The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Content is king again, starts Matthew Yeoman of AdAge. "And curated content [meaning content created and controlled by a publisher or producer rather than any individual] at that. After half a decade's dalliance with crowdsourcing, user-generated content and giving up 'control' brands once more have realized they have a responsibility and a right to tell their own stories. There's just one problem. In those five or six years the rules of brand engagement changed and, for the most part, brand and PR managers along with the agencies they retain to help 'tell their story' have little idea how to create editorial content in a social media culture that craves 24-7 information instead of the occasional disruption of an advertising or PR campaign." Brand managers can tell their story anyway they want. During the 1950s, they control television soap operas but that ended in the Sixties when the audience craved more creativity. Neither brand nor content is king. The viewer (reader) is king.