What is the Value of Your Information Archives?

So just what is the value of old content? Back in the day, we called content that had an immediate shelf-life perishable, while content that could endure was called evergreen. It's hard to get anyone to agree on the value of content archives, and indeed ROI models essentially don't work because the value is in the eye of both the holder -- and the audience.

Are the Wall Street Journal's archives important? The Journal makes its money selling immediate news to an audience that demands instantaneous. That doesn't denigrate the value of the archive -- but the primary value to readers is immediate, up-to-the-minute, highly specialized financial information. Conversely, general news sites have it a bit tougher since general news is seen more as a commodity; available for free from multiple sources. For these sites, the archive actually gains more value over time, particularly if it becomes a means of driving traffic to the site, as Dorian Benkoil writes (and concurred by virtually every SEO specialist) for the Poynter Institute's E-Media Tidbits column.

Benkoil's Poynter compatriot Michelle Minkoff finds another use for "old" content: providing historical, primary source content to commemorate anniversaries. In the ongoing saga of historical revisionism, Minkoff sees a value in being able to dust off the annals and touts The Spokesman-Review of Spokan, Wash., for how it handled the 30-year anniversary of the eruption of St. Helens. Coverage included an interview of photojournalist Christopher Anderson as he described the picture that landed on virtually every newspaper. Additionally, Anderson took his lenses back to the same vantage point -- showing us what it looks three decades later.

Historical retrospectives work for virtually any industry on any topic. People want to know what "was'' the day/year they were born. For my father's 75th birthday I gave a bound keepsake edition of The New York Times. We all got a kick out of the cost of men's suits (two pairs of pants, one jacket!), Singer sewing machines and farm equipment. A business that assembles a slide show of then and now may find that it becomes a viral success -- driving traffic and stickiness.

For fee, for free, for traffic, for loyalty, the best way to determine the value of your archives -- is by getting it out there -- and see if your audience responds.