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Skills of Online Editors: Adding Value through Added Value
 The Internet makes it possible – from any place all over the word authors can publish their texts online, thus, making them available for the broad public. Regardless whether blogs or traditional websites are concerned – the motto "do-it-yourself" holds. However, in doing so one often loses sight of the user. In the meantime, the Internet-user has "grown up" and demands a great deal of the information content and the usability of the Internet. Completely new skills are expected from online editors: The newly gained insights provided by usability-research have to be taken in mind and have to be realised regarding the writing process and the conceptual design of the website.
The value of the Internet: from technical feasibility to content
Over the recent years, the growing rate of Internet users was even more increased by the increased availability of information via the Internet. During the initial years of the Internet the focus was primarily on the technical feasibility, availability and accessibility – acting on the maxim: The more information is available online, the more people will use the Internet as a source of information.
Every Internet presence competes with other sources of information (with sources inside the web but also with classical print media, television, radio, etc.) Inferring from the users’ reading behaviour the demands on the preparation and quality of content have risen to the same degree as the information bulk: The more information is available online, the more this content will be evaluated and selected regarding quality.
In a study dealing with web usability (www.useit.com/alertbox) Jakob Nielsen hits the nail on the head. If a website is difficult to use, the user will leave it. If it does not become clear what the website offers the user will click on to another website. If the users get lost in the jungle of offered information they will give up and leave. If the offered information is hard to find, difficult to read or irrelevant the users will turn away from the website. To put it in a nutshell: The more competently online information is made available the higher is the added value for the users.
The secret of success: online-competence
This insight into the user’s growing demands inevitably reads like an open appeal to the online-competence of all those who design, editorially control or fill an Internet presence with textual content. No matter whether professional websites of businesses, magazines, newspapers or broadcasting services are concerned, whether they are of political or commercial content – the respective information has always to be processed in such a way that the user gains an added value.
From these experiences decisive aspects of online-competences can be deduced:
1st) Information
The most recent usability research shows that the users’ behaviour concentrates on three core aspects which are also decisive for the online editor: The search of information plays a central role for Internet use. Not only technical tricks influence the amount of hits but also the editor’s ability to create texts that are suitable for search engines. The online-editor’s text itself directly influences the probability of being found by the user.
Evaluation of information: Only if the users are satisfied with the functionality of the website and can quickly determine whether the offered information is current and relevant, they will judge the site as useful. In this connection, the questions how user-friendly and quick applications and navigation are and how readable the text is have to be taken into account. Another important but nevertheless quite often underestimated criterion is the cross-linking of information. In the past many online-editors worked on the assumption that the visitors of a website were searching for possibly exact and concisely formulated information regarding a specific point. Today it is common knowledge that it is only by presenting the information in a way that is suitable for the Internet, i.e. by cross-linking and modularisation, that the text gains in value and that completeness of information is achieved.
2nd) Editing
The range and quality of web content stands or falls with a competent editorial staff. Its competence includes presenting information in a way suitable for the Internet, the systematic selection of information as well as updating the offered information continuously. For contrary to the previous assumption that the Internet is a tool to make everything available at all times and all places – the Internet is an editorial medium that has to be designed and attended to competently. Also in this case the potential of web-based communication has to be harmonized with the users’ needs: Thus the role of the online-editor is defined in line with a comprehensive service entity that includes in addition to the selection and formulation of contents an efficient workflow as well as a systematic content management. All these factors are essential for a website to be qualitatively convincing and to be used accordingly.
3rd) Creating Texts
Whether the users are satisfied with a website depends strongly on the fact whether the online editor has acquired specific skills in creating texts suitable for the Internet. The standards for journalistic writing also apply to writing texts for the Internet, however, they cannot be transferred 1:1 from the print medium. The more so as one has to bear in mind that reading from a screen is quite different. The online users read in a non-linear fashion, i.e. they decide for themselves which information they want to access and in which order. A text suitable for the web should be split up in several units, be concise, informative and easy to scan.
Online-competence: three ways to the goal
Also for the Internet applies: Information alone does not suffice – it has to be prepared in a way suitable for different media and also in order to be of optimum use to the online-reader.
- The users want to find the information they need as fast as possible. The online-editors always have to keep this in mind.
- Texts have to be easy to scan so that the time-pressed online-readers can evaluate information quickly.
- In contrast to print products the Internet offers possibilities for linking content. Thus each single piece of information gains in value.
Used in such a way the Internet is not only a mere addition of the services offered by other media but generates a significant added value.02/2007, Saim Alkan
| | Saim Alkan is managing director of aexea - Integrated Communication and author of several books. As lecturer and instructor he specializes in coaching and counseling online-editors.
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