Content Generation Idea: Using Local Newspapers

idealmike Level X³

June 21, 2017, 8:20 am

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Content Generation Idea: Using Local Newspapers

As a way to not only come up with content generation ideas but to also help improve your local rankings and reputation as a website / blog that touches on local events and happenings, your local newspaper can be more than helpful for this! By just looking through your local rags it should be enough to find an interesting story which you can recap and then add your own version of events on or even your own opinion on it! And while we don't really need to write a 1000 word thesis on this. Just telling you about this ideal should be enough for you to go on! That's what we'll be discussing here.

Content Generation Idea: Using Local Newspapers

So your local newspaper, as it turns out, really is one of the best things you can use for coming up with content ideas! Newspapers usually post some interesting story or event that's happened which you can cover, reiterate and rewrite even giving your own version of events or even your own opinion on that story. Such as why you're covering it on your site or blog. What about it that is the reason for doing so. And what your own personal or even company opinion on it is. People love to read personal or even collective opinions on events, especially if they are local events to them since it's related to them by the area they're in.

Think about it, if something fairly significant happened in your local area, whether a good news story or a bad news story. And you come across this story on a website, say if you was searching for local news in your area, or it just come up while searching for something else, and it was on something that concerned you somehow. Whether directly or indirectly. Wouldn't you be compelled to click on that and read it?

And more than this! As I said from the start, doing this, using local newspapers for content writing inspiration, can help to improve your local rankings too. For the area where that event took place in. By just writing about it and including those keywords on your site!

So as you can see, using local newspapers for content generation purposes has a double whammy benefit. First it can help you to come up with things to write about. Those local news stories, events and happenings. And help with improving your local rankings for those keywords as well.

And that basically covers today's content generation idea: Using local newspapers.

Do you use your local newspapers for content generation ideas?

What other ways can local newspapers be used for this reason and more?

Thanks!

Mike.

Comments

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Eggy216

That's a really great idea! It's not always important to be the fastest to get to a story (and really it's almost always going to be downright impossible, especially if you're writing on your own and not contracted by a Newspaper to write or something of the sort). Really, it's better that you build up a community of people who are interested in what you're writing and the way you write - and this is a great direction to head in to start building up that base.

One other thought I had was that local newspapers could be used to give ideas when writing creatively as well - not just for event/news writing. While it may be a more niche thing to consider, looking to newspapers for inspiration for creative writing could also be a great avenue, and great advice for those kinds of writers to consider as well.

8 years ago

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rubio123

Your article is great, the newspaper contains many interesting, and variety of stories.

8 years ago

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fishmonk

I always use local newspaper as a reference to look for content ideas. I especially prefer to go to the lifestyle section and read up the articles written by my favourite writers. It does give me some ideas and lead to a variety of writing styles. As a writer, it's important to read a lot and stay updated with current happenings in your niche areas. I find interesting content when I read news in my country's national language too. I do sometimes translate these content and put my own twist onto it. Remember to use plagiarism checker to assist you if you plan on doing this.

Besides, helping you with ideas to put across, a local newspaper paper can help you in polishing your language skills. We are all in the learning, no matter how experienced we are. Seeing how a story has been put across, will help you know what phrases to put where, in order to create a flow that is appealing to the reader.

I have to agree with your comment. The audience on Internet are more often obsessed with popularized world news, viral videos, and memes. I think local newspapers have resources which can be tapped for content. This is more unique and brings fresh ideas than the same content being repeated by online news sites.

7 years ago

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TheArticulate

This is a great idea. You can see this phenomenon occurring on social media all the time. I live in the largest city in my state, and there's a huge movement going on about promoting and supporting locally-based businesses, artists, performers, etc. I've found myself as an editor for a very popular local Facebook page that helps promote positive content about my city (we have roughly 13K followers). It's incredible how passionate people are about their city and everything that's local. It's a powerful movement currently, and one that has the possibility to reach a large number of people in your immediate surroundings.

7 years ago

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Tronia

I have actually used my local newspaper several times in the past when I ran out of content ideas... it's really, really good because like you've mentioned it can quite easily boost your local ranking by A LOT. People are always trying to find the current and latest news and content relating to that so why not use the newspaper? I am even a subscriber to two different ones that only charge a few bucks per year because I love browsing through it.

A great suggestion for every writer or content maker that needs more ideas!

8 years ago

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tingavai

Yeah, this one I whole heartedly agree, the local newspapers are gold mines that are patiently waiting for people to come and mine them for ideas, you will be surprised about how many things that are happenning near your home, and there is always something that is interesting for your blogs or social media page, and by buying the newspapers, you are contributing to keeping one of the oldest form of news alive.

7 years ago

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TheArticulate

I dabbled a bit in journalism during college, and it was really interesting hearing how newspaper companies are trying to combat the loss of readership in recent years. Moving to a digital medium with subscriptions that way has been a huge step for my local paper.

But yes, they can literally be a gold mine for information and events! My local newspaper has an editor who deals only with local events and things going on in town (which I personally think is an awesome gig, he's a lucky guy!) Following him on Twitter and Instagram has been a great way for my roommate and me to keep up to date with local events so we can make time for some socializing.

7 years ago

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NicholasMukuha

Well, that idea is brilliant! In times like these that people are overly addicted to the internet, with some spending over 30 hours surfing, then I believe it's an idea to be tapped into by those who have not. Several times my friends and I have had to visit a blog site to find evidence of a topic we have been arguing about, that could have as well been in a newspaper.

Besides, helping you with ideas to put across, a local newspaper paper can help you in polishing your language skills. We are all in the learning, no matter how experienced we are. Seeing how a story has been put across, will help you know what phrases to put where, in order to create a flow that is appealing to the reader.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

This is really a cool idea--I never thought of doing this, but now that you have mentioned it, it seems ingenious. In this way, your blog becomes the bridge between those who only get their news from the internet and those who a bit more dependent on the written word. Using the local news as a way to tap into the general zeitgeist of a community is a way to establish a more intimate relationship with one's audience. I really like this. Thanks for the post.

7 years ago

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Authord

Wow cool, i have not tried this before, but the way you put it, it seems like a really cool idea, though it might be more difficult as it seems to be. well i think the news paper can't be the last resort of content generation except you now blank of ideas. but good stuff . learned something new though.

7 years ago

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Martinsx1

To really be very honest with you, I seriously can't recall when I last picked up a newspaper of any sort and read through a page in it. It seems quite a bit of a bore to me because I'm more comfortable sourcing content Ideas online than through newspapers. I visited a colleague of mine the other day and happened to pass where some folks were reading news and it looked quite odd to me because it's been a while since I had seen such thing at close range.

7 years ago

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Baburra

This is a great idea. Unfortunately, we don't get papers anymore except on some weekends. I think it would be a great way to find some ideas or at the very least some inspiration. I particularly like the weekend papers since they always contained a lot of editorials and lifestyle type articles, which is right up my alley and definitely tied to my blog. I guess a close substitute that would be an equivalent nowadays would be to subscribe to or bookmark some similar blogs or Youtube channels.

7 years ago

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peachpurple

I use the newspapers to abstract writing ideas for my site. Reading the daily news related to health issues, worlwide news, local news and tips and tricks section, provide a wide range of topics to write out. In addition, I use newspaper to wrap up garbage and wipe the windows.

7 years ago

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Martinsx1

There is no doubt that there isn't lots of ideas one can pick up from the newspaper and use it to develop quality content for one's site. Now, the president problem for me is in reading tiny font characters which newspapers are normally typed in. If the wordings in the papers are bigger, I might actually try making use of it but with that small font, it would give me eye problems.

7 years ago

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galegatling

Back in high school, I was a member of our journalism committee and I was also involved on the local news organizations mainly for radio stations and local papers. What I would do was I would create articles about the happenings on our local community. I wasn't alone of course. Me and my classmates and some members would compile all the article drafts that we have written and the senior members would make one or two main articles for the newspapers from it. After high school, we moved in and since then, I sometimes rely or get my ideas for my articles on newspapers.

7 years ago

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Painterly

This is an excellent way to get name-based keywords that will be relatively unique! Notable local figures will often be very underrepresented as search terms and you can leverage this to your benefit. I would add that you should consider contacting your local news paper to see if they'll work with you in helping you get in touch with these people. If you offer to provide backlinks to their website or drop their name in your articles, you may be able to score interviews of your own which will provide excellent content for your readers. After all, the best SEO out there is quality information. Everything else has to be built on top of that for it to be successful.

7 years ago

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wiseagent

Using newspapers to extract some ideas from them is a great idea (it seems an older form in the eyes of several people, but is still very efficient). They are a source of different kinds of subjects and our mind can trigger some idea by reading, for example, a simple title of some event.

Even though it's a source with limited options, it's renewed every day.

7 years ago

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iamawriter

Not just the newspaper even what we see on tv news channels is a great source for creating articles. I do that many times. I just jot down points and get to my computer later to expand those points.

7 years ago

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peachpurple

you are right, newspaper, magazine, radio and tv are great media sources where we can get ideas to write articles online. We don't have to copy and paste everything, just understand the topic and rewrite in our own words.

7 years ago

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Soulwatcher

I think it could work on a limited scale, because not that many people read the paper where I live. They have even cut the paper down from 7 days a week to just 3 days. Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. And matter of fact out of all the people that I know my mom is the only one who still reads the paper and she only gets the Sunday paper for coupons.

7 years ago

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Krisleen

I agree that local newspapers can be a good source of ideas. Not only that it is informative but it also keeps people updated on current events. We all know that current events can be hot topics at times and getting ideas from it can really catch the attention of readers. A lot of readers can surely relate with it while appreciating the fact that you keep them updated with what's happening around us. Local newspapers can also be a good reference in case you encounter unexpected internet connection problems. You can still continue working on your research.

7 years ago

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DenisP

This is a really good way to generate content. There are some people who would be quick to judge and say "You're just copying ideas from someone else!" But I say that if you're absorbing the content and then putting it into your own words, then it isn't copying or plagiarism. Once you do that, it's just research.

The fact is that the majority of us aren't field journalists or scientists. We're not out there recording these events ourselves, so the best we can do is report on what content others have gathered already, and give it our unique perspective and opinions.

7 years ago

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Corzhens

I have a writer friend who is also good in forum posting. He reads the newspaper in the morning, the digital version of course, and from there, he gets information that later on he could use in posting to forums. Particularly the world news, it is one information that is universal. All he does is to read and understand a particular news and then he writes it in his own words. I know it's not easy to do that but at least the idea or information is already there. One writer said that news cannot be copyrighted unless you copy and paste huh. That's a different story though.

7 years ago

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Martinsx1

When I was still in the university, I was in the department of mass communication and we have broadcast and print options for upcoming journalists. I actually did both print and broadcast field in the department, I used newspapers to generate content ideas then but not anymore. I make use of online sources to get what I want, newspapers use is crude now.

7 years ago

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mitan143

I think generating some ideas using local newspapers is a great way for you to be able to plan out your content. We all know that newspapers contain different articles from different fields like in politics, entertainment, sports, economy, etc. so definitely it can be used as an idea generator. Also, some articles or ideas that you may get in the newspapers are timely updated so you can also make your own ideas from the articles easily. It does not matter whether the printed or the digital one.

7 years ago

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jaymish3

I think this is an amazing idea. It falls in line with what I have been saying all alone that your quality as a writer will depend on mostly what you read. This gives you ideas and inspiration and makes writing enjoyable for you and the person who is reading your content. It makes your articles rich. I read my local newspaper online and I make sure to do this at least once everyday to keep myself informed.

6 years ago

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jpk0007

Yes reding the daily newspaper does give you a number of ideas and material to think about and include in your articles. I have been doing that for a long time to get new ideas. I usually read the newspapers thoroughly and make a copy of the news or stories that are interesting or also are useful in anything that I am already writing about. the amount of ideas that you can get from reading newspapers is simply incredible. I am very grateful to my parents for inculcating this habit of reading newspapers right from my school days

6 years ago

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WordClerks

Content Generation Idea: Using Local Newspapers

Content Generation Idea: Using Local Newspapers

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