The Internet’s Native Tongue is Video

Video is fast becoming the native tongue for the internet; problem is that Newspapers don’t speak it very well, if at all, however the TV-based news entities do, they speak it very very well and unless Newspaper sites learn to speak Video fast, they will get trounced.

As the Video form grows as the preferred method for online content consumption, the issue for word-based news entities – primarily Newspapers – is that they will quickly become disadvantaged. Initially, Newspapers websites had more of an advantage for providing great new coverage online because words and photos – their native tongue – are a natural fit for the content form that has dominated the makeup of News websites for the last decade.

The Chameleon Antics of Media Economics

The media industry is now living with a Chameleon economic act – shifting its colours every few months – it is difficult to lock down a business model when the terrority is changing from moment to moment.

There are some core basic however they can do to at least begin the move to another economic landscape – one of these is accepting that people want to pay for content and media when, where, and however they want – not how the media industry wants to dish it up.

Scott Karp from Publishing 2 has posted up an excellent article on the new economic considerations the media must account for; in it he deftly outlines the issues facing the media industry – issues they that need to address, accept and act on if they are going to be relevant for the coming years. He points out two real world examples: the first, how he wanted to watch a movie but couldn’t find an online service that allowed him to spend his $5 (even his local video store was no help – it was a shell), and the second, he was helping rent a flat and got results via Craiglist not the Newspaper.

His assessment of the core problems is accurate; unless the media wakes up that its core economics have shifted – they will simply vanish; swallowed by other media entities that do ‘get it’.

I recommend you read his post in full as he makes some excellent points – one is in the summation; “New business models for media require entirely new exchanges of value — it’s not about finding new ways to balance the old equation.” So true, so true.

Posted by J.M. Attix

Internet Advertising and Print Advertising Don’t Wear the Same Suit

Internet advertising is not print advertising – blatantly obvious though this statement is, it packs more punch then its simple surface semantic suggests. Internet advertising and print advertising are different beasts, but it does not appear that this differential is making much of an impact on the gravity of what is occurring for the Media industries – Newspapers, Television and Film.

Internet and Print advertising do not share the same goals or operational models and this is a big problem for these industries – big because it will change the face of what we know as ‘the media’ in the future. With the decline in Newspapers, the decline of TV viewership and growing struggles in the Film industries – media entities are looking to Online as a way forward – and it will be – just not in the way they would like it to be. A business-as-usual approach will not carry as they shift across to this medium. The onset of the problems this presents for media entities is spread in urgency – with Newspapers closest to the gauntlet – however TV and Film are not far behind.

Note to Newspaper Sites: Internet Users are Content Sluts

Blunt title – maybe – but its speaks clearly to the sentiment that Internet Users are promiscuous when it comes to the consumption of content, information and news. Me, you and Mrs Smith down the road, all of us are guilty of it – all of us are content sluts.

Effectively the core aspect that needs to be appreciated here is that Internet Users are without exception promiscuous in their usage of the internet – there is not a single news or information site that they ‘only’ visit to stay informed. The reality is, given this general principle of ‘content promiscuity’ for human interaction with the internet, Newspaper websites sites need to start accepting this as the rule rather then the exception. They are bound by the same principles of Netizen usage as all other sites on the internet. Simply put, Users travel to many sites to get their personal topology of news and information until they feel they have sated their need to be informed.

Newspapers of course are not the only News entity to own and manage websites – we have all forms in this area including Radio and TV, but the difference here currently is that Radio and TV are still holding their own in this usage shift – whereas Newspapers are simply counting down the days. This means they need to take action now as the luxury of time is not theirs to have. Whether you feel the ‘death of the newspaper’ is exaggerated, over hyped or true – the declining usage and revenue models cannot not be ignored and the pattern they paint is not rosy!

Media middlemen: Behold the dawning era of ‘vanilla news’

The Media industry is in shock – they have suddenly realised that they are in fact middlemen. In an era where more and more people can connect directly with what they want – being a middleman is less the ideal and best avoided. The media also face the dawning era of ‘vanilla news’ – a massive paradigm shift in news consumption by Consumers.

Their plight as middlemen has landed them square in the middle of the battle for relevancy – this battle has been raging for years as the Music Industry well knows and is not exactly new. What the Middlemen find problematic is that their authority and control is threatened by a new emerging environment – an environment that is toxic to their very existence. It is toxic because it allows then to be challenged in their authority and their control; the challenge for them is to maintain relevancy in world where people can freely access content without having to go through them; where they have been stripped of their gatekeeper status.