One of the newest and best opportunities for thought leaders in professional firms to get their views in front of clients and prospects is the online world – specifically, the digital space that an increasing number of top-tier business and trade press now provide to outside columnists.
For many years, the print side of such business publications as The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Business Week and the dozens of top-tier trade press offered scant opportunities for op-eds and columns by people who weren’t on staff. Consultants, lawyers, accountants and the like had to focus their pens on academic journals in their fields (Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, etc.) and their firms’ own publications.
No longer. Both general business and trade publications have woken up to the fact that their online publications have unlimited news space – and that attracting thought leaders can be a good way to build online traffic.
Just look at the range of columnists at the websites of Business Week and Forbes:
- Business Week. Features such outside columnists as Dov Seidman (CEO of a consulting firm called LRN), Paul Bennett (creative director at design consultancy IDEO), Jim Champy of Perot Systems, Ram Charan, and many others. Take a look here.
- Forbes: Harvard Business School innovation professor Clayton Christensen is among the outsiders showcased here. Looks like Forbes.com is serious about attracting other Christensens. The online publication just hired Tunku Varadarajan (former Wall Street Journal editorial features/op-ed editor) to attract top-flight columnists. He has already landed 16 authors.
Many trade publications are doing similar things.
Publications are watching their print circulations plummet and online viewership rise. Needing to generate even more traffic to the websites to generate online ads, many publications are hungry for good online content.
I’ve wondered for awhile why business publications weren’t more aggressive at getting outside experts to write for them. They don’t have to pay them anything. They only need to ensure the quality of their columns is high, and that their columns don’t become thinly disguised sales pitches.
Every marketing department in a professional firm should devote significant time developing relationships with the key online publications in their fields and getting their thought leaders’ articles in there.
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