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Scoop is not just an entity where you can publish your press release through,
it's a media organisation in its own right.
The decision was made to basically open up the gates
to what only the journalists used to see.
We have between one and two million pages read per month.
When the statement comes in, we're looking at it,
and we're getting shaped in our own thinking as well;
and you quite often will probably see us talking about issues out there on radio,
sometimes on television.
Blog writers are an important part of this whole media environment today.
Their views are often persuasive and influential, particularly among politicians, and so by
taking the traditional route of releasing a media statement just to mainstream media
won't often get to them at all, and doing it through Scoop –
they're going through Scoop all the time.
The information on announcing something that's going to happen is important,
but also it's really important just to follow through with information that really answers
the 'why' questions, answers the 'how' questions,
items that make sense of all the information that's out there,
and that's highly valuable to people, particularly if it gives a steer on not just what has happened
in the past and what is happening now,
but it gives an indication of where this issue is going.
Pitching the idea's really important, but there'll be times where we would like to see
some evidence of the issue.
It may be by way of an abstract or a synopsis of what the article would be about.
What are the complexities that are lying behind it, what are the opposing ideas,
where's the thinking of those who do not subscribe to this point of view,
why is it necessary for this information to be out now.
Structure is important.
For example if you wrote ten thousand words without structure,
well people probably wouldn't get past, you know, the first ten percent of it.
The other thing with longer pieces too, it's often very important to illustrate them,
and so really what you're seeing is organisations
are starting to have to think in a way like journalists.
Pieces that give a background to what is happening, an insight into some of the subtleties,
investigative pieces, analysis pieces that are well-written, well-timed,
they rate very well and they will also continue to be a body of work
that people will cite in the future.
Because the database is open and it doesn't have a time-limit to that,
we find that we often see references to items that are in the Scoop database
from years ago.
One of the things that we don't like is just petty kind of jabbing at people or organisations.
Chase the ball, you don't chase the player.
Pieces that are insightful, that lift the lid, that humanise, that fit with our core
editorial policies like humanitarianism, they'll work really well.
Headlines are important to capture exactly what it's about.
Some people find headline writing really quite difficult, but we're all used to telling our
friends and our families exactly what's happened in fairly short and concise ways.
Ok, I'm going to ring up and I'm going to tell my brother, my sister, my partner
on what this is about, and then your headline can usually come into that.
If you looked at your first two paragraphs in the article that you've written,
you'll find the key words in there will probably indicate what the headline should be.
Written text is a very, very good way of getting information out, but there are some things
where audio and certainly video are the best vehicle of getting information out there.
It may be that you've got an interview, or a one-on-one with a very special person
that perhaps text just can't quite capture.
Three minutes on... with a YouTube video may actually be able to get that out to
many, many, many thousands of people.
The text can also be written around what is in that video – for example, position the
video in the page, you know, in that top third so that people are seeing it.
We all live within a global village, but there may be, for example,
a disaster that has occurred in our region, perhaps.
Some of the issues relating to the impact on the people –
there's ways of bringing that out and communicating that effectively,
knowing that you're not just talking to New Zealanders here.
Put it this way, instead of your message being placed into the hands of another who may,
or may not really grasp what your message really is about,
you can control it more by doing it this way through us.
Obviously in some cases it will be challenged by other players,
but it is a way of getting your material out there how you see it,
and also in a way that will not be touched by others.
If one believes that an issue is being trivialised, or it hasn't been communicated to the public
in a robust way, then there's an opportunity to use a vehicle like Scoop to make sure that
your view on how it should be is actually out there.