Here's a screen grab from a BBC online news article that I read this morning (original article).  What's so extraordinary about this?  Well, the first thing that might strike you is that it is a page from BBC News online before it went through it's latest redesign.  In fact, the article is dated 8th March 2006.  So why flag it for attention now?  The reason is that as I was sipping my cup of tea I noticed that it was the 4th most read article on the BBC's website.  Today's fourth most read article?? Nearly 30 months after it was first published?!

It gets really interesting when you read the content of the story itself - Tim Weber's 2006 article, somewhat ironically, is commenting on how an email was then doing the rounds claiming that Microsoft were contemplating charging for using a Hotmail account.  Which was true, except that the deliberations over how to monetise Hotmail had actually been going on in 2001, a full five year's earlier.  (See the report by the BBC here.)  This original 2001 article was now climbing the popularity rankings of the BBC a full five year's later.

Now, fast forward to 2008 and the story is starting to appear again.  So what is happening and what does it mean? 

First of all it shows that the consumer doesn't always check the date of an online article before they read and react or respond to it.  In both articles' case, their resurgence in popularity has been driven by people forwarding the link to their friends and colleagues without paying heed of the date.  Examples like this are fairly common on the BBC, and in other online media too.

It also shows the power of 'the long tail' with online and social media.  Articles and comments once written tend to stay around.  They're available, they're visible, they're searchable, they're forwardable.  They carry influence and they can still affect reputations.  To the media consumer, they're still real.  They still carry influence, and shouldn't be ignored necessarily just because they aren't in this week's batch of press clippings.

Welcome to the new media.  The days of yesterday's news being tomorrow's fish and chip wrapper are well and truly behind us. The way that the media works and the consumer interacts with it are changing rapidly.  Are you ready for these new challenges to your ongoing PR strategy and metrics?