Online editorial
People get quite worked up about what makes
"compelling content" for websites, but for us it seems pretty simple.
What websites need is content which is:
- Interesting
- Well-written
- Timely (nobody likes seeing out-of-date editorial)
- Tuned to the users' demographics. This sounds pompous, but
all it means in practice is that a story can be written to please Sun readers,
and then rewritten to interest Times readers - same story,
different presentation
- In other words... journalism.
We wouldn't dream of suggesting that the journalism carried in
your daily newspaper is exactly the same as the sort of journalism
that makes for good online editorial - but both should obey the
four simple rules described above, and strong writing is at the
heart of both. CPL was founded by people who
are professional journalists to their inky fingertips. We know
what people like to read, whether they're sprawled on the sofa
with a glossy magazine for an idle hour or snatching five minutes'
browsing in front of a 72dpi monitor that's never seen a screen-wipe.
The editorial content we've supplied for Internet sites falls
into four broad categories: lifestyle, business, news and shopping.
The links below are to screen grabs - some may take a little time
to download.
Lifestyle
A useful catch-all phrase for anything and everything to do with
modern living (except the bits to do with work, of course). We
prepared a large amount of lifestyle content for Breathe in the
run-up to the launch of this well-known portal, which required
us to write content and research pictures designed to appeal
to young, urban males with attitude. This included music, motorsport, computer
games, health, food
and drink, motoring and sport.
However, we wouldn't want you to go away thinking that we couldn't
write for a more mature audience, so take a look one of the travel
guides we wrote for Egg's website. Much more sober...
Business
There are four million businesses in Britain, and 97 per cent of them are classified
as small or medium-sized. For online publishers, reaching this massive (and
valuable) audience is proving a key task. Our long experience with the Federation
of Small Businesses has helped us to win work writing online content
about small business with such clients as NTL, Blueyonder, Mondus and Bizzadvice,
ranging from short, snappy advice
pieces through longer business
guides to case studies and profiles of
successful entrepreneurs.
News
News writing is another speciality of ours. Although there are a thousand and
one mainstream news sources on the Internet, there are very few companies
capable of turning out news stories written to order for specialist audiences.
We like to think that there is no sector for which we cannot create dedicated
daily or weekly news feeds - whether it's travel, the restaurant sector,
or anything in between.
Shopping
The selling of goods and services online is one of the success
stories of the Internet. However, there is a drawback to online
purchasing - sometimes it can feel a bit like buying a pig in
a poke. Lots of shopping sites carry information about their
products - but the problem is that most of it reads like PR copy
(mainly because it is PR copy, and supplied by the manufacturer
to boot). Sometimes, what's needed is some journalistic flair
- balanced, even-handed writing that will reassure people that
what they're buying is going to prove worthwhile, whether via
specific product
reviews or more general consumer
guides.
If you need to build editorial content for your website, get
in touch; it won't cost you anything, and you'll be talking
to people with a lot of practical, hands-on experience of creating
compelling content.
|
