Give Your Blog An Edge – Get the Scoop! -By Tom Foremski

April 22nd, 2007

11 comments

Expert: Tom Foremski, SiliconValleyWatcher

#22 of 30

About the Expert

Tom Foremski is publisher of SiliconValleyWatcher, a blog that reports on the business and culture of Silicon Valley. A 20 + year veteran of news reporting and a Silicon Valley columnist for the Financial Times, in May 2004 he became the first journalist from a leading newspaper to resign and become a full-time blogger.

Within months of its initial post, Silicon Valley Watcher was named by Bacon’s, the top media-tracking group, as one of the most influential and credible blogs in the US. In addition to contributing stories, Tom speaks to tech companies, PR firms, and corporate communications teams, and at conferences on the subject of blogging and the enterprise.

Chitika believes Tom is a pioneer in this unique but growing industry. For the journalist and aspiring journalist bloggers out there, we are excited to have Tom lend his expertise and insights in getting the scoop in business news.

Getting a scoop in the news business is extremely difficult and extremely desirable.
If I have a scoop I have news that is completely unique, nobody else has it, and that creates a distinction that very few others can match. In the increasingly crowded online space you need exclusive content to distinguish yourself and rise above the white noise.

Here are some of the benefits in going after scoops:

• A scoop is one of the best ways of building readership. People will want to come back again and again to see if you have anything new that nobody else has.

• Scoops are a type of exclusive content and exclusive content builds on itself. Journalists or bloggers who have developed a reputation for scoops become magnets for exclusive content.

• Companies and individuals with news to release will often release it exclusively to that person or organization with a reputation for exclusive content because it becomes a highly effective distribution platform. You can see that happen with sites such as the Drudge Report, and in sectors such as Web 2.0 where Mike Arrington from TechCrunch will often have exclusive content because companies release it to him first, knowing that he has the reach and readership to distribute their news.

But being pre-briefed by a company on their news is not the same as a scoop. A scoop is news information that has been gained by hard work and through experience.

So how do you get a scoop? And how do you continue getting scoops?

The answer is in knowing your subject matter. If you write about the medical industry then:

• You know the companies.
• You know the individuals.
• You have established relationships with people in that industry.
• You are known by people in that industry.
• You have established trust in that community.
• You spend time in the industry and understand the dynamics of that industry.
• You talk to people in the industry on a regular basis.

Scoops are found by:

• Following leads or tips from contacts.
• By noticing something that others haven’t noticed in public information.
• By following a unique angle in news stories.
• By trading exclusive information with your contacts.
• Sometimes a contact has information that they don’t know is a scoop. That’s why you have to know your subject matter extremely well.

Sometimes you will be told information that makes a great scoop but could get your contact into big trouble, they could lose their job. Or they will never speak with you again.

You need to be careful in those situations because if you “burn” your contact you will lose the opportunity to gain future scoops from that person. But sometimes, the scoop is so important, or so huge that you may have no choice but to burn your contact.

In the newspaper world, when someone is talking with a journalist, everything is on the record unless agreed otherwise. Everyone knows the rules of the conversation and knows the consequences.

But in the “blogosphere” the rules are much grayer and the consequences of saying the wrong thing are less well understood. So the blogger has to be aware of this and act in a fair and proper manner with their contacts.

About the Author: Karla Escolas is part of the CRM/Marketing team here at Chitika Inc. She also specializes in working one-on-one with publishers using simple optimization techniques to increase their revenue. Follow her on Twitter @KarlaChitika to find out more.

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11 Responses to “ Give Your Blog An Edge – Get the Scoop! -By Tom Foremski ”

Darsi Says:
April 23rd, 2007 at 2:55 pm
How cool is this! It’s amazing we are getting such wonderful insights for free. Awesome awesome post. Thanks for the sharing TOM!!
Elimar Says:
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:03 pm
wow! I am glad to read from experts like you. I usually don’t give comments but I had to give a comment for this.”If I have a scoop I have news that is completely unique, nobody else has it” Thanks for sharing Tom.
Brian K Says:
April 23rd, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Good read. Not always easy to do of course, and it requires really being on the ball pretty much all the time.

However, just like you said Tom, the value of having that “scoop” is HUGE.
MB Chu Says:
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Yeah. Getting the scoop is definitely the way to go in going from 100 feed readers to 800 in one shot. So you can slog at it for years at end (and go from 100 to 800) or get ONE scoop and get there in one shot.
toni Says:
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Tom, I’m a huge fan of your site. Happy to see your insights on here.
Amigo4life Says:
April 24th, 2007 at 3:16 pm
From Getting the scoop by Tom Foremski to Being an earlier adopter by Chris Pirillo…. I think I find a connection. Great post Tom!
Make Money Online: Weekly updates 28-April-2007 Says:
April 29th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
[...] Tom Foremski, SiliconValleyWatcher - Give Your Blog An Edge – Get the Scoop! [...]
The Chitika Blog » Blog Archive » Top 5 Things You Can Learn From Michael Jordan About Running Your Blog Says:
June 6th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
[...] When it came to big games — Michael Jordan delivered (6 championship rings to be precise!). And that is what made him so great. When it comes to blogging, the championship game is “the scoop“. Its that piece of news or story you have that is completely unique — and nobody else has it. If you get the scoop, you get instant growth in readership — and you become a magnet for future scoops. Its not easy (Hey, who said winning championships was easy?), but it can be done. [...]
egdsaaqxum Says:
June 18th, 2007 at 8:53 am
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crestosssa Says:
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Hey

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Music-Band Says:
August 5th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Hey

I was surfing the web and i saw this site, pretty cool.
Currently im running and adult site:Reachton
k, just want to say hi :)
Can i link you from my site? im looking for quality content like yours. If no let me know if i can add u in exchange for a montly fee or something.