Gadgetopia

Build a better journalism career by shifting your focus from writing stories to creating assets: Here’s a good argument that journalists (bloggers?) should strive to create enduring content “assets” in addition to the latest and great stories.

Look first toward creating evergreen assets that readers will continue searching for years in the future. These pieces should be written with search engine optimization in mind, and be stored at unique, easy-to-link URLs that are prominently featured in your site’s navigation.

He continues with a common theme here on Gadgetopia:

I’ve long advocated that journalists and newsrooms create “wiki”-style explainer articles  for stories of enduring interest in their communities. Edit them in-house, but link to them whenever you write a post or piece about that story, as a way for infrequent visitors to get “up to speed.” They’re great search engine bait for the curious, as well.

I’ve discussed this numerous times, most clearly in this post about the Wikipedia coverage of Hurricane Ivan:

With Wikipedia, you’re not seeing a series of posted items. You’re seeing a single body of information, continually updated and groomed. Thus, the basic information stays right where it’s easy to see. Wikis are more “speak to me like I know nothing” information, rather than “tell me the very latest nuance” information.

Other good post on this subject: Ruminations on Posts vs. Pages