What should we publish?

Earlier in my career, when I thought about content strategy, I mostly thought about the content: What should we create? Who is it for? What story are we telling? Where should it live? How do the pieces fit together over an editorial calendar?

Those are still good questions. I just don’t think they’re the first questions anymore. Before deciding what to create, I want to know:

What are we actually trying to accomplish, and what needs to change for us to get there?

- If the goal is to establish an expert as an authority: The strategy isn't “publish three LinkedIn posts a week.” It's identifying the territory where that person can credibly own expertise, then creating a body of evidence around it—LinkedIn posts, contributed articles, podcast appearances, owned blog pieces, and earned media.

- If the goal is to change how an organization is understood: The strategy isn't “tell more stories about our impact.” It's defining the perception you want to own, then consistently creating proof for it—stories that demonstrate the organization’s expertise, people who embody it, data that substantiates it, and outside voices that reinforce it.

- If the goal is to become discoverable as an authority: The strategy isn't “optimize each piece for AI.” It's building an ecosystem of credibility that makes expertise easy to find, understand, connect, and cite—expert pages, original insights, earned media, structured owned content, and clear connections among them.

I've written before about how the path to reach our audiences has changed and what communicators need to understand about AI discovery as a result. But those are questions of how content gets discovered. The question I start with sits at the layer above them: what are we trying to make discoverable in the first place—and why?

Content Doesn't Compound in Silos

I talked about creating an ecosystem of credibility in Help a Reporter Out's What is PR in 2026? because I increasingly think media relations and content strategy have to operate as one cohesive function.

A media hit shouldn't be the end of one team's process and the beginning of another's.

What owned content can that media hit fuel? How can that owned content deepen the expertise demonstrated in the original earned coverage? How can all of it work together to make that expertise easier for people—and machines—to discover later?

As someone who loves to write and create, this realization pains me a little: the unit of value isn't an individual content piece anymore—it's what coordinated content pieces collectively build.

Think of it like capital in a high-yield account. Each contribution adds value on its own, but it also increases the base from which everything else can compound. An owned article establishes an expert's authority. A media hit reinforces that authority. That increased recognition creates another media opportunity. The individual pieces matter because they make the authority ecosystem stronger.

Beyond the Content

My love for content hasn't changed. I still love making things. I love figuring out the right story, structure, headline, and channel. I love connecting the dots for people through my creative work.

What’s changed is what I see before I create anything. I don't just see the thing I'm making; I see what it can reinforce, what it can unlock, and what it can make more valuable next time.

I still care deeply about what to create. It’s just not where my content strategy starts anymore.