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It's not unknown (and here I risk showing my age) for Radio 4 to be the entertainment of choice here at the Number 8 Web Management office. Not today though. After the sad news of the passing of Gary Moore, it has to be 'Victims of the Future' today.

While I enjoy Radio 4, I have to admit that nothing heard recently fills the gap created by the loss of Alistair Cooke and the Letter from America. I've always been fascinated by America. As a youngster I immersed myself in American youth sub culture. I read comic books and listened to Kiss. I guess my tastes have matured now. I'm a serious student of American politics and I read old comic books because nobody ever improved on Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby. I lost track of Kiss when Ace left.

So, the 'content' of Cooke's weekly broadcast was of interest to me. One week, I might be entertained with an anecdote about small town America and the next, informed by Cooke's take on a major political event or figure. Regardless of the story, I could lose myself in this beautifully written and masterfully delivered example of broadcasting.

I'm holding up Letter from America as my shining example of 'good content'. The combination of:

• An interested audience
• A consistent theme
• Variation around that theme
• Preparation, crafting and delivery

I've been reading/hearing a lot about 'content' recently. It's always struck me as strange that the actual words on the page are often the last thing people think about when building a website. You've got the design, you know how the site is going to function, it's all nearly there, right? You ask when it can go live and the mean old web manager spoils all the fun by saying 'When can I have your content?'

So, let's hear it for the people who write - the unsung heroes of the information superhighway. They have a matter of seconds to engage your interest with their subject and - and it's a big 'and' - they need to balance that with the need to be a good friend of Google.

'Content' is not something to be bought by the bucket load to fill out a website. Creating it is a skill and it's often the bit of the process that is forgotten about even though, without it, nothing would happen. You don't need people to look at your website, you need them to read it.

Rant over. Next up, as promised, I'll let you in on my progress with social networking in business and then I think we need some long overdue introductions.

More soon.