What Is a White Paper?
Posted by April 27th 09
What exactly are white papers? This is a tricky question that doesn't seem to create consensus. What form/layout does a white paper have? Does it have a specific structure? Is it written in a specific style and fashion? What about the layout and content?
Mike Stelzner defines white papers as follow:
The term white paper is an offshoot of the term white book, which is an official publication of a national government. A famous white paper example is the Winston Churchill White Paper of 1922, which addressed political conflict in Palestine.
A white paper typically argues a specific position or solution to a problem. Although white papers take their roots in governmental policy, they have become a common tool used to introduce technology innovations and products. A typical search engine query on "white paper" will return millions of results, with many focused on technology-related issues.
White papers are powerful marketing tools used to help key decision-makers and influencers justify implementing solutions.
According to this definition, a document that brings solutions to a specific problem or issue could be deemed a white paper. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?
Well maybe not.
Defining What Is a White Paper
An interesting discussion happened on the WhitePaperSource forums a few years' back. The discussion generated from this white paper written by Seth Godin. Is this document a white paper, an article or just a self-promotional piece?
Jonathan Kantor assumes that Seth Godin's document misses the white paper mark. To qualify as a white paper, it would need the following elements:
- Summaries – both Executive and Concluding
- Introduction – bringing the reader up to speed on high level issues that form a foundation for issue presentation.
- Challenge Presentation – addressing specific business problems that the solution is designed to address.
- Solution Presentation – the manner in which a solution solves the afore mentioned business challenges.
- Case Study (optional) - a ‘real-life’ example of how a business had challenges and addressed them using the prescribed solution.
Bascially, a white paper doesn't just bring solutions; it also needs to present those within a specific structure.
Another forum member argued that a white paper is "a workhorse, and its primary job is to entrance, inform, challenge, inspire, and capture the reader. If it doesn't do that, what's the point of its existence?"
We would like to know what your take on this matter is. How would you define white papers? What is and is not a white paper? Do you find this as confusing as we do?
posted in Other
July 2010
