. . . or so says Gerry McGovern, one of the leading content strategists (although he doesn’t call himself that).

Last week, I spoke to him, in the first podcast of the Content Strategy Forum’s speaker podcast series.

What is the Content Strategy Forum?

It’s the second annual European content strategy conference. Last year it was in Paris, and this year it’s in London – from the 5th to the 7th of September. The call for speakers is still open, but it closes this Friday. Full disclosure: I am the conference chair (and I don’t accept bribes, but feel free to try).

Gerry McGovern tells it like it is

Stop talking about content is not something a content strategist likes to hear. And, of course, it’s not universal. But in terms of talking about its value, it’s far more powerful to talk about what content has done than the content itself.

My favourite quote of his is this:

the worst way to design a website is to have five smart people in a room drinking lattes.

The most interesting quote, however, and what has been true for years – both for UX designers and for content strategists — is this:

the opposite of the customer is the organization

Which is of course true, but not easy to counter.

So what’s the solution?

Stop thinking about content as pages, but as journeys (not the touchy feely kind). The journey or the task should be the discrete piece of content, not the page, or even the paragraph. McGovern himself trains his clients to “manage tasks,” as opposed to managing “content.”

Hear the interview for yourself, and don’t forget to put in your two cents at the CS Forum 2011 (and quickly – it closes at 11:59pm on Friday – London time, of course).