Very good piece on Tablets and the great dislocation of Media companies by Rishadt ”The Tablet Worsens Magazine Companies Headache” (
http://rishadt.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/tablet-may-be-a-magazine-companies-worst-nightmare/
).
As my Ipad continues to get more and more crowded with apps/icons, I am reminded of opening a brand new computer in the mid 1990′s only to find ”desktop” pre-populated with icon’s for everything from ISP’s hoping I will chose them to games and other productivity applications all vying for my attention in the hopes I would make a purchase of the “full application” or subscription. The IPad has reproduced this phenomenon; and, as Rishadt notes, creates increased competition for any magazine or other app that makes money by garnering our attention.
Perhaps the best line of this commentary is: “The future does not fit the containers of the past.” I love this – it sums up everything most folks are missing about the future of digital media. I thinking can be applied to most media or publisher Web Sites. The Web has developed over the past decade with “site” and “traffic” perspective that assumes that sites need to go out and attract unique visitors to make money from their content. The site mentality (“container of the past”) simply won’t be the basis of the next shift in content discovery online and the changes in the online media world. Rishadt aptly notes that publishers will have to license their content far more broadly to succeed – we agree.
“Advertisers want audiences not spaces.” - Another gem. The media business is about creating a brand and figuring out how to monetize audience. This business of getting “everyone” to “my site” and then monetizing them with ads “on site” just won’t scale once content can freely “route” by and between sites. (with permission of content owners and payment when required.) If a publisher has a great deal with an advertiser for their audience/content, that audience/content still have value to the advertiser even if the actual impression occurs off the specific site of the publisher. Just need the infrastructure to make this simple, track everything, and leave both the advertiser and publisher with granular controls and complete transparency - no worries – we got that.
All in all – great points about the future of online content.
I totally agree with those points. As the social spaces become a the new marketing frontier these are definitely ideas of where marketing and advertising in the digital space need to go in order to create a meaningful experience for consumers- and not just on the tablets. It was a major topic at SXSW this year and I believe this isn’t the end of the debate on how to fully engage the social audience and the future of advertisers. I think meaningful, conversational and transparent content will always be well received. All in all it will be interesting to see where the advertisers go as mobile and social come into play.