Turning the editorial process into content

I'm always last to find these things, aren't I? Really useful post from Robin Hamman about how editors and journalists can create content out of the work process.

It has always struck me as a blogging approach which should be easy to sell in to traditional editors and journalists (or at least since the process of traditional editors and journalists no ceased to involve half a day in the pub).

While a glimpse behind the scenes of a B2B magazine might not have quite the same glamour as that of the BBC, I think the (apparent) transparency and honesty is rather engaging.

The editor of Farmers Weekly, Jane King now has a blog in the heart of the magazine's online community in which she introduces "behind the scenes" news such as changes in personnel or why certain decisions have been taken. I think it's a great idea.

Anyway, as Robin is following up a previous post, I hope he won't mind me quoting his ideas and examples from that:

1. make your RSS subscriptions publicly visible (example: BBC Manchester Blog)
2. use del.icio.us or another social bookmarking service to store and share links to your background research (example: Jemima Kiss / Guardian PDA Newsbucket)
3. share your rough notes, meeting minutes and preliminary results as soon as you can (example: iPM)
4. post photos, audio and video as and of your work (example: Reuters Mobile Reporting Kit
5. don't just reply privately to emails and comments, quote from them and respond publicly (example: BBC Internet Blog)
6. spread your content around automatically using the import feature of the different blogging and social media services you use
7. use your downtime to microblog, giving audiences a sense of immediacy (example: twitter feed for the BBC Rugby World Cup Blog)
8. blog site statistics (ranging from user numbers to social network friends - I'll probably use TechPresident as my example)

Editor 2.0 - the editor as curator

This blogging thing is great, isn't it I don't have to do any work other than reproduce bits of other people's thinking. This one is about the role of the editor as curator and the decline of the website as content producer.
Scott Karp on his Publish2 blogs writes:

Jeff Jarvis challenges news organizations to define the role of editor in the 21st century, i.e. Editor 2.0. Jeff connects a number of dots that involve a significant, even radical shift in the traditional editorial role, such as new search/tag editor positions. But one of the most radical shifts taking place is that editors are now being asked to curate OTHER news organization’s content in addition to their own.

In the age of limited, monopoly distribution, editors were able to focus exclusively on the product of their own newsrooms, because that was the only content their readers could get in most cases. Now that the web and search has made ALL content from EVERY source easily accessible, many media brands are realizing they can’t just be in the business of creating their own content — they need to bring their readers the ENTIRE universe of content on the web.

A number of traditional media brands have already started curating content from other news organizations — these efforts typically employ a traditional, command-and-control, single editor model, but they nonetheless represent a sea change in the disposition of news organizations towards content produced inside their walls vs. content produced outside their walls. In a networked media world, no content brand can do it all by themselves — news consumers, empowered by search and news aggregators, know this, and that’s what’s driving news organizations to take this radical step.

There are examples on his excellent post.