Content curators at the center of niche vs. authority site argument

There’s an ongoing argument among content marketers and publishers on which publication type prevails over the other, or if niche publications are really better than authority sites and vice versa. This issue will remain unsettled yet an important topic of debate in the publishing world as each has its own share of pros and cons.

From a writer’s standpoint, for instance, it would be better to get published on authority sites as they have a giant audience. Typically, they are global, especially English-language sites, if not only national. However, the problem lies in being read, as most giant websites do not really focus on niches and sub-niches, which makes it difficult for their daily content to be consumed by their readers. In most case, having an appearance on the likes of The Guardian, Reuters, or The New York Times, is valuable in the aspect of earning a badge or obtaining a reputation boost as a brand or a writer.

Conversely, niche publishers are really good at targeting specific audiences, since they are small and built to cater to a particular market. This also explains why content producers and brands that want to target a precise segment typically prefer niche-focused publishers to their giant, wide-ranging counterparts. Why publish on The Boston Globe’s tech section if you want to reach local online marketers? Sometimes Hubspot or ProBlogger would do.

It all boils down to purpose. Marketers know when and when not to tap a niche site or if it’s time to seek for New Yorker-big publications. Content marketers — those who offer publishing services to brands — know this. They decide whether a brand’s press release is better off appearing on a PR-focused site, or if it really needs to be on Bloomberg or Yahoo Finance because of the products’ promise or scope.

Definitely, content curators, to some extent, negate the difference between these two. Especially from the viewpoint of consumers and readers. The rise of curators has become essential in alleviating the digital content industry’s growing problem of content overload . Now, readers no longer have to exert extra effort in scouring the busy interweb just to look for the stories that suit them.

The likes of Flipboard, one of the early successful curators, have even given consumers the freedom to customise their feed and read only what they think they need or might be interested in, now a common feature among curators. Eventually, even independent publishers (Buzzfeed, Yahoo) and giant social media sites (Facebook, Twitter) that focus on generating content from various sources realised that curation is perfect not only for the organisation but also for keeping their readers within their site or app.

Soon, curators themselves will understand that the content industry is not about who really is authoritative over a specific niche but reaching the target audience.

Curiyo , owned by software developer Kivun Hadash, curates and disseminates stories from niche publications and other smaller websites that publish read- and viral-worthy content. On the other hand, fast-rising global news app Born2Invest , developed by digital marketing expert Dom Einhorn of M6 Limited, chooses to curate business and finance stories only from authoritative news outfits, which they do in more than 24 languages. Quartz, which is a giant publisher in itself, opts for a never-before-seen curation style (through SMS-push notification style) in hopes of getting closer to reader consciousness and gain more loyal readers.

Name it: Wildcard, Nuzzel, Blockfeed — all the newly arrived and smaller curators on the market—aim to simply blur out the great divide between publications and websites. Curators, in some way, remind brands and publishers that it’s not about the scope of the landing page but the quality and efficiency of content delivery. And in that respect content curators succeed and prosper.