Why News Blog Posts are Dangerous
By Matt Jones on Jul 9, 2007 in Creative Blogging
I hate to begin a post with a seemingly empty expression, but quite frankly “news is news”. If someone has just read a post about E.g. the acquisition of Feedburner by Google and then go to your blog and see the same story they will not stick around. There is no point trying to announce something, especially if a well-known blogger has already written about it.
Getting the scoop on a news story can be a great boost for a blog and can often result in getting on page one of Digg or other social sites not to mention a flod of inbound links. However, there is a hidden danger that many bloggers have experienced but few seem to take much notice of it.
What is Getting the Scoop?
Getting the scoop with a blog post simply means announcing news early before the rest of the blogophere knows what’s happening. It is not necessarily the exact very first blogger to announce it but whoever everyone considers to be the first. If you have a young blog that is unlikely to be read by a big blog where the news can spread from it may be wise to send the big blog a ‘tip-off’ politely reminding that a reference to your post would be appreciated.
Two types of News post:
1. Getting the scoop using a catchy headline while quickly and concisely announcing what has happened with very little analysis. The ultimate bonus technique for this method is to add a stimulating question to the end of the post, giving your readers a specific reason to link to you (to answer your question).
2. A day or so after the news became known write an insightful analysis of how the news will affect us, perhaps including an unusual answer to the original bloggers question, or adding a new dimension to the question and having readers then answer yours as well.
Too many bloggers don’t use either of those methods and try to announce old news as if it was brand new information. Bloggers do a lot of reading and big news spreads very fast. If you read something published over 24 hours ago and try announcing it on your blog you will probably be too late for anyone to link to you thinking that you got there first.
Why it’s Annoying to read old news
It seems like there should be an obvious answer, but reading old news affects different types of readers in different ways. A bad post is worse than no post at all. When a blogger posts news-like information the readers already know, there are several negative impacts on that blogger:
1. A brand new reader sees the titles and instantly clicks the ‘back’ button. That’s a potential RSS subscriber lost forever.
2. A loyal reader skims down the subheadings of the post, sees there is nothing new added to the story, does a mental shrug of disappointment and leaves.
3. A reader who has a blog of their own understands you are struggling to find things to post about and leaves, with doubts in their mind about your blog.
Notice a trend there? They all result in someone leaving the blog.
Conclusion
When Google acquired Feedburner this excessive repetition of the news happened big time. As soon as it’s on a couple of popular blogs (johnchow.com and TechCrunch in this case) everyone knows about it and the chance to get the scoop has gone out the window. All that can follow is an innovative analysis of what it means, not “OMG I just read on JohnChow.com that Google bought feedburner”, because everyone just read that very same thing.
Technorati Tags: Getting the scoop, old news
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That was an extremely interesting and thought provoking post. I could be one of those blogsters too. n future I will try and analyse the news story I’m writing.I usually look for unusual or a little outlandish news stories.