A year later, the results show healthy growth – the web site now has more daily visitors than the print edition has subscribers:

“Since Fredrikstad Blad reallocated its resources, the Web site has shown significant growth. The number of daily visitors has risen 27 percent, to 26,000, according to Mecom. Advertising revenue in the first half of this year more than doubled from a year earlier, to €812,000.”

While the numbers look good so far, the article notes that Norway is different from other newspaper markets because of stronger loyalty among print subscribers, and that Fredrikstad Blad has undergone a 20% staff reduction.

via For a Norwegian Newspaper, Equal Focus on Print and Web | Future Changes.

The ICSC sees the stakes as being high. Not only is lousy content devaluing professional content in their eyes, it is making the Web experience worse for the average user. “The ICSC believes that content creators and publishers should work to preserve the utility of the Internet for users and advertisers alike,” reads the report.

To do so, the ICSC guidelines—geared toward informational content, not opinion or entertainment—are focused on the importance of journalistic principles. For example, the guidelines encourage that formal editorial processes be adhered to whether articles are produced by staff writers or freelancers. All Web articles should be date stamped, and all corrections be clearly labeled. Plus, perhaps most controversially—the ICSC believes that a writer’s credentials should be prominently displayed alongside their work.

via Mike Shields, Internet Content Syndication Council Proposes Content Guidelines.

[O]ne could easily use Drupal’s built-in user access controls, content types, and taxonomy capabilities to create a simple style guide involving several contributors. For different or specific functionality, you could even use book features or add wiki-like behaviors with other modules.

We did something similar to this with our own firm handbook; it’s meant as a collaborative repository of Digett’s own policies and procedures. Our own style requirements—few as they may be—could easily be included, if I ever get tired of housing them in my own noggin.

via Where are all the Web-Based Style Guides? | Digett.

Whether on the supply side of content and applications, or on the distribution and run-time side of the equation, what is abundantly clear is that reach is still king. For platform makers, these battles will continue as they all seek to drive sufficient reach for their open and proprietary standards such that they can exploit this distribution for their core commercial goals. Likewise, and more important, whatever standards and models deliver the broadest reach will ultimately drive what is adopted by publishers, developers and ISVs.

via Jeremy Allaire, The Future of Web Content – HTML5, Flash & Mobile Apps | TechCrunch.

I can tell you how I’d like to work with a content strategist as co-designers. I need you, Content Strategist Person, to tell me the following 10 things about content:

1. Range of priorities: The range of priorities within a given content type. For example, is every press release going to be equally important (or unimportant), or is there a big spread between the most important and the least important press release?

2. Algorithmic prioritization: Whether the relative priority among its peers can be determined by a rule, or if a human needs to decide. That is, given a set of five press releases, is there a rule I can reliably apply that will prioritize them? (For example: release date.)

3. Inherent prioritization: Whether there is an inherent prioritization between content types. That is, is every press release going to be more important than every white paper?

4. Plans for growth: The organization’s plans for growing or changing the content.

5. Level of effort: The complexity of the production process for each content type. Which content is hard to produce? Which content is easy to produce? Which content can I count on to always be up-to-date? Which content should be prioritized when it appears, and otherwise remain in the background?

6. Metadata authoring: The organization’s capacity for applying metadata, and what’s realistic in terms of populating a metadata framework. We’ll have lots of good ideas on how to link content together, but those ideas probably won’t work unless we understand the organization’s ability to tag the content.

7. Metadata parameters: Parameters for different metadata fields. As we’re designing wireframes, let’s be smart about how much text we need to display.

8. User needs: The need for transparency to the users about some of the underlying structures. How much do users care about content type? Help me distinguish administrative metadata from metadata that actually contributes to findability.

9. Users needs (2): How the content fits into user scenarios. Is this transient content (stuff just to get them just to the next step) or destination content? How will people use the content once they find it? What are you doing to align the content with requirements specified in personas or elsewhere?

10. Sample content: Finally, if you want me to put sample content in my wireframes, I’m totally game. Just give me the sample content.

via Dan Brown, Letter to a Content Strategist « Greenonions.