I just finished reading a Media Post article, Online News Sites Struggle With RSS Challenge, by Gavin O’Malley. The crux of it? News sites are having a hard time dealing with the speed in which people are now able to receive news and information. I Blog it, you get it (if you have an RSS feed). This concept is leaving people like The Los Angeles Times struggling to figure out exactly how to implicate the technology to stay “ahead of the curve.”
The article has some interesting information on things you need to know about this new wave of publishing. I particularly like the quote: “Advertisers are coming to us will a lot of questions about RSS,” said Gene McKenna, vice president of product management at Digital Impact, which manages the marketing campaign for the likes of HP, Gap, and Marriott. “I think it’s still early yet, but we encourage advertisers to be forward-thinking and position themselves accordingly.”
Keep encouraging those clients because their competition has already either figured it out or experimenting with it.
The real challenge with RSS is identifying who can make the communications have true value (delivering great content) and who the users are that want it (they’ll not only grab the feed but tell everyone they know about it).
RSS is about quick publishing and immediate syndication. Publishing is about advertising dollars only if the content has “legs” and the readers demand it… faster than ever before.