Digital Editorial Strategy and the Dawn of New Media Postmodernism
As we content/editorial folks seek to elicit the integral value of digital editorial strategy and our own value in executing these strategies, I interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast due to an incoming flood of new inspirations, thoughts, and ideas regarding the current media climate as it relates to a subtle but momentous shift in the ways we think about, create, manage, and structure interactive experiences. This is particularly relevant with regard to digital editorial strategy, so I wanted to address the nature and context of this shift, it’s impact on organizations, and the roles that are being developed as a result of the transformation.
The Postmodern New Media
In contemplating the nature of this movement, I am drawn to the parallel of my postmodern literature class in college where we were studying Jorge Luis Borges, John Barth, Paul Auster and other authors related to the genre. In one lecture I remember well, our professor Dr. Geoffrey Green was attempting to help us get a better grasp on the somewhat ambiguous postmodern concept, centering his lecture around a Kellogg’s Corn Flakes commercial. Kellogg’s was confronted with the unique challenge of repositioning a brand in Corn Flakes that while popular, needed a bit of a kick in the pants, as the cereal had remained virtually unchanged for almost 100 years. So how do you infuse excitement in a brand that (as far as cereals go) is about as basic as it gets? Well, Kellogg’s idea was to reintroduce the consumer to the brand by asking them to take a step back and to approach the cereal with a refreshed perspective as if they had never had any past experience with Corn Flakes. This led to the rather groundbreaking slogan: Corn Flakes, taste them again for the first time.
Professor Green went on to explain that the essence of this slogan was very similar to what the postmodern writers were doing with regard to the prose forms up until that point. He construed that postmodernism was a concept born from reactions to modernist principles and a desire to create new ideas and explorations within older prose forms. This involved taking a more finite look inside the processes involved in creating narratives, uncovering the illusion of fiction, and in doing so, examining the process of writing and narrative itself. Essentially, these authors were re-imagining fiction. Well, I think this is parallel to what is happening now in respect to creating narratives of interactive experience. Like the postmodern authors, digital publishing has reached a transformative plateau where thought leaders are asking questions such as: What more can we do in this form? How can we make better use of complex content? How can we create more efficient user experience? Well, the answer is: plenty. Like the call to action echoed in the Kellogg’s commercial, we seem to be at the precipice of taking on the challenge, awakening to a fundamental reexamining of the digital landscape and the processes involved in its creation. In doing so, we have the potential to exponentially advance, transform, and enrich digital user experience and branding initiatives as we move into the future. So, since we have witnessed the dawn and emergence of “modernist” New Media, I would like to put forth the notion that we have entered a subtle paradigm shift to the postmodern era of New Media. The questions now become: How does this shift manifest itself in the context of the digital landscape with regard to editorial strategy, and what are the benefits of this movement? Well, I’m glad you asked…
The Microscope of Editorial Strategy
In his presentation, “Exploring Editorial Strategy”, for the Content Strategy Forum 2010 in Paris, Jeffrey MacIntyre really gets to the heart of the matter, intimating that if you creating interactive experiences for the web then you are a publisher. Other content thought leaders such as Kristina Halvorson and Erin Kissane have eloquently illustrated this as well. At face value, it might not seem that these declarations are revolutionary, but sometimes, like the Corn Flakes commercial, it is a mere tweaking of that angle of approach or view that can have the most substantial impact sending ripples of change through a system leading to substantive progress within that system. Likewise, it can be difficult to get everybody on board. This is why Mr. MacIntyre’s presentation is so important because it opens us to a deeper, more comprehensive exploration and examination of the processes, approaches, ideas and results that define more efficient interactive experiences and their accompanying brands. When we use terms like “digital publishing” or “editorial strategy” once reserved solely for print mediums, it provides a more familiar context to further elicit the point that when we create websites we are publishing and developing narratives. Can you imagine a magazine without editorial leadership or an editorial strategy? Of course not. Then why should it be any different for a website that houses your brand message? It shouldn’t and it isn’t. Many of the same theoretical principles, processes and disciplines that are used in print mediums are reciprocal to the digital space and are just as integral in a complex and ever-expanding, content-laden digital landscape. The essence of this movement then is not an attempt to trick our minds into taking a wholly new view of the digital landscape, but rather to awaken us to a future that has been always existed within the New Media form. So what exactly are the benefits of applying this “new” view in the context of digital editorial strategy? I’m glad you asked that too…
Content is a direct extension of your digital brand. It has also reached a unprecedented level of complexity. When digital publishing teams execute editorial strategy, they are really looking at content under a microscope, extracting and dissecting the many parts of a complex system and underlying fabrics that make up a whole. In doing so, these parts are shaped, improved and defined at every level of the user experience. Then, if the process is executed correctly, we transmit more efficient messages, hone a better product, further reach, transmit clearer messages and maximize the quality of that user experience. Also, a well defined editorial and content strategy not only includes strategic research, planning, analysis and implementation but also provides a complex system and strategy for curation (which is large distinguishing factor from print) that continues to give digital brands value over time. This can be done with a “inside-out” strategy approach that results in creating a strong foundation for a new brand or in strengthening an existing one. So, with all of this in mind, I would argue that a company’s digital publishing initiatives, with a properly executed editorial strategy at its core, is one of the most crucial aspects to the outcome of their digital brand’s effectiveness.
Realm of the DED
Additionally, it is important to provide an explanation of how the fundamental shift of postmodern New Media movement and its inherent editorial and content strategies fit into a company’s organizational structure. For larger and medium sized organizations this is a new, more detailed set of services that can be offered through strategic planning departments or interactive departments and also by smaller interactive shops that specialize in content creation. As a result, by expanding their strategic services to include a cogent, well executed editorial strategy, interactive media companies can increase their production and bottom line while increasing the bottom line of their clients.
Also, with these new processes and approaches toward digital publishing, new positions are developing to fulfill these obligations and if editorial strategy is at the core, then much like a magazine, there should be similar transferable masthead for positions within this organizational structure. I refer to the person who spearheads digital editorial strategy on a web development team as the Digital Editorial Director (DED). In her groundbreaking book Content Strategy for the Web, Kristina Halvorson refers to this position as the Web Editor in Chief and certainly these might be used interchangeably. Essentially, the DED leads the complex facets of digital editorial strategy and is well versed in a variety of subset disciplines as well as the web development cycle. The nature of the organization will dictate how the DED will be used and moving into the future, I see the DED position as integral to the success of digital branding. Also, depending on the size of a interactive media company it is certainly possible for the DED to carry out several roles within the realm of editorial strategy, project management, digital production or other sub-disciplinary roles such as information architect, web writer, web editor, SEO specialist, etc. Conversely, a person who occupies the title of one of these subordinate roles may handle the duties of the DED. Obviously, depending on organizational objectives and context, there are many ways this could work, but regardless, in my opinion, there needs to be a strong point person leading an organizations’ digital editorial strategy. Also, the better we define these interactive disciplines, the easier we are able form organizational models to aid in the development and implementation of these roles in creating future interactive cycles.
Map to the Future
To provide a visual representation of how digital publishing with editorial strategy as it s core might fit into an organization or work as a part of a larger strategic planning initiative, I have created the following concept map. This diagram is part organizational structure, part hierarchical structure and entirely just some brainstorming on my part. Again, many of the disciplines and their relative positions may overlap. There are no hard walls here.
Also, although I consider content strategy as subset of editorial strategy it is really a chicken before the egg scenario where they are two sides of the same coin. If content strategy is the subordinate, then it is the axis on which editorial strategy spins. Additionally, although I have seen them represented as such, I do not separate design or information architecture from a larger editorial strategy and while I think that social media strategy can be considered a facet of editorial strategy, I have given it a separate heading, because I think it is guided by a slightly different set of fundamental principles. Anyway, here is the map:
