At some point in the life cycle of nearly every piece of content published, the material loses some of its relevance. Over time, published the content will generally become less and less popular among current readers/viewers.
Valuable space in any public media outlet is generally reserved for the most timely and relevant material. Because the amount of content production is ever-increasing, and the needs of the audience are ever changing, there must be a system in place that assists in the storing of less popular content in the back room, so to speak.
An archiving system allows the Content Management Team to replace older, less relevant material, with newer information and publications. The archives make the older material accessible to potential viewers, without taking up important space, which may be needed for more current publications.
Depending on whether the content to be archived appears in a traditional media format (such as books, magazines or other periodicals) or a digital format (as in web-site material, e-books, digital photographs etc&) the archiving process will require different steps for completion.
Just as libraries and museums...