A Playbook for Repurposing Blog Content Into Wire-Ready Stories

As blog traffic nosedives, content experts say their websites are now essentially reference shelves for pieces they distribute elsewhere. So how do you make sure that the ideas and content you create won't get lost in the AI search matrix?

You don't need to start fresh with all-new content. By reworking your existing blogs, you can create journalistically sound stories that are ready to hit the Stacker Newswire, bringing your brand far more opportunities for reach, credibility, and earned media value than you could have in the heyday of SEO-focused blog posts.

What does "wire-ready" mean?

A story that is wire-ready for Stacker distribution is:

• Accurate, based on evidence

• Transparent, showing where information derives from

• Fair and complete, presenting an objective and ideologically centered perspective

• Inclusive, relevant and accessible to a diverse audience

• Human-written and human-edited; stories, images, and bylines generated by AI are prohibited on the Stacker Newswire

View Stacker’s editorial standards to see the full guidelines.

How to avoid the most common blog-to-wire gaps

Seeing what not to do can help you avoid the grey area we sometimes see when brands convert existing site content.

Stacker Executive Editor Frank Sennett leads an editorial team responsible for making sure each story that goes from our newswire to publisher meets our standards.

He says the most common mistakes he sees are:

• Self-promotional framing: If content primarily aims to generate leads, promote products or services, or convert customers, it will be denied for distribution. This is usually the biggest gap that Stacker sees, so check your content for this early.

• Lack of methodology and unsourced claims: Articles that contain data, like surveys and best-of lists, need sourcing. Sources must be clearly cited, and any data analysis must include an explanation of its methodology. Back factual claims with supporting references, including reporting, research, or first-hand sourcing — not assumptions or internal opinion.
• Too many subject-matter-expert quotes: According to Frank, "When publishers see multiple quotes from brand SMEs, they tend to see the piece as promotional and are less inclined to pick it up." Fewer is better, even if the SMEs are relevant to readers. Don't position company employees or spokespeople as independent experts in the piece.
• Overloaded links: Even though links to website and blog content are allowed, publishers prefer brands to keep the number to a minimum — no more than five if possible.

• "Bloggy" language: Cute asides and endings that wrap everything up with a flourish are things that the Stacker team often edits out because they harm pickups by news sites.

The repeatable process of repurposing

To repurpose a product announcement or a thought leadership post that’s built more on opinion than evidence, follow these checkpoints to make sure you’re headed in the right direction:

• Audit the post for promotional language and remove it, or find a factual middle ground
• Identify claims that need sourcing and seek them in third-party sources like census data and government sites
• Restructure a story around a data point or a finding, rather than a company narrative
• Find new sources for any "expert" quotes; for example, universities can add credibility to your story
• Add in methodology/attribution. (Scroll to the bottom of this article for a good example.)

See an example of how blogs become wire-ready

If you've been writing branded content for a while, it can help to see how stories that originated from company blogs can transform into genuine editorial content.

Do more with what you have

Overall, the best rule of thumb to follow is that if any aspect of the story conflicts with what you'd find in an article on a traditional news site, it will depress pickups.

Millions of blog articles go live on the Internet each day. This doesn't mean that all blog content can become wire-ready — some inside-baseball company news belongs solely on the company's blog — but many can be easily reworked for a longer shelf-life and broader audience appeal without your team putting in the effort to create a net-new story.