On Repackaging Content
If you watch cable television carefully, you will see an interview clip from one program replayed again in another program. Perhaps you’ve had the feeling you’ve seen a show before, but then again . . . maybe not? Packaging and repackaging bits of content makes it worth more and last longer. Five uses for the same content stretches the corporate dollar.
It seems backwards doesn’t it . . . to reuse content in a time when there is so much of it? But it makes sense. If I know my content is accurate and high quality, I should share it with as large an audience as I can — particularly in this time of attention economy.
So Much Content . . . Why?
The amount of content and information available is more than anyone can read, yet we are all being asked to know more, and more, and more. If there’s so much content already, it seems miserly doesn’t it to repackage what is already published? Not necessarily. There are valid reasons to repackage content in this age of attention economy. Repackaging and repurposing content allows a publisher
- to custom publish for individual niche markets.
- to focus publications on key principles they want to highlight.
- to show their flexibility in the marketplace.
Granted, those three points actually say the same thing in different ways. That’s exactly what repackaging is — tailoring content to suit the needs of the audience.
Giving the readers what they want instead of what we think they need — there’s a concept worth exploring. Much of the existing content probably suits existing customer needs, if only we would structure it in way that our readers found it relevant and use it as they want to rather than as we think they should.
Liz Strauss
[links to: Jeff Jarvis, Buzz Machine; bubblegum generation]