ideas, technologies, policies, and perspectives, because real progress comes from how those pieces connect.

When I’m not working on energy and climate change, I play guitar in my band Unexpected Wave. It’s a really nice creative outlet and I have a lot of fun doing it!

We empower renewable energy companies, advocacy organizations, coalitions, foundations, trade associations, think tanks, climate tech start-ups, and prominent leaders to drive progress wherever policy is made.

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The Echo Chamber delivers candid, timely insights into the policy and politics shaping climate and clean—in Washington and beyond. By reading The Echo Chamber, you’ll gain a sharper understanding of the political landscape, how it’s shaping policy, and what it all means for your organization or business.