Before launching a site, particularly one that revolves around content, every publisher should spend some time building out a model of their central topic and its associated subtopics. Once the picture is clearer – particularly once the publisher has identified a handful of the very most important lanes they want to be in – that’s when content planning can really commence. You’ll want a plan that covers each key subtopic in depth, with flexibility to identify more subtopics along the way and add new areas of coverage on the fly. Each subtopic will likely have a list of its own subtopics, and all of this should be understood by the publisher before attempting to build a team. Hire Into Your Plan So now we’ve talked about the imperative to cover a broad topic thoroughly and doing it in a way that entertains, informs, and provides consistent value for years to come. But if the topic is actually broad, you will likely need to get more people involved. A lot depends on how you go about that task. My suggestion is pretty simple. Build the content plan first, then build the team. It sounds simple, but so many organizations go about it an entirely different way. They hire all the best people they can think of at a general task (for example, sports journalism), without regard to the specific needs they have that a new hire is intended to fill. I don’t think those same organizations would do this if they were hiring, for example, web developers. But especially in the affiliate space, where the founders usually are not from a journalistic background, writers often are treated as a pool, rather than as covering specific areas. When we put together our team for InGame.com, we knew there were a variety of subtopics we wanted to be reporting on in depth, all orbiting around the broader topic of the sports betting business. We hired our team specifically with the intention of having a person who could be an expert in each of the most important of those subtopics. We had room to hire four or five full time reporters to start, and we went about that process methodically, thinking more about what specific needs each person would fill than about simply finding five reporters we liked. The result of this process was a well-rounded team, prepared to thoroughly cover the wide variety of topics we need to cover to accomplish our vision for the website. Changing It Up So far we’ve mainly focused on the typical flow of coverage the publisher will provide, and the team needed in order to properly provide it. But a publisher needs more than that, and the audience craves more. As experienced publishers now, my team and I are constantly on the lookout for new columnists and guest writers who can add spice to our offering and touch on topics our full time staff may not understand quite as well. These people could be freelance journalists or contributors from other publications, but often they come from different professions and write on the side. Sometimes when writing about sports betting regulation, it’s nice to have an actual regulator write a guest column. Sometimes you want to hear what a regular customer thinks about the regulations. Maybe you want to hear from a peripheral business how a certain regulation affects what they’re able to offer. A publishing business has to be entertaining and useful to its audience, and it must consistently provide value. If every article is about the same thing, your audience will burn out fast, and so will you. STAY IN YOUR LANE GPWAtimes.org 28
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