Tag: "Content"

iPad Creates New Income Opportunity for News Writers

Holland Cooke reports to TALKERS from Blogworld/New York

By Holland Cooke
MCVAY/COOK & ASSOCIATES
News/Talk Specialist

NEW YORK – “Internet attention span?”  That’s dang near an oxymoron, we’ve learned, via piles of research, and by observing our own behavior.  Thus the tips we’ve heard about writing short, keyword-rich sentences and paragraphs.  Keep the eye moving, for just…another…sentence.

It’s familiar lore to radio talent, especially with PPM demonstrating how on-air programming needs to be relevant, one…moment…at…a…time.  Heck, Twitter trains us to keep it down to 140 characters!  A useful discipline – quite applicable to writing anything for radio.

But, as iPod and iPhone have, stable mate iPad is, once again, demonstrating how facile new devices change the way we consume information/entertainment content – and how we interact.

For several years, Michael Harrison has urged radio talk hosts to migrate to what he terms the “media station,” and these new devices are, in radio parlance, “receivers.”

Clearly observable trend: Longer-form internet content is gaining in popularity for two reasons:

1. iPad – and Kindle/Nook/other tablet devices – make longer text content easier to consume than on small smartphone screens, or less-portable desktop computers, or even less-instant-on notebooks and netbooks.

2. “Internet advertising” for consumer products is becoming the next oxymoron.  As a society, we’ve become banner-blind; and we can set our browsers to block ads.  That controversial Facebook IPO exposed its vulnerability as an ad medium.

Accordingly, co-founder of the crowd sourcing market place for professional writers Contently.com, Shane Snow, told Blogworld attendees that brands are shifting from online advertising to sharable content of interest to their customers; and they’re spending to create “really good, high-quality content,” done by freelancers he called “real journalists.”

Example: Pepsi.com.  Think “the kind of stories you’d see in the BACK of magazines.”

Snow’s company feeds this beast, with the banner atop its web site proclaiming: “Contently empowers professional journalists and bloggers to build careers doing what they love.”

Radio news people — now such an endangered species — might investigate www.Contently.com/network and other similar opportunities online.

As Contently’s Manifesto trumpets: “Quality is king.  Freelance is the future.  Anyone can be a publisher.”

News/Talk consultant Holland Cooke covers conventions for Talkers.  See/hear/read more atwww.HollandCooke.com; and follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke.