Subject Classification
Reader Feedback
Subscribing
Unsubscribing
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
Books by
Gerry McGovern
Content Critical
Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content
The Web
Content
Style Guide
The essential guide
for online writers, editors and managers
December 13, 2004
No news this week: only publish what is useful
By Gerry McGovern
Don't publish for the sake of publishing. You may have one key message that you leave on your homepage for years. It's not a matter of having content that is new or old; it is a matter of having content that is relevant and useful.
Some organizations hardly ever bother to update their websites. There are stories on the homepage that can be months—if not years—out of date. These organizations simply don't understand that leaving this content on the website is damaging to the professional reputation of the organization.
However, some organizations publish new content even when they shouldn’t. They fall into the trap of thinking that publishing is about news. Yes, an element of publishing can be about news, but that is not what the core purpose of publishing is. At a basic level, publishing is about getting the right content to the right person at the right time at the right cost.
The right content could be five years old. The wrong content could be five minutes old. In fact, a major challenge today can be to hold back on publishing until you have your facts correct. (The American media will be aware of this challenge in relation to previous U.S. presidential elections.) It damages your reputation if you publish something quickly and it's wrong.
I come from a small county in Ireland called Longford. The Longford News is a local newspaper and it once had an eccentric editor whose name presently escapes me. Well, one week the lead story on the front page of The Longford News was:
No News This Week
If you are not an organization that creates news, then don't have a prominent news section on your website. If you have one major message, then it is perfectly okay to promote that message in the center of your homepage every day of every year.
I come across organizations that struggle to create news. They do a lot of hard work that ends up being counter-productive. That's because they publish content that is not relevant to their target audience. Sometimes, this 'new' content pushes much more important content off the homepage. Always, it gets in the way because readers wonder what this is about, and if, in fact, they are at the right website.
It's not about being new. It is about being useful. Your job as a website editor is to make the difficult decisions in relation to what really matters to your key readers. How does news help them complete the task that they came to your website to do?
Remember, what is news to your organization may be of zero interest to the public. For example, some organizations make the dreadful mistake of publishing press release on their homepage. Reading a typical press release is about as interesting and useful as watching your computer boot up.
Press releases were never meant to be published; they were meant to be released to the press, who would then consider if there was something newsworthy in them. A press release is, at best, a foundation for a piece of content.
If you've nothing useful to publish, publish nothing. Stick with the same message as long as that message achieves your objectives.
Gerry McGovern
You are welcome to republish this article once you place the following text and link at the end of the article:
Gerry McGovern provides website content management solutions
Related content
Publishing content
See full New Thinking classification
Next issue: Web
content management comes of age in 2004
Previous issue:
Technology not answer to every
problem
Subscribe or unsubscribe
"The input we received from Gerry McGovern's Scorecard was a critical component to assessing our customer positioning and defining our work priorities for the next 18 months.”
Maurice Coleman, Head of Commercial Strategy, Aer Lingus
More client feedback
Information on upcoming content management seminars and workshops
New Thinking Newsletter
Subscribe to this free weekly newsletter covering the role and function of content on the Web.
More info | Privacy policy
Content is your
asset and it is an asset that grows in value the less of it you publish.
Selected clients
Find out more about Gerry McGovern's clients
Home - About - Solutions - Clients - Contact - Search
Tel: +353 87 238 6136
Email: info@gerrymcgovern.com
Privacy Policy
Copyright © Gerry McGovern. All rights reserved.