BIZMOLOGY — The newspaper industry has been struggling for years, hurt by dwindling advertising revenue and competition from online news sources and social media. As costs have been slashed, job cuts have gutted newsrooms. Last year a 30 percent decrease in newsroom jobs whittled the US down to only 40,000 full-time journalists. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs for reporters will decline another 6 percent by 2020.
All of those former news reporters are seeking new opportunities. In past years most journalists would find work in traditional public relations roles. But now more companies in all sorts of industries are seeking out people with journalism backgrounds to become content marketers and brand journalists, which is a hybrid between traditional PR, journalism, and marketing. A few examples of companies hiring journalists for marketing roles include IBM, Qualcomm, HubSpot, and LinkedIn.
B2B and B2C marketing are much brighter sectors compared to newspaper publishing. Content marketing is a top priority for companies, and around 33 percent of total marketing budgets were spent on content marketing last year. That is a 26 percent increase from the year before, according to the Content Marketing Institute.
Basically companies are seeking prolific writers who can help them create high-quality content and promote the company and brand as a thought leader within their respective industries. All of that content is designed to not only promote the company, but also to drive traffic and eventually convert browsers into sales. Many companies have come to realize that the best folks at engaging users and writing rich content are journalists, and many of those folks just happen to be looking for jobs.
Trained journalists are excellent storytellers, skilled at gathering information, and writing on tight deadlines. They also can write in authoritative Associated Press style and they know their ways around Internet researching tools. These are all great skills as companies look to boost search engine optimization (SEO) and spark online lead generation.
As brand journalists or content marketers, those ex-journalists are responsible for writing articles that offer insight about products, services, customers, employees, or other issues; that content is highly adaptable and can be used for blogs, e-newsletters, and social media content. These are tasks that have been traditionally carried out by public relations specialists or marketers. But insightful companies know that journalists bring with them training and knowledge that not all marketers are equipped with, and that translates to insightful, good content that engages readers and generates sales leads.
Here are five ways companies can leverage journalistic principles to enhance content marketing strategies:
1. Obligation to truth
Great content is truthful and comprehensive. To establish your company as a thought leader, your content must be authoritative and correct. Once you gain a reputation for creating unique, factual, and useful content, people will come back for more.
2. Customer loyalty
Know your audience and help them make decisions by offering valuable insight. The focus should be on educating your readers and then delivering it to them in a format that they find most convenient.
3. Independence
Readers and customers have become pretty good at figuring out if content is just pure PR fluff. Good journalism is objective and good content will present all sides of an issue. If content is not valid and simply filler for webpages, it will not be effective.
4. Strive to make the significant interesting and relevant
Journalists are great storytellers and their writing can draw in readers. Good content will focus on issues, trends, and other things that matter most to your company and customers.
5. Comprehensive coverage
Effective content marketing doesn’t cover just one aspect of one product or issue. Skilled writers can cover all of the angles that relate to a specific topic. For example, if your company sells software, marketing content should not just be about the software. It can be about what it takes to be a modern company, technology, workplace trends, industry challenges, and new opportunities. Remember, it’s readers that you want to draw in. Ask yourself, “What would our customers like to read?”