An interview with Anne Spackman, editor-in-chief of The Times's online division, by a Swedish newspaper throws up an interesting fact: the paper has appointed a "search editor" whose task is to teach staff how to maximise the chances of content being picked up by search engine spiders. In other words, journalists are having lessons in search engine optimisation.
An editors' weblog writer comments: "The days when the copy editor would receive a rapidly written piece, touch it up with elegant prose and top it off with a catchy headline that would sell newspapers have changed. Now, that headline, written for the web, might not be so catchy. The text, especially the first paragraph, might not be of Shakespearian quality. In fact, they both might be extremely boring to the erudite newspaper reader. But they will have the correct combination of keywords that will attract search engine spiders and thus drive readers to the page."
