Don’t ignore mandate to produce more original e-news content

Despite agreement that original content deserves highest priority, many B2B e-news sites continue to rely on quality shortcuts when posting articles. That impression is conveyed via early returns to Editorial Solutions, Inc.’s 7th annual B2B e-news delivery study. Reliance on rewritten PR announcements as space fillers continues to be common practice. In too many cases, Web editors simply rerun unedited releases and identify them as such. Other times, sites lack the additional value offered via embedded link usage.

In a recent presentation to one B2B publisher’s editorial managers, I warned attendees that the original content shortfall is worth worrying about. Content exclusivity cannot be achieved by posting secondary source material. Especially since the advent of onllne journalism, our competition is not only other B2B media publications serving the same market. We compete with the world. Therefore, everybody needs to strive for an expanded enterprise reporting effort.

The ability to increase enterprise reporting is directly tied to best use of existing resources. To realistically set any improvement goals, you must first estimate current performance potential. Sometimes editorial managers are buried by long-standing, inefficient work habits that require immediate revision.

My new book, Get Serious About Editorial Management, notes that exclusivity’s absence clearly leads to competitive disadvantage:

Competitive sites often post coverage of the same events, with embarrassing duplication in terms of angles chosen and sources quoted. Industries with constant breaking news have a better shot of providing an impressive flow of exclusive reporting. Other sites are not as fortunate. They don’t have staff support required to dig behind the scenes for articles based on investigation rather than rewrites.

Imagine the frustration heaped upon a staff struggling to produce a weekly newsletter where industry news flow is anemic. Suddenly the same staff is summoned to fulfill content demands for a second weekly or even a daily. Exclusivity here is almost out of the question. Instead the pipeline will be filled with old news where initial posts occurred on other sites weeks or months ago.