Gerry McGovern has some interesting predictions for content in 2004. According to Gerry,
This is the year when web content comes of age. Organizations will slowly stop viewing content as some cost that needs to be managed. Instead, they will begin to see content as an asset that can drive profits and productivity.
Interestingly enough, at the hospital, we’re encountering a number of the points he raises in his article, so for us at least, it looks like his predictions might be dead on.
I’m not sure that as an organization we’re taking content seriously yet, but we are certainly starting to do that within our Marketing and Communications group, in particular with regard to the web.
Finally, we are instituting publishing time tables, an overall editorial calendar and a defined publication process (with specific roles assigned relating to that process).
Some of it has come fairly easy, some less so, but as we start to recognize that there is a cost (the time taken to create it) and a value (the benefit it provides to the reader) to content, so we are becoming more prepared to invest more of the former in order to gain more of the latter.
We are even talking about the potential need to change people’s job descriptions in order to incorporate these content-based roles. Our web team has done a lot to promote the creation and management of good content, and so it’s gratifying to see these efforts start to come to fruition.