A Brief History of Online Commercial Real Estate News
It wasn’t my intention make this proclamation twenty-one years after the fact. However, after announcing RELPI’s new partnership and exclusive content distribution initiative with GlobeSt.com, I received quite a few notes asking if I really did “create this service and why didn’t we know it?”
First and foremost, the reason that many of you didn’t or don’t know this particular fact about my professional history is that many of you weren’t in the industry at that time. I’d also venture to guess that quite a few were either in high school, grammar school or younger. Not that anyone wants to feel any older than they are, I’m still happy to know that most of you were at least born at the time of GlobeSt.com’s launch.
This is also offers me the opportunity to present what launching this now valuable highly respected and ubiquitous news service was like at the time and what kind of reception I received. Here are a couple of tidbits:
“You’re crazy, nobody will ever read their news on a computer screen.”
“I can’t bring my computer on an airplane and that’s where I do all of my reading.”
“The internet is a fad, and we’ll go back to the way things were.”
At least there was one enlightened individual who said to me, “I have my assistant print out the stories every day because that’s the only way I can read it.”
As I mentioned, GlobeSt.com was launched twenty-one years ago way back in 2000 right as the “dot com” bubble was bursting so the timing was also not too great. Yet, we had very patient owners and they stuck with this nascent idea.
With this short history lesson, let’s take a dive into what makes news and what doesn’t whether it applies to real estate or any other industry.
First, B2B media is generally unbiased and strives to stick to the facts of any story produced and attempts to leave politics on the side. And although we do live in very polarized times, this balance still seems to be holding. It’s not to say that sometimes the thumb is held on the scale of those who support these publications whether in print or online, but in general this balance has held up as well.
Second, press releases are essential and possibly one of the most important communication tools available for creating awareness for any enterprise. However, press releases are not news stories rather they are announcements. And the purpose of a press release is to catch the attention of an editor, reporter, or anyone else responsible for content and hopefully have a story developed from it. The reason behind this differential expression is that many news outlets claim “breaking news” when in reality, it’s a repurpose of a press release vs. true story development.
Third, content is a commodity and the best way to get noticed is to have a well thought out process developed in getting your message across in a cluttered world. And this isn’t a switch that can be turned on, rather it needs a programmatic process with an investment criterion much like we give to the properties and funds we give so much thought to.
Finally, the reason GlobeSt.com has maintained its leadership in the field is due to the type of reporting it produces. This outlet does not merely publish press releases but develops what are known as “enterprise” pieces which are well thought-out and researched which includes interviews, quotes, and attribution.
And this is how news ought to be produced which is where GlobeSt.com continues to differentiate itself and remains the “go to” source for real estate industry intelligence.
It’s with pride to say that I’m working with this organization again.