The “News Cycle” Is Dead. It’s Now On Perma Cycle.

In days gone by, a “story” might be pushed out to the media to hit deadlines (okay, in large part it still is) and then it was hoped the story would get into the “News Cycle” which might mean top coverage for roughly 24 hours. Magazines and trade publications then provided added coverage, going a little more in-depth. A business person only had to read a newspaper or watch TV news for the top stories, then a magazine or trade pub for more depth – today, that is gone. Now there the trade pubs have websites and many have a blog, even magazines do the same; people get their information from more sources more often. TV news provides added content on their websites.

There is now a constant news cycle, fueled by the Web and Consumer Generated Content (CGM) adding their own opinion and insight. You have media properties like Truemors and Google News which aggregates and can push to an RSS feed which can hit your BlackBerry in moments. But perhaps more significant is that the “News Cycle” implying a short term coverage concept, is now a Perma Cycle. Whatever goes online, stays online.

A story, good or bad, may reach a peak within a short time frame, but it also lives on. Bloggers and other social media carry that story on longer, often adding depth. Months and years later, the story might be refreshed or used as research and reference. The implications are broad and the consequences impact the design of a story line and the need to manage the Long Tail of a news story over time. Welcome to the Perma Cycle of News.