The craft of journalism has truly stood the test of time as the decades passed by. From a multipurpose print and television/radio extravagance, the spirit of journalism has evolved as a flexible platform, delivering substantial and significant information to the general public. With its undeniable prestige and audacious intricacy, journalism has garnered a strong following from various generation cohorts; becoming one of the top choices professions around the globe.

The unequivocal reign of journalism is evident across all nations as the profession serves as a noble work for public service. However, the newsroom industry has seen a dramatic decline in terms of newspaper revenue. The rise of sensationalism in the mass media is said to be the main reason for the gradual recession, affecting various media community all over the world. Massive layoffs have also become subsequent results due to the decline of wages; not to mention the evident negligence on the journalistic legacy. Furthermore, the stigmatized political disclosures have contributed to this downturn, yet the industry is seen working hard to bounce back from its polarizing position.

Despite the unexpected downtick, media and journalism graduates did not find difficulty in shifting industry. Although journalism has lost a tremendous amount of practitioners on the newsroom, the corporate industry came in as alleviating conservator of such talents. According to them, journalism is not the only industry that revolves around scribbles and research, which is true. There’s always a new shelter to comfort with and that’s when digital marketing served fresh on the table.

Significant Crossover to Content Marketing

The outstanding growth of digital marketing provides bountiful opportunities to the Millennial generation. Seeing such advancement of technological advent, the rise of sales and marketing industries like BPO has become a solution to many practitioners. For the journalism community, the process of learning and unlearning came in easy in digital marketing. The transition from being a journalist to a content writer is no longer a dilemma, the fact that both industries share almost the same qualification with writing as a fundamental requirement. Shelving of journalistic skills is not even an option in content marketing. Editorial, extensive research, and strong command of grammar are essential skills in journalism profitable in content marketing as well. Nonetheless, a few familiar-sounding essentials must be upheld to succeed in this corporate crossover.

To discuss more the matter, read on to know why a journalist will make an excellent content writer.

  1. They Know the Industry – If said journalists know the industry, this implies the walkthrough around writing and its conception; not necessarily the digital marketing. Media practitioners who have adept skills in communication through writing can easily bring the passing ticket to content marketing. People like them who worked previously in reputable publications have a default understanding of possible content writing drawbacks including basic etiquette like copyrights. They have utmost respect and appreciation for written works and lifting off information without proper source attribution is out of their style. On a related note, journalists perfectly understand the art of deadlines as they are wired to work efficiently under stiff timeframe.
  2. They Tell Stories With Accuracy – Journalistic works like a piece of news are a human interest. Paralleled to digital marketing, content writing also exhibits compelling narratives easily understood by readers. The main objective of journalism is to present relevant yet factual information with the purpose of informing the public. Portraying critical topics in a neutral and unbiased demeanor while disregarding the writer’s opinionated judgment. Similarly, as to content writing, the goal is to bestow unbiased information. Offering clear and useful ideas which are helpful to the audience without mollifying the story just to bewilder readers. Brand awareness is one of the primary objectives of content writing. A writer, specifically a journalist, who has both style and substance can create a perfect formula to constitute marketable content for content marketing.
  3. They Have Creative Yet Strategic Standpoint – As mentioned in the previous point, journalists are taught to uphold neutral principles in their body of work. Yet marketing shares the same posture, the content writing proposition also includes call to action to drive sales and prospect collaboration. In this content marketing aspect, a journalist will easily incorporate strategic action to deliver information without blatantly focusing on purchase from the audience. Creativity is conferred in the written content while persuading and engaging the audience. This transition will likely require little adjustments to those who were predisposed in straight news writing. To ultimately succeed in the content marketing, the writer can spread awareness of the brand beforehand, then solidify credibility before pitching sales subtly. Remember, content writers aren’t correspondents for general or local beats — they establish substantial influence to cater prospect clients and consumers.
  4. They Research Like No Other – There’s no room for ambiguity in journalism, so as in content marketing. Extensive research and legitimate citations are highly critical in content writing. While journalists execute phone calls and interviews to validate information before publishing, content writers relatively perform online research through digital libraries and credible publications. These writers competitively create quality and unique content to compete with other writers on the search engines. Content writers, with journalistic foundation, investigate every angle of the topic before coming up with written article for publishing. For author citations, LinkedIn is a prominent platform for validating influencers and their works. Unlike in journalism, content writers don’t have to physically interview sources. It’s much time-efficient and convenient to look out credible sources through online directories like LinkedIn.
  5. They Don’t Stop Learning – Journalists write for life. As radical thinkers, they present complex and technical issues into an easily-churned content for the benefit of the readers. They constantly instill useful information while seeking the truth. If a journalist shifts trajectory as a content writer, the hunger for knowledge and relevant information will prevail. With this, journalists will find no problem tailoring themselves fit on the content marketing position. In lieu of this, content writing has to follow certain search engine optimization (SEO) rules. The guidelines of proper article format, keyword integration, and understanding the algorithm will be much of journalist’s delight to profoundly learn every single detail of it. Web-exclusive content is basically different from a published news. Nevertheless, with eagerness to innovate, journalists can command their writing style easily into an authoritative content writer with class and brilliance.

Journalists are inherently sisters of content writers. To such a degree, a journalist can operate competently in the corporate world of digital marketing. With the far-reaching breakthrough of technological marketing, it is not impossible for media practitioners to shift industry and work as content writers. Aside from content marketing’s lucrative and experimental nature, the body of work itself is a digital odyssey of innovation and challenges. With journalists’ state of ambitious mindset, sure thing being an online strategist is not a problem to them.