Press Gazette and Burger King Xmas Burgers

A few months ago we wrote about how content marketing is eroding the relevance of PR. But the press-release jockeys are not the only people affected, because journalism is, too. In this post, we’ve the view of a former Centaur MD, plus a story about Mirror journalists and Burger King’s three new Christmas burgers

Journalist should embrace content marketing

Journalists should embrace content marketing or go the way of typesetters. At least that is the view of Tim Potter, the former MD of trade publisher Centaur. In a Press Gazette piece he draws a parallel between today’s business journos and his own father, a typesetter who never worked again after being made redundant in 1989 at the age of 59.

So what did that teach him? The key lesson, he says, is that no one can predict the future. You have to move with the times. And furthermore that change can help you to become better.

Speaking about content marketing, he goes on to state: “[In] the financial services media interviews with fund managers about stock selection or market performance have always been important, well-read content. But some of the best journalists in the B2B media are now finding that it is more satisfying to create content for a marketing department then an overstretched editorial team.”

Burger King burger-selling journalists

It is interesting that the Press Gazette ran Potter’s pro-content marketing piece because appearing on the same web page is a link to this story. Headline: “Daily Mirror resorts to making journalists sell burgers”.

The idea of Mirror journos out in Canary Wharf flogging Whoppers is appealing, but it’s not about that. Instead it concerns a piece of thinly-veiled native advertising talking about the chain’s three new Christmas burgers.

To be fair to the Press Gazette, it isn’t good if this is being passed off as genuine news. One hopes there wasn’t a full-page ad facing it. But on the other hand, if it was an advertorial, would it be so wrong for a Mirror journalist to have written it?