Opinion

A Beginner's Guide to Writing Opinion Pieces for Local Newspapers

September 29, 2026

Local papers are always short of well-argued copy. Newsrooms have fewer reporters than they did a decade ago, but the comment pages still need filling, and an editor will nearly always prefer a sharp 700-word piece from someone who lives on the street in question to another hand-wringing column from a professional. If you have an opinion about something happening where you live, you are already qualified. The work is turning that opinion into copy an editor can use without rewriting it.

That is not a licence to be sloppy. It means the standards are practical rather than academic. Editors want copy that is timely, local and clear. They want a piece that will provoke letters, not a private grumble dressed up as an essay. This guide is about clearing that bar, pitch by pitch and paragraph by paragraph.

What a comment piece is, and what it is not

A news story reports what happened. A letter is a short reaction to it. A comment piece sits between the two: a sustained argument of roughly 500 to 800 words, written by someone with a stake in the outcome. It has a point of view, it names names, and it finishes by saying what should happen next.

It is not a press release. If the piece exists mainly to promote a campaign, a business or a politician, editors will spot it in the first sentence and pass. When a press officer rings to ask for a "comment piece", what they usually want is advertising with better manners.

Nor is it a rant. Anger is useful fuel, but it is not a structure. The moment your piece becomes a list of grievances with nothing holding them together, you have lost the reader somewhere around the fourth paragraph.

A useful test: cover your byline and ask whether the piece could have been written by anyone, anywhere. If the answer is yes, it is not local enough. The best comment pieces are anchored in a place, a date and a decision. They could not have been written by a stranger.

Find an argument, not a topic

"The state of the high street" is a topic. "Closing the market square to traffic on Saturdays will cost the town more trade than it brings" is an argument. Editors commission arguments.

Three tests before you commit an afternoon to writing. First, is it local? National politics belongs elsewhere; your piece needs a street, a school, a bus route, a planning application, a closing date. Second, is it arguable? If everyone in town already agrees with you, there is no piece to write — find the decision that is genuinely contested. Third, does it land somewhere? You should be able to say, in one sentence, what you want to happen and who has the power to do it.

Good local arguments often hide in plain sight. They sound like this:

The new cycle lane will make the school run safer, but only if the junction at Mill Road is redesigned.
The library's reduced hours will cost more in lost literacy programmes than the council saves on staff.
The planning committee should reject the warehouse application because the traffic survey counts cars on the wrong day.

Notice that each one has a target, a claim and a consequence. None of them requires you to solve the whole problem. They simply ask for a specific change.

The pitch: send 150 words before you write 700

Most beginners write the whole thing and then send it. Pitch first. It takes twenty minutes, it saves an afternoon, and it means the editor is expecting your piece rather than discovering it in a crowded inbox.

Keep the email short and specific:

A subject line that names the issue: "Comment pitch: Saturday market road closure".
One sentence on who you are and where you live.
Two sentences on your argument, and why it matters now.
One line on what you want to happen.
Proposed length, and when you can file it.
A phone number.

A pitch might read like this:

Dear [editor], I live on Mill Street and have used the market square every Saturday for six years. I would like to pitch a 700-word comment piece arguing that the proposed Saturday road closure will push traders' regular customers to the supermarket instead of bringing new ones in. The council's own traffic survey, published last month, shows most shoppers arrive by car. I would like the council to trial the closure on one Saturday and publish the footfall data before making it permanent. I can file by Thursday. Best, [name], [phone].

If you have not heard back in a week, send one polite follow-up, then move on. A rejection is rarely personal; it usually means the page is full or the timing is wrong.

How to structure a piece that holds together

Open with a scene. Not "I am writing to express my concern about parking charges" but something closer to: "At ten past eight on Tuesday, four cars were circling the market square with nowhere to stop." Scene first, argument second.
Say what is at stake, and for whom. Two or three sentences. Name the people affected and the decision that would change their week.
Make your case in two or three moves. Each gets a paragraph: claim, evidence from your own experience or from public documents, one sentence on the consequence. Three strong reasons beat six thin ones.
Answer the best objection. If you cannot think of a serious counter-argument, you have not thought hard enough about the subject. Deal with the strongest version of it, not the silliest.
Close with a specific ask. "The council should publish the traffic survey before the March committee" is an ask. "Something must be done" is a sigh.

For a 700-word piece, a workable shape is 100 words of scene, 150 on the stakes, 300 of argument, 100 on the objection and 50 on the ask. Adjust as you like, but keep the proportions roughly honest. If you find yourself spending 400 words on the scene, you are writing a feature, not a comment piece.

Transitions matter more than beginners expect. Each paragraph should connect to the last with a word like but, so, yet or because. That is what turns a pile of paragraphs into an argument. Read the piece aloud and listen for the places where the thread disappears.

Sound like a resident, not a press office

Write in plain words. "Stakeholders" becomes "the traders, the council and the bus company". "Utilise" becomes "use". If a sentence would sound odd said aloud in a café, rewrite it.

Three habits worth dropping

Opening with "I am writing to express..." The reader knows you are writing. Start with the scene, the number or the decision, not the act of writing.
Reaching for abstractions. "Community cohesion" and "vibrant high street" mean little. "The Tuesday pensioners' coffee morning" and "the empty unit where the butcher used to be" mean something.
Ending with a shrug. "Only time will tell" is not a conclusion. It is an admission that you have run out of argument.

Short sentences are your friends. So are names, dates and numbers. A single concrete detail — the pothole outside number 42, the 8.15 bus that no longer runs, the 300 signatures on a petition — does more work than a paragraph of outrage.

Do the local homework

You do not need a press card, but you do need evidence. Before you write, spend an hour gathering the facts that will make your argument hard to dismiss.

Check the council's website for committee papers, minutes and planning applications. Search by address and by date.
Look at the planning portal. Drawings, traffic assessments and consultation responses are often public.
Read the last two years of local paper coverage. You will find the history the council has forgotten.
Ask three neighbours what they think. Their objections will sharpen your piece, even if you disagree with them.
Take a photograph or note exact times and places. "At 8.10am on Tuesday" is better than "during rush hour".

If you use a freedom of information request, keep it narrow and polite. Ask for a specific document or a set of figures, not "all correspondence about the high street". The answer may take a month, so start early if the issue is live.

Edit before you file

The editor's job is not to fix your piece. It is to decide whether to publish it. Do the obvious work first.

Cut 10 per cent. Whatever your draft, it is probably too long. Remove the throat-clearing and the second example that repeats the first.
Check every name, number and date. One wrong figure gives an opponent an excuse to dismiss the whole piece.
Read it aloud. If you stumble, the reader will too.
Add a headline suggestion and a one-line bio. "John Smith lives in Mill Street and is a retired teacher" saves the editor time.
File on time. If you promised Thursday, send it Thursday morning, not Friday night.

Common reasons pieces get spiked

Even a well-written piece can miss. The usual reasons are predictable: it arrives after the decision has been made; it is 1,200 words when the space is 700; it is really a letter; it attacks a named individual rather than an argument; or it repeats a point the paper made last week. If your piece is spiked, ask the editor one question: "What would have made this work?" The answer is free advice from someone who knows the page.