Home » Working Women » Careers - Media, Advt, Graphics » Become A Content Editor The internet is fast becoming an information delivery system, a place which people come to for news, views, information they can use for various purpose either to study, do business, transfer documents, or simply be entertained.

To create this content, the IT industry needs people with strong information gathering and writing skills. The market has never been more receptive to people with these skills. If you look through the employment columns every week, you will find at least three or four ads that call for content developers, web writers, or web copywriters. These are the people who will write the material that fills your screen each time you open up a web page; they direct you with their words to other Internet materials, and design the organization of reference resources.

How does writing for the web differ from writing for other media such as print or television?

First of all, the web (used interchangeably with 'Internet') is a non-linear medium. That is, a person who accesses a document on the web does not always read it from beginning to end. They could decide to read the introduction, then follow up to a second page and move on.

Secondly, the web is a multimedia technology-information on the web can be presented could include a written narrative, an audio clip and a nice picture.

Thirdly, the language of the web is much more informal than that used in print or on television. So a writer must take all this into consideration when creating a document for the web.

The writers who work for these companies generally compile existing information and organise it into a format that is suitable for web browsing. A few portals provide original information - again, articles written by content writers in a format suitable for the web.

Web content developers, in addition to being good writers, must be able to quickly and efficiently edit and reorganise materials to suit the required format. Information on the web is constantly updated, so the editor must be able to follow stories and keep rewriting them in the light of new developments.

Writing for niche markets is an important skill and it is likely to be the growth area in this field. Even today, financial writers, economic journalists as well as entertainment writers, are in great demand.

The field is expected to grow in the next few years, and as the sophistication of the web user increases, writers will also have to produce increasingly sophisticated content, both in terms of style and substance.

Salary scales in web writing are much higher than those in other media - some companies offer content developers as much as they do programmers.