Posts Tagged ‘Journalism’
Will PRs and journalists own natural search?
July 23rd, 2008
You might say, “who cares?”, but for me this is a refreshing new angle on the ‘who owns online PR?’ discussion that has been going on within the social media industry for a while. Of course I’m going to like suggestions that PRs might be in line to own SEO, but setting my vested interests aside, this line of thought helps explain why it is crucial that journalists and PRs understand the long-term trends that are happening in natural search.
Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker made his own rather crude observations on the subject on Monday, in his overly optimised article, “Online POKER marketing could spell the NAKED end of VIAGRA journalism as we LOHAN know it.” He doesn’t say anything new - online headlines have always been important for driving traffic and natural links, and the only difference is that journalists are waking up to the impact optimised copy can have on their authority and popularity rankings - but the article drives home the SEO control that journalists have at their fingertips, should they choose to use it intelligently.
Similarly, Leon Bailey Green has today contributed a post to the E-Consultancy blog entitled: “Is the role of the SEO dead and should PRs own natural search?“, where he argues “off-site optimisation, link building or link baiting, should actually be in the domain of PR professionals”. He concludes “so if a web developer can build a search engine friendly website, a content writer knows how to write search engine friendly copy and an online PR guru can get blogs/websites/forums to link to that content, where does that leave an SEO?”
Regardless of who might own SEO in the future, or whether anyone will, it’s becoming more and more important for PRs and journalists to have a basic understanding of how relevancy, authority and quality of content will increasingly be the metrics used by search engines to rank sites. In addition, social networks are in some cases beginning to displace search, by creating trusted networks of relevant recommendations - which will make the role that PR plays even more important.
The tactics of PR and journalism don’t necessarily need to change, but individuals working in these sectors will have to be very good at what they do.
Natural search can appear very scientific, and I personally am on a mission to understand the techniques as well as I can…but ultimately, PR as an industry needs to focus on the quality of its output. There’s no place for fakers!
What’s wrong with digital agency comment?
July 1st, 2008
“Client side comment only please…no agency comment needed at this stage…desperate for brand-side comment – can you help?”
In recent weeks we’ve spotted a growing trend in such requests from digital trade journalists, either directly or through feature tracking services that we subscribe to. It seems journalists are increasingly less interested in digital agency comment, and more and more focused on brand-side opinion only.
As an ex-journalist for New Media Age, I can appreciate the need for big brand comment, but what I don’t understand is why those at the coalface, the specialists in digital marketing, creative and design, are being sidelined?
I thought a story always had two sides?
Reading between the lines, the problem is being compounded by an absence of readily available client-side comment on digital matters. From my experience this is either down to a brand not prioritising a digital trade comment opportunity, or acknowledging that the subject matter might be out of their depth.
At Liberate Media we’re always willing to do a journalist a favour and help out with these sorts of requests, but it’s getting increasingly frustrating to have to battle to offer the agency side of the story. If you want to talk to a brand about their digital investment, why not also speak to the agency in charge of their digital strategy?
I’d be really interested to hear what features writers/editors think about this. Is it a growing trend, or merely coincidence?
Newspaper editors show the way forward
May 7th, 2008
The second Newsroom Barometer, which is the largest survey of the worldwide news industry compiled by the World Editors Forum , has been published and it shows a continued change in the way newspaper editors are viewing the web.
Here is a quick rundown of the highlights:
- 86% of editors believe that integrated print and online newsrooms will become the norm
- 83% of editors believe journalists will be expected to be able to produce content for all media within five years
- 58% of editors think the decline in young readership is the biggest threat for the future of newspapers
- 44% of editors believe online will be the most common platform for reading news in the future. 31% voted for print, 12% mobile, 7% e-paper and the rest were not sure
- 35% of editors said training journalists with new media skills would be their first action if they were given resources to invest in editorial quality
- 31% of editors said their priority was recruiting more journalists
These results show that the newspaper industry, or editors at least, have woken up to the reality of the revolution in the way we consume news. Putting new media training as a top priority for journalists is a clear sign of the need to adapt, and understanding that future readers are falling away at an alarming rate, although a very obvious indicator of impending doom, shows an awareness of the issues at hand.
These figures show that the newspaper industry does have a good chance of surviving and perhaps even prospering, if it can act now and evolve its offering to suit readership trends. Focusing on opinion/analysis-led journalism is not a new idea, but implementation of these ideas, along with the acceptance of news for free, is a major step forward considering where we were a few years ago.
Checkout the Editor’s weblog for a full run down of the results available to date.
Personality versus brand on Twitter
April 24th, 2008
There’s no denying that over the past month or so, Twitter has increasingly become a brand promotion tool. On the media side in particular, journalists, newspapers and magazines are using the communications tool with increased frequency to break their stories.
What I’ve noticed is that subconsciously I’m paying far more attention to some media Tweets than others…while some are very useful and time-saving, others are admittedly going straight into my mental ’spam’ folder. I thought it might be interesting to share my views with you on why I think this is, and seek your feedback…
It appears the most useful Tweeters are those who are using the platform under their own name, sharing not only their breaking news as it happens, but also their personal views on issues within their sector. Jemima Kiss is a great example.
On the other hand, journalists Tweeting under their newspaper or magazine brand are having a tougher job of attaining ’stickiness’ with me. If the tool is only being used to promote stories, with no individual voice coming through, the Tweet is of far less value. I’d much rather receive news roundups as a daily email, than eight Tweets in a row. This is particularly aggrevating when the news isn’t exclusive or breaking, but rather something that is all over the news already.
Media Week has been making great strides on the social media front recently, and I was encouraged by its Facebook message on the subject of Twitter today:
“The twittering is also coming along nicely. So far we’ve been posting headlines and links, but we’re going to be flexing our gossip glands a little more in future so feel free to sign up for tip-offs on the stories behind the headlines - we’re at twitter.com/mediaweek if you want to keep an eye on us. If you’ve got any suggestions on what we should be sending out, just let us know.”
It will be interesting to see if Media Week can effectively combine personality with brand. Travolution is incidentially doing a very good job of this.
It would be interesting to know whether people agree/disagree with me…
Stunning journalism meets equally stunning famous photography
April 2nd, 2008
You may or may not be aware that one the directors of Liberate Media is a well-respected former NMA journalist - Wendy McAuliffe. So this post is for her and anyone who wants to see quality journalism in action.
The site I am going to share with you is FRONTLINE.
Frontline has served as American public television’s flagship public affairs series since 1983 and has won many awards and accolade.
The great thing about this site is the Watch Online page, which shows its back catalogue of programmes in full all the way back to 2001. Scrolling through that page evokes a lot of memories and important landmarks in time.
To complement the stunning journalism you need stunning photos. Look no further than worlds famous photos - who doesn’t remember the Tiananmen Square photo? Each photo has an amazing story to tell.
The site has some nice social feature too.
- Rate the photos - highest ranked of which will feature on the home page.
- Leave your thoughts and comments under a selected photo - which seems pretty popular.