Preditors Bring New Life to Old Media

That’s right, I mean “preditors” (online publisher/editors), not “predators” (people who prey on others).

I just read an interesting piece in The New York Times (“Slicing Decades of Video for New Life on the Web” by Brian Stelter). Stelter describes how media companies are repackaging old TV footage and posting it on the Web. One such media company is Discovery Communications (DC), which owns The Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet and the Science Channel, among others.

Preditors search through old video files from past shows that likely will not make it to the air again. Yet the material is still interesting, still relevant. People want to watch the footage – especially when it’s repackaged into 7-minute or shorter bits – and advertisers are clamoring to support the postings.

This is a great example of a company paying attention to trends (people watching video online or on their cell phones) and finding a way to meet customers’ needs while making a profit.

As a PR practitioner, you need to keep your eyes open for similar opportunities for your clients. For example, maybe your client has a backlog of graphic images it might want to repackage and sell – one image at a time or on a subscription basis – to similar organizations without graphic designers. You could offer this service online and maybe even attract related advertisers to help pay for the space.

Or what if you work for a client that promotes nutrition education. Perhaps you have “evergreen” newsletter stories about food-borne diseases, such as salmonella, that would be particularly relevant now. You could create a Web site with links to these stories, or you could repackage them as hints or posts on a blog.

Can you think of other examples of what companies – especially traditional media – might be able to repackage and sell online? What about newspapers? Do they have old information that might be worth something to someone? Or might they have new information people might pay for?