Content Startegy: Journalism vs Marketing (Is there a difference?)

There’s certainly a lot of mind share being given to the convergence of journalism and marketing right now. One has to wonder where the “writing for writing’s sake” is now. There are plenty of people blogging because they enjoy it. Follow enough respected blogs and you get a “well-rounded” view of what’s going on, or you innately know when someone has an authentic point of view. But there are plenty more people blogging just to generate traffic. As far as the powerhouse media companies’ neutrality and integrity…that’s one *big* topic right there.

On the subject of marketing, I do believe that marketing can “create and capture value” and that we’re at the beginning of a revolution in the way marketing is conducted. Everyone can name products and services that they absolutely love, that they made conscious decisions to purchase, instead of settling for a less-than-ideal compromise. That’s a good sign. What’s important to me about marketing is that it’s not all about promotion. The old view of “sell what ya got” is fortunately dying away. It will take some years for the old “manipulation’ image to die away completely. Going forward, it will become more difficult to find products or services that haven’t been well-designed to meet a well-defined need. That gives me hope.
As far as Content Strategy goes, I think I’ve got my head around its purpose and am confident this course will enlighten me further.