I’m taking a break from The New Rules of Marketing & PR, a book by consultant David Meerman Scott. Looking at the implications of new media, Web 2.0, integrated digital communications, he nails "it."
The book has two major thrusts. One is a sound, practical explanation of the strategic and tactical PR and marketing procedures with these media. The second is his assertion that content is what really matters.
He speaks about populating a mix of Web site copy, blogs, podcasts, viral marketing and other tools with content that means something to the people. Well, as Meerman says in a recent blog, maybe what he’s calling new is really very old and well established. The technologies are new, but a long time ago as a cub reporter I learned the newspaper had to meet the interests of the readers.
I found the discussion of content most interesting in CSPAN broadcast of the August 10, 2007 conference, Newspaper Ownership Impact on Media. Panelist Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst at the Poynter Institute, pointed to the serious erosion of profit margins at the major metropolitan dailies — down in three years from 25 percent, to 16 percent, to 9 percent.
The role of content was pointed to as important to newspapers by, if I heard correctly, Marilyn Thompson, a national investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times and one of the panelists.
- discussing moves to place ads on the front pages, it was pointed out that advertising is content — information that readers need and want
- at Knight Ridder, she said the news staff was encouraged to see themselves as "content providers" for online editions — where newspapers are turning to find their future
There you have it. Traditional media also see content — information that people want and need — as key success factors. The media, and those of us in marketing, are working on the same challenge: how to deliver this content. For both, new rules are being written. Exciting.
New Rules of Marketing & PR http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/
C-SPAN http://inside.c-spanarchives.org:8080/cspan/cspan.csp?command=dprogram&record=555834552
Forum: Newspaper Ownership Changes, Association for Educ. in Journalism & Mass. Comm, Washington, DC (United States) ID: 200368 - 08/10/2007 - 1:25 - $29.95
Rick Edmonds http://www.poynter.org/profile/profile.asp?user=40897
Marilyn Thompson http://www.latimes.com/services/newspaper/mediacenter/releases/la-mediacenter-2006-0628,0,6770871.story?coll=la-mediacenter-releases
Hey, thanks for reading the book and taking the time to write about it here. I appreciate it!
You’re right — PR people should understand the way newspapers (and other pubs) are put togethert and draw from that to create content for their companies (or if they are in an agency, their clients).
I was with Knight-Ridder for 6 years and most of my original grounding in content came from that experiece. Glad to see that you have newspaper gigs under your belt too — it makes you a better resource for your clients.
Take care and good luck.
David