The new HBO series "The Newsroom" features a character (played by Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionairefame) who performs a job familiar to that of many Scripted writers; he writes the blog. It's not the typical job for a newsroom, but it's really not that surprising. Dev's character is playing a vital role that many businesses need. While content creation isn't the newest strategy in a business's arsenal of marketing tactics, I like to take this character as a sign that its importance is being recognized more and more.

[caption id="attachment_1166" align="alignright" width="300"] Dev's Character Working on a Blog Post in "The Newsroom"[/caption]

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this report for Scripted writers is the data on the outsourcing of content marketing work. In 2010, 45% produced content in-house only; that number decreased to 38% the next year. Most of those businesses have transferred to producing content both in-house and by outsourcing, as that statistic increased from 52% to 58%. Not only that, 60% of businesses are expecting to increase their content marketing budget. With content needs growing and businesses having less time to handle all the work, they are turning to websites like Scripted, and we expect this trend to continue.Social media usage is still greater than that of blog content. 70% of all businesses manage a Facebook account, up from 54% a year ago. Currently, every three out of four businesses utilize a social media account, but they aren't typically seeing the results that they would like. In 2011, half of all marketers believe that their social media accounts were less effective or completely ineffective.

In the show, Dev's character is gradually becoming more of a news scanner and assistant producer. Eventually, he won't have time to keep up with the blog; whenever that time comes, I hope he knows about Scripted.