The Lessons of Digital Content – Where is the Paperboy?

We’re past the point of just dabbling with content on the Internet. Gone are the days of pontificating “Content is King!” as you throw your print stories on your website and wait for the world to come to you. Content Marketing is more than a buzzword, and content management systems are becoming plug-and-play.

Mathew Ingram of GigaOM takes News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch to task for a punchlist of online offenses the media baron has committed lately in the name of digital content.

Ingram continues on about the  “democratization of distribution” and even newspaper paywalls – points and arguments that are making their way into stories more every day now. The answers aren’t necessarily clear yet, but what’s clear is that the next generation of publishers need to be better plugged into how the current –not future –readers get their content.

And we’re not just talking about newspapers. Companies of all kind are now publishers. Whether they’re selling cars, cans of cola, or where to eat dinner, content is your connection to the customer.

Today’s reader is now in control. They get more information about a company from the Internet or from each other than they do from any advertising. They know how to research and find content.

Gone is the paperboy on his bike delivering the news to the doorstep. What publishers need to know now, is how to better deliver.