Search Engine Marketing

Poor Rolling Stone. Even when they win they lose. They have the hottest news story this morning, which is quite a feat when news cycles are so fast and there’s no shortage of competing stories from the gulf oil spill to the World Cup to worldwide flooding. When news broke about General Stanley McChrystal’s comments critical of President Obama’s administration and the United States’ plan for Afghanistan it was the opportunity for Rolling Stone to prove their relevance and prowess as world events journalists. That is if you could find the story.

As the Content Lead here at The New Group, I think it’s my duty to review and assess what’s happening in the content and media world. Today we look at a legendary magazine’s new content strategy.

Rolling Stone is taking a cue from Rupert Murdoch by relaunching its online experience with—wait for it—a pay wall. Yes, misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows, and the media industry is certainly in misery.

The Associated Press reported that the April 19 RollingStone.com relaunch will not only be a look and feel redesign but also a new approach to its online content and business model.

Remember when you got started on Facebook? There was that phase a few months into it where every high-school friend was suddenly back on your radar, whether or not there as any reason to have remembered them in the first place. Waves of old and new faces would wash up on the shore of your in-box. Some of us indiscriminately accepted all. Some others took more time to approve or maybe ignore some of the more hinky ones.

Social Networks right now are merely dumps of nearly infinite connections, powered by XML and RSS. If the robot even thinks there’s a connection, it is programmed to go ahead and make it, hoping that you, the human, will sort it out later.