When I started in PR circa 1995, the
word byline was a “bad” almost four-letter word. I will never forget the
disdain on the other side of the phone when I tried to discuss why XYZ CEO had
something interesting to say.
CMOs wanted their CEOs voice out in the
media, yet when you pitched a reporter on the concept of a CEO thought
leadership byline series it was frowned upon.
Well, the business of journalism sure
has evolved.
Journalism continues to change, and the
traditional model has changed too (we all know this). Many publications no
longer employ full-time writers the way they used to, and numerous journalists
are moving to content development roles at companies and PR agencies.
Dan Lyons, who used to write for
Newsweek, made the transition to an in-house content position at HubSpot.
Lyons mentioned in his introductory article for HubSpot that one of the reasons
he left was because of a broken revenue model which heavily relied on
advertising to be profitable. He argues that instead of changing to a new
business model, media companies continued wasting time and effort on fixing a
flawed system.
A few
other renowned journalists who come to mind who also left long-standing
journalist careers for the marketing department of a major corporation or PR
firm are Michael
Hickins, who moved from the Wall Street Journal to Oracle, and Elinor
Mills, who left prominent industry publications such as AP, Reuters and IDG to
head up Content and Media Strategy at the Bay Area PR firm Bateman Group.
The reality is that journalism is here
to stay, but it has changed. And the change within journalism – blogs,
linkbacks, SEO, click-through, etc. — have driven the need for content, more
content and even more content.
The byline or “contributed thought
leadership piece” is now a key lynchpin to driving the ongoing need for content
demanded by readers’ huge appetites. Publications are now starved for content
and reports are pushed to publish – the appetite is insatiable and only getting
bigger.
In steps the importance of a smart content
bureau at PR firms.
From blogs and bylines to research
papers and survey data, PR agencies need to develop smart
content. This goes way beyond driving a CEO point-of-view within the
marketplace. News outlets are increasingly dependent on contributed content to
support the Las Vegas buffet desire and need for online content.
Here at BOCA, we recognized this trend
in 2007. When I personally founded this company I kicked it off with a
dedicated senior writer and a formalized content bureau. Now, we have four
full-time content writers on staff and our first ever-writing intern (very
exciting). I am incredibly proud of our
content bureau and our team within it and I expect it to keep growing.
I could go on another tangent about why the
traditional PR agency model is also broken and why agencies that have “real”
content bureaus will succeed, but I will keep that for another post.
-Kathleen Shanahan
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