Companies are increasingly hiring former journalists to work in-house to help get them closer to their target audiences. Sophy Buckley looks at why The concept of brand journalism has been around since tractor manufacturer John Deere's corporate magazine The Furrow was first published in 1895. The Furrow and the Michelin Guides, which followed in 1900, used editorial to promote their wares without actually writing about them. All are still going strong today. The more recent surge in companies cottoning on to this brand-building hack of going directly to audiences with informed, well written and relevant stories follows a steady decline in traditional advertising - combined with the explosion of digital platforms and social media. These days, if companies have something to say, they can say it directly on their own platforms. But this requires a new type of corporate marketing expert to help turn companies into publishers. And so businesses, from banks to software specialists and retailers to auditors, are increasingly turning to former journalists to develop and oversee the quality of their content programmes. Says Mark Atkinson, a former economics correspondent at the Guardian who now oversees marketing and communications at an investment trust: "Brands can bypass the whole [...]The post How journalists are helping turn companies into publishers appeared first on FirstWord Media.
