The importance of drillable content

Local media companies will have to thrive on both sides of the digital content divide

I read a lot about the future of journalism. No offense to the FON gang on the East Coast, but Ezra Klein leaving the Washington Post or which Brit is leading the Wall Street Journal or New York Times is of little importance to me. But I take great interest in anything that applies to local media properties.
Few articles have resonated with me as much as Clip Report Volume II from August 2012 by Steve Rubel of Edelman Digital. In this piece, Rubel discusses "The Continental Content Divide," a phrase coined by Dr. Henry Jenkins of USC.
Jenkins was among the first to explain the growing trend of transmedia storytelling - how publishers were using social media to attract audience to their legacy content.
Rubel offers a variety of descriptions for this content divide. One is "news crafted to find you and news you seek to find." Another is spread-able vs. drill-able, as in content you can spread around (share easily) vs. content in which you want to take a deep dive and spend more time with. How about news stand vs. nightstand, as in something easily digested vs. something you'll delay consuming until you are able to devote adequate time and attention.
As Rubel explains, many pure play news sites built on large-scale quick-hit content have been leveraging longform storytelling. (More on “the genius of and" in a later post.) Buzzfeed, Huffington Post and ESPN are among them.
So how does this apply to local news companies? We must have shareable and drillable content. We must have news that is easy to share. We must have content that people want to dig into and spend time with.

Digital loyalty is driven by usability and trust that the provider will have what the consumer finds of value. Sometimes value to a reader is a quick scan of the news, and sometimes it’s a quest for more depth and meaning. Local media companies will not be able to survive on shareable content alone. It’s too difficult to scale local content to match current digital advertising revenue models (which AOL’s Patch confirmed).

When the city council approves a 5 percent pay hike for the city attorney and city clerk, that's shareable content. It can be consumed via Facebook or a tweet.
But what that news actually means - that's drillable content. The union leader says the 5 percent hike is a road map for upcoming contract negotiations. Can the city afford a 5 percent pay increase for its staff? How about the long-term costs of pension obligations? Council members say they would lose top executives if pay is not competitive with larger entities. Is there any evidence of that? Provide data on the potential impact of 5 percent raises on the city budget and obligations. Provide depth and context on municipal executive pay.
I am frequently reminded of the content divide. Among the most cherished notions of many local newsrooms is that we are at our best when we report "what" happens. We report the news, quote a couple of stakeholders from opposing sides, and we're done. But we actually are of the most value to readers when we explain what the news means. We don't do nearly enough deep reporting to make more stories drillable.
The great content divide is drillable vs. shareable. We must do each well. How to prioritize resources is crucial to meet our dual missions of holding people accountable and chronicling the life of the community. There are plenty of ways to get your shareable content. Drillable content? Not so much.
I was recently reminded of this in Jack Smith IV's excellent piece on using storytelling to educate readers.
Don't just inform people. Provide analysis. Explain things. Teach. Smith shows how we've never had better tools to provide drillable content. We would be smart to sort out how to put them to use. <i>Nels Jensen is a veteran editor with extensive experience in news, digital content, audience development, video programming and process innovation. He can be reached via nelsbjensen@gmail.com or @NelsJ.</i>