Exploit the Restrictions of News Writing to Create Link Bait
Monday’s news brought the world an evocative story about a painting by 19th Century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini discovered in the Paris flat of a woman who locked the door in the late 1930′s and never returned. The painting went undiscovered for more than 70 years until her death at the age of 91. Do you hear that buzz? It’s the sound of Facebook, Twitter, and the blogosphere echoing the original story, posted on the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph website.
But all I hear are echoes. No one is adding to the story, no one is seizing opportunity. The original story makes for great link-bait, which is a good reason that it propagated so quickly. It is the modern day equivalent to discovering a Pharoah’s tomb. People are suddenly curious about the story behind the apartment, and why it was left untouched, with rent paid for more than 70 years.
This is an opportunity to drive more traffic to your website through cleverly crafted link-bait. Add to the conversation and provide your own highly interesting story by looking a little deeper into the unanswered questions. Newspaper articles always leave questions, it’s inherent in their brief and to-the-point expository style.
By now, you should have read the original story in the Telegraph. If you haven’t, hit the link and then come back. You’ll be glad you did. In the original story, the former owner of the apartment, Mrs. de Florian, was referred to as a “demimondaine”. This is the name given to a highly-paid prostitute in the early 20th century and a rather contentious claim about a woman who left Paris for the USA at the age of nineteen or twenty years. Was this a snide comment by the paper’s editor, or is there something more that we are not being told? Some investigation could provide even more revealing details, making for an interesting blog post that builds on the original story.
Then there is the painting itself. The original article supplied some wonderful photographs of the apartment as it was discovered untouched since the 1930′s, but none of the paintings in those photographs were of the discovered masterpiece, which has never been publicly shown and recently sold at auction for nearly $3,000,000. Yet if the painting was auctioned, shouldn’t there be a photograph? As it turns out, Olivier Choppin-Janvry, the discoverer of Boldini’s painting, is an auctioneer who was hired to dispose of the late Mrs. de Florian’s property in Paris. His auction house published a photo of the painting, that the original author missed or chose not to publish.
There are so many juicy details to discover in a simple news story, so why would you settle for simply reposting something that has already been done? Thirty minutes of research can provide an entirely new angle, and one that is tailored to your site, your message, and your audience.
I’ve given you a start, so have at it, and please share with me the results of your original take on this fascinating story by posting a link in the comments section of this blog. I look forward to it!
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