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The Death of the White Paper (!?)

By Michael Stelzner

My faithful readers. I am sorry to report that the white paper is now dead. There will be a funeral for thousands of PDF white papers coming soon.

Of course I am joking. But someone else is not…

According to Pat Kitano, the white paper PDF is officially dead. Pat thinks blog posts are the new white paper.

Do you agree?

P.S. Be sure to click here to submit your nominee for the top 10 marketing blogs.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 4:03 am and is filed under Writing White Papers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Hey All!

    Thanks for your feedback!

    Mike
  • To believe that white papers are "dead" represents a fundamental misunderstanding of BOTH white papers AND blogs.

    Does she really think that someone like Oracle is going to replace their entire white paper strategy with a bunch of blogs? Please.

    If you believe that, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

    Jonathan
  • Blogs are intended to express opinions and ideas, make observations, write about events, etc. White papers should be more informative, providing substantial information about a "thing" (such as technology or products) or a process, or to make an assertion about a position that is supported by a theory, hypothesis, or fact.

    Blogs are often more conversational in nature - requiring less rigor and structure than a white paper. A good white paper has that structure and rigor.

    Blogs are often more interactive through the use of comments such as these (when compared to most white papers), and are usually more current or timely. Good white papers take a fair amount of time and effort to write, edit and publish, and are probably not going to be as current.

    Blogs can be complementary to white papers, but IMO they are not replacements for them.

    Cheers,

    Chip
  • Even I know that's a crock. :)
  • Two mediums. Two aims. Two different purposes.

    They don't have that much in common, when each uses its own inherent advantages properly.
  • She's (?) making a classic mistake -- using her own preferences to determine marketing strategy. Bob Bly talks about this a lot.

    Who cares if she never prints out white papers or never hands them to clients? Lots of other people do. Doesn't KnowledgeStorm actually track how white papers go through an organization? I bet they could prove her wrong in an instant.
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