Maureen Rice, editorial director at Cedar Communications spoke at a Guild of Health Writers event last night.
The event called 'Broaden your Horizons' was designed to help health journalists diversify and find new income streams in the digital age.
Maureen, an esteemed and experienced former editor of high profile national women's magazines, spoke about content marketing. She told how she had embraced the digital age and was working harder than ever before - and enjoying it more.
'Content is where it's at, where the budgets are, where the work is and where there is a massive influx of high-level talent,' she said.
The content revolution has seen brands become media owners. Storytelling is the best way to build communities and a huge chunk of brand's budgets, on average a third, is now directed to content marketing.
'As far as journalists are concerned the only way you can get paid for your content is if it's really good. It's about quality, quality, quality,' she said.
And a tip: if you are looking for work in this industry never refer to companies like Cedar as 'contract publishers' - they are now in the business of content marketing.
'Don't pitch me a feature, think about lots of audiences and multi platforms: print, online, blogs, live tweets, vine' she said. 'In content marketing customers don't pay for content, brands do'.
Finally, she said that journalists now need to think strategically and look at the bigger picture. When pitching they need to be aware of social trends and two major ones are obesity and diabetes - trends which most big brands are addressing.
'Content marketing is a leveller. It's not about you, it's not about egos,' she said. 'The future is an exciting one and the industry is attracting the best talent and the biggest budgets.'
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