Essential Elements of Brand Journalism

The new online image and reputation discipline, called Brand Journalism, centers around credible, transparent, legitimate and timely news. It is actual journalism and is not even remotely connected with PR or marketing.

PR, promotion and marketing dwell on pushing self-serving messages and ideas at audiences. Brand journalism focuses on continually engaging audiences in news stories, features, resources and images they find appealing.

Brand journalism enables any company or organization to create and communicate it’s own news and to become the respected and trusted voice for an entire industry. In a time when press releases achieve little interest and are viewed as little more than self-serving promotion, brand journalism cuts through competitive clutter to capture attention … among target audiences and the media.

Online brand journalism news sites require:

• Constant updates and news stories. The influence of brand journalism online news sites is driven fresh, new material every day. By contrast, there is nothing as boring as yesterday’s news.
• News style writing, aka USA Today and the Associated Press stylebook. PR writing does not deliver the needed credibility and looks shallow by comparison.
• Journalists and other people with actual working news experience.
• News style photos and images that grab attention.
• News b-roll HD video viewed from YouTube and available via a special FTP site for television news outlets.
• No press releases. Nothing kills the credibility and appeal of a brand journalism news site quicker than a typical press release.

More than anything, brand journalism enhances and favorably differentiates a company’s reputation as a leader, qualities that ultimately influence a unique image that is brand.

Few things are more effective or economical than brand journalism in today’s digital era when traditional PR, promotion and marketing tactics are either broken or have less impact.

When did online brand journalism begin? Possibly in 2002 when I was working with a team of attorneys in Washington to represent 12 Kuwaiti citizens who had been hauled off to the prison at Guantanamo even before anyone knew of their innocence. In order to underscore the much larger issue of denial of due process and human rights as well as to present background on the 12 Kuwaitis and provide legal documents, I developed the web site – www.KuwaitiDetainees.org (no longer online) – which achieved world prominence.

Some good current examples of online brand journalism are:

Imperial Sugar Company’s online newsroom – www.iscnewsroom.com. Imperial Sugar’s news site has been widely acclaimed as one of the best examples of contemporary online brand journalism.

Louisiana Seafood News – www.louisianaseafoodnews.com

Los Angeles Kings Hockey – http://www.insidesocal.com/kings/

Tags: Brand Journalism

Category: Brand Journalism, Featured