Does Outsourced News Offer Advantage Vs. Staff-Written Articles?
by Howard Rauch, President, Editorial Solutions, Inc.
In competitive analysis projects focusing on e-news delivery, what's the chance that outsourced
articles usually will win out when the opposition's content is staff-written? The answer is "not
always" . . . but often enough, especially when it comes to basic editing practice.
For the purposes of this discussion,"outsourced" e-news pertains to those sites where, say,
aggragated blurbs link directly to articles published in dailies. Other times, the source material
may be provided by wire services. And then (argh!!!) there are cases where articles actually are
announcements reproduced in their entirety.
In the past, I've handled a few competitive analysis projects where my client's staff-written e-
news came up short vs. the opposition's outsourced content. Right now, a follow-up e-news
performance study I am conducting includes evaluation of several sites that use only outsourced
articles. The reviews confirm five strengths that have proved to be especially vexing:
(1) Enterprise level is considerably higher. Local reporters often obtain direct quotes from well-
placed end-user sources that enhance article credibility.
(2) Site visitors don't get bogged down in foggy writing. Parades of incredibly long sentences are
rare. On-target Fog Index levels are the rule rather than the exception.
(3) In most cases where articles are evaluated using my eight-factor scoring system, average
scores are 15 to 30 points higher than those achieved by staff-written e-news packages.
(4) Executed correctly, provided e-news consistently addresses content of highest impact.
Packages are not weighed down with rewrites of standard PR announcements.
(5) Staff does not have to spend time gathering material. That time probably is unavailable in the
first place. This has to be a key consideration for the surprising number of sites -- where
magazines have monthly frequencies -- that are churning out daily and sometimes twice-daily e-
newsletter alerts.
Of course, there are many cases where staff-written B2B news packages can meet or exceed the
standard set by sites featuring outsourced content. However, when that is true, most of the time
it is because one or more dedicated on-line editors are part of the e-news team. It's also true
that sometimes, even given the advantage of a dedicated on-line crew, the resulting news
stream is less than the best.
Now . . . how about those situations where all magazines serving a given industry rely totally on
outsourced e-news? If you manage one such site, how do you prove -- in the competitive analysis
arena -- that your package is the best? I've just begun considering possible factors to use in
upcoming projects. The preliminary list includes number of items run per issue, exclusives (really
hard to prove, it seems), scoops, quality of sources quoted, diversified formats and geographic
scope. Another conceivable strength is the inclusion of exclusive information or editorial comment
in the aggregated blurbs.
Despite the apparent advantages outsourced news may provide, we need to have more e-news
sections dominated by high-enterprise, self-generated articles. However, of 34 e-news packages
reviewed to date in my current 50-site study, only nine are star performers (average score = 60 or
higher out of a possible 100 points). Of the 417 articles posted:
#############
by Howard Rauch, President, Editorial Solutions, Inc.
In competitive analysis projects focusing on e-news delivery, what's the chance that outsourced
articles usually will win out when the opposition's content is staff-written? The answer is "not
always" . . . but often enough, especially when it comes to basic editing practice.
For the purposes of this discussion,"outsourced" e-news pertains to those sites where, say,
aggragated blurbs link directly to articles published in dailies. Other times, the source material
may be provided by wire services. And then (argh!!!) there are cases where articles actually are
announcements reproduced in their entirety.
In the past, I've handled a few competitive analysis projects where my client's staff-written e-
news came up short vs. the opposition's outsourced content. Right now, a follow-up e-news
performance study I am conducting includes evaluation of several sites that use only outsourced
articles. The reviews confirm five strengths that have proved to be especially vexing:
(1) Enterprise level is considerably higher. Local reporters often obtain direct quotes from well-
placed end-user sources that enhance article credibility.
(2) Site visitors don't get bogged down in foggy writing. Parades of incredibly long sentences are
rare. On-target Fog Index levels are the rule rather than the exception.
(3) In most cases where articles are evaluated using my eight-factor scoring system, average
scores are 15 to 30 points higher than those achieved by staff-written e-news packages.
(4) Executed correctly, provided e-news consistently addresses content of highest impact.
Packages are not weighed down with rewrites of standard PR announcements.
(5) Staff does not have to spend time gathering material. That time probably is unavailable in the
first place. This has to be a key consideration for the surprising number of sites -- where
magazines have monthly frequencies -- that are churning out daily and sometimes twice-daily e-
newsletter alerts.
Of course, there are many cases where staff-written B2B news packages can meet or exceed the
standard set by sites featuring outsourced content. However, when that is true, most of the time
it is because one or more dedicated on-line editors are part of the e-news team. It's also true
that sometimes, even given the advantage of a dedicated on-line crew, the resulting news
stream is less than the best.
Now . . . how about those situations where all magazines serving a given industry rely totally on
outsourced e-news? If you manage one such site, how do you prove -- in the competitive analysis
arena -- that your package is the best? I've just begun considering possible factors to use in
upcoming projects. The preliminary list includes number of items run per issue, exclusives (really
hard to prove, it seems), scoops, quality of sources quoted, diversified formats and geographic
scope. Another conceivable strength is the inclusion of exclusive information or editorial comment
in the aggregated blurbs.
Despite the apparent advantages outsourced news may provide, we need to have more e-news
sections dominated by high-enterprise, self-generated articles. However, of 34 e-news packages
reviewed to date in my current 50-site study, only nine are star performers (average score = 60 or
higher out of a possible 100 points). Of the 417 articles posted:
- 242 -- 57.8% -- did not reflect enterprise reporting.
- 171 -- 41.1% -- were burdened by high Fog Index grade levels (exceeding 13.0).
- 131 -- 31.4% -- fielded average sentence lengths exceeding 25 words; too many parades of
30- and 40-word sentences were observed.
#############
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Editorial Solutions, Inc.