Online Content Marketing Blurring the Lines Between ‘Branding and Journalism’

I read a wonderful article this morning in Mass High Tech magazine. The author, Denise de Murcie a former journalist and now brand manager, wrote a piece in the February 6th issue of the magazine entitled The Lines are Blurring Between Branding and Journalism.

De Murcie writes about a new term she learned from David Meerman Scott: ‘brand journalists.’ The term itself is intriguing, but by the simple fact that journalists are (or should be) completely objective in their reporting of a story, ‘brand journalism’ is actually an oxymoron.

I do however, completely agree with the premise that the future of online marketing does not lie in search engine optimization, or paid search advertising, or large-scale online advertising efforts. The future of online marketing is actually in Online Content Marketing. Great content is inherently valuable. It always comes up highest insearch results and it travels like wildfire in niche networks and it builds relationships with the constituents you’re trying to reach.

As a former freelance producer for network news programs like the Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning and CNN, I completely agree that journalists are well-suited to make a tremendous impact in the creation of both timely and evergreen content for brands interested in helping customers solve their problems.

There’s just one problem with hiring a journalist: they’re “objective.”

Now, if you have a great product, that really does solve people’s problems and fulfills its promise to the market, creating and distributing valuable content written or produced by a journalist will be tremendously successful. If you don’t have a great product solving a real problem, a journalist will surely be able to tell you why your product isn’t hitting the mark. But don’t blame the journalist. Blame the product.

So, if you’re a journalist, interested in selling your soul to the world of online content marketing, give me a call. We’re hiring!

About the author

Andrew Davis -

In 2002, Andrew founded Tippingpoint Labs with journalist James Cosco. Since then, he's spent countless hours exploring the online universe and building a methodological approach to developing digital strategies that drive revenue or reduce costs.

Andrew's always asking big questions and analyzing data to understand markets, online forces and even business models. Andrew's research has resulted in the creation of innovative online metrics including Online Brand Value and Category Brand Value, eye-opening graphical representations of website evolution through the New Media Life Cycle and even using online data to predict offline revenue.

When he's not surfing the web, Andrew's traveling the globe speaking to a wide-variety of audiences about everything from social media to the future of print. Andrew is a frequent contributor to the Tippingpoint Labs website and has been creating valuable content since the early 1990s for The Jim Henson Company, CNN, The Today Show and MTV.

He's contributed to a book of short stories, called The Way Things Were and produced and co-wrote Roadside Ambition a documentary film about one small town with two huge balls.

"In a world where content is consumed as rapidly as it's created, companies need to develop a sound strategy to creating valuable online experiences that can, and should, be leveraged enterprise-wide. There is a content solution to every business challenge."