I was amazed to learn recently that Facebook sends more people to news sites than Google does.
Sixty-eight percent of your Facebook fans are likely to recommend your product, and fans will spend nearly $72 more than non-fans. All these facts come courtesy of an interesting American Marketing Association webcast, “What the Big Brands Do on Facebook,” that I recently tuned in to.
As I started thinking of how this information could further connect the magazines I manage to their community of readers, I suddenly wondered: When did I become a marketer? Have I joined the Dark Side?
Once upon a time, I was in college studying about muckrakers, memorizing media law and crafting editorials that blasted the school administration. As I transitioned from a newspaper reporter to a health association editor, I was still a journalist, working to bring critical health news to my publications’ audience. But creating a print publication is not enough anymore. We also must consider websites, e-newsletters, smartphone applications and social media.
As I’m brainstorming story ideas for my magazines, I’m also constantly thinking of how those ideas can be expanded on the publication’s website and how we can promote it all through e-newsletters and on Twitter and Facebook. So, when did I become a marketer? We journalists once thought of marketing and public relations as the “Dark Side.” But now I wonder, wasn’t that simply our young egotistical minds? Haven’t we always been marketers in some sense? Or has journalism really changed so much so that writers and editors must now begin to help sell their publications in a way they hadn’t previously done?
I now think I’ve been a marketer all along, but am now just old enough and secure enough to admit it. Haven’t I been selling an idea and a lifestyle for years? Isn’t sharing information and educating a wider audience marketing? I’m no longer limited by a print publication or having just word-of-mouth appeal. I can repackage print articles for websites and promote both types of articles through Twitter, Facebook, e-newsletters and “forward to a friend” buttons. I can use analytics to measure which articles are the most popular with readers. This latter ability makes me giddy that I am able to get this type of instant feedback, not easily available with print publications. As we say on Facebook, I “like” this new publications model.
[image: metrojp]
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The sad truth is, it’s all dark side.
Melanie,
Great post! This completely mirrors what J-students learned … and yes, we literally called it the dark side. In today’s crazy economy though, getting the word out is crucial … even as hardcore news journalists, you still want people to read your work, right? I feel it’s the same, no matter what the medium.
I’m still a young newspaper reporter who is relentlessly loyal to the content over advertising. But I think deep down, I know this is has a lot of truth to it. When it comes down to the bottom line, the news business is, in fact, a business. Glad someone wrote what I’ve been too stubborn to voice out loud, haha.
But the real dark side? Public relations. Not completely there yet…
Right you are, Bill. Yes, we’re all marketers now but that doesn’t necessarily suggest credibility is a nonstarter. In light of both macro and micro trends in marketing communications/advertising/brand reputation, more of an “editorial’ bent, e.g. a warts- and- all/lose-the-flowery-language an self-absorption/transparent approach to communicating messages, must be brought to bear among companies of all stripes and sizes. We’re all media companies now, and with that is a changing mindset — one that is moving glacially, but moving nonetheless.
Thanks, all, for your comments. I’m still working through my thought process on all this. Marketing may have negative connotations to journalists, but it doesn’t have to. We can still be investigative and ethical and sell our “products”–it just opens up our articles and publications to a wider audience. Hang in there, Brenna, there’s a lot to love about the news biz!
Mel, I never tire of reading what you write. From a proud and totally biased observer…Dad
True journalism is documenting the truth, investigating the facts, and literally journaling it. What is done with the content from there is not of concern to the true journalist.
Nubbins, assuming that is your real name, I’ve got to say: you are wrong. I think what you’ve described is the keeping of a non-fiction diary. A journalist is charged with not only uncovering the truth, but sharing the truth by informing the citizenry. What this post is talking about is how informing the citizenry has changed, and as it’s become scrappier (read: no more mass media push) it’s become more of a challenge for a journalist trying to share that truth. Journalists now need to care about getting the word out, because there are no more mass media trains to ride. It’s a DIY world out there for journalists.
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