We all know about the enormous economic challenges that newspapers are facing. With access to information that’s posted online almost the minute it happens, it’s become more difficult to convince people that reading the news next day in print has any value.

The fact is that a good journalist can frame an issue, give it context, and deliver information in a way that you simply can’t get on social media. But newspapers cost money. Reading social media, and pretty much everything else online, is free. To bring together both these worlds, newspapers have begun charging people to read their content online. Even here in Acadiana.

Kristin Askelson is Managing Editor of The Acadiana Advocate. Kristin oversees the newspaper’s daily operations in Acadiana. It’s a job that’s getting more complex every year, and with every social media update.

When a newspaper was a physical object you picked up in the front yard every morning, we called everything in print that wasn’t paid advertising, “news.” Even news of dubious importance, like the contents of People magazine, was still regarded, technically, as news. Then, along came the internet.

Today, there are multiple avenues for getting the written word out into the world. There are online newspapers and magazines, websites, blogs, and social media. There is such a wealth of written material that we’ve had to invent a new category to describe it. That category we now call “content.” You no longer need a publisher to get your content read. Anybody can publish anything they want. And, as you know, they do.

The problem we have now is, among the millions of pieces of content that are published every day, how do you get someone to find your contribution to world thought?

Content management has become a specialized brand of marketing and publicity. Here in Acadiana one of its leading practitioners is Rodney Hess, Vice President of Rally Marketing, in Lafayette.

This is a fascinating and informative conversation about the changing face of news, and the information you consume online.

Photos at Marcello’s Wine Market Cafe by Lucius Fontenot.