virtualDavis

Where to Look for Opportunities

When we start with the premise that consumers haven’t paid for content in the past, we gain visibility into new ideas that make sense for the digital era.

It’s not micro-payments alone that will save the future for professional quality media content. On the other hand, the idea that the consumer will always pay for distribution that massively over-serves their needs is not a foregone conclusion either. Paying $2500+ per year for cable/broadband/telephony/mobile in order to gain access to a million times more content than you could ever possibly need is not going to work out so well for the media industry either.

We need solutions that improve the relevance of content for individual consumers without expecting individual consumers to be able to predict exactly what they want. The Internet has exploded the supply of content but digital technologies have only just begun to filter and sample that content for the consumer in an effective manner.

Content providers who used to enjoy control over the method of distribution are feeling a lot of pain but their content remains vital and appealing to consumers. Rather than stomping our foot like Mr. Isaacson, it is better to focus on new solutions that tie content and distribution together in ways that create great consumer experiences.

We don’t know what the other side of this transformation will look like but we have guidance;

• Look at what the iPod did for music. Think about the critical role of sampling in the success of the micropayment model for songs.
• Look at the potential of what Kindle can do for print publications.
• Study the legacy of syndication that makes business partners of the content distributor and the content provider.
• Look at the popularity of expensive sets of DVDs for old TV episodes.
• Anticipate what the near-future DVR will be capable of doing.
• Think of what GPS will mean for the distribution of local and timely content.
• Think about what Twitter and search are doing to reveal the consumer’s need for specific content at precise moments in time.

It is time to think about distribution and content holistically. Digital technologies are not the enemy, they are an enormous opportunity to improve the relevance of content to the individual consumer. Don’t think so small as micropayments for one article at a time and don’t take for granted the current ability to charge a big fee for massively over-delivering irrelevant content. Look in the middle.

Somewhere in between asking the consumer to buy content “al a carte” and asking the consumer to pay for the whole menu, new “prix fixe” solutions are going to mature.

A Final Word from Our Sponsor

While we are at it, let’s not lose sight of the value of the advertising supported model. We are in the middle of a complex media transformation and a brutal recession. At times like this, pundits like Bob Garfield want to convince us that advertising is dead.

Advertising works. In the digital era, the consumer finds it very easy to ignore irrelevant advertising but they are quicker to engage with relevant advertising than ever before because the Internet makes engagement easy.

Be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water in pursuit of the goal of getting the consumer to pay for the content. The advertiser remains happy to assume that role so long as we can offer a reasonably scaled and engaged audience. We just need to apply our new resources to help the advertiser better align their message with the right consumer at the right time.

Media companies can create new and better advertising values and it will still command a premium relative to the costs of distribution. Now that digital efficiencies have greatly reduced the cost of distribution, media companies need to look hard at the overhead that is a hangover from the analog era.

Some legacy media executives complain that they are trading analog dollars for digital pennies as advertising moves online. That is a valid concern so we can’t drag our feet when it comes to rethinking overhead costs from analog dollars to digital pennies as well.

We can reduce overhead, improve advertising value and find new consumer revenue models built on interesting combinations of content and distribution all at the same time. We need to be more disciplined about who the consumer is and what they really want as we build our new solutions, but the solutions are just waiting for the imaginations of new media moguls to find them.

via huffingtonpost.com

I excerpted this from an informative piece with sound thinking that I’d recommend to anyone creating content (word, video, music, etc.) for an audience. A few highlights:

#1. “We need solutions that improve the relevance of content for individual consumers without expecting individual consumers to be able to predict exactly what they want.”

#2. “Study the legacy of syndication that makes business partners of the content distributor and the content provider.”

#3. “Think about what Twitter and search are doing to reveal the consumer’s need for specific content at precise moments in time.”

4. “We need to be more disciplined about who the consumer is and what they really want as we build our new solutions, but the solutions are just waiting for the imaginations of new media moguls to find them.”

Chocolate via flickr.com

Posted by virtualDavis via web from virtualDavis’s posterous

This evocative image, created by Gene Aker, a friend and former colleague in Santa Fe, transforms a lonely road in Lamy, New Mexico into a quasi-inebriated dreamscape. Or maybe a stormy sunset when the skies are tinted with soot from forest fires? Gene explains how he created the image: “shot old school. 5×7 Korona camera (100 years old). Hp5 sheet film, D76 developer… I selenium toned the print. Then when I scanned it, I hit the sepia button — then cranked up the shadows to darken. Everything digital is a lie! but the print looks pretty cool–a 5×7 contact print.”

A quick blip, then off to bed. Much news. Plenty. Busier than a hive full of bumblebees. But nicer.

First of all, snowed like hell this weekend. Two feet of fluffy white stuff in about 24 hours. They’d told us we’d miss the snow. Or it would miss us. Then they said 1″-4″ which they later upgraded to 4″-6″ but we got slam-oed anyway, meteorologists be damned! And now we’ve enjoyed two splendid sunshine-y days. Snow’s intact. Air’s cold. The world’s a beautiful, happy place. For now.

In other good news, got the first every ShipStore.com Beacon out on Sunday. Pretty impressive response too. Hoping it continues to be more positive than negative feedback, though both kinds will help us figure out what we need to improve upon. And eBay auction numero uno for the Psion Revo™ is wrapped up. Sold as well or better than I had hoped, and payment has been quickly wrapped up. Now it’s my turn to ship out the goods. And several more auctions wrapping up soon… Good night, world.

First snowfall of the year! Not much stuck on the ground now, but for a couple of hours it was a whirling white blizzard outside. Of course it came at exactly the same time that I need to drive into Elizabethtown for my vehicle inspection. Good opportunity to test out the Subaru AWD and the verdict is… She’s a beaut! Hauled me through the slippery roads in time to dump the car and head out for a blustery 3.5 mile run.

Then home again to discovery that we won’t be riding today. Too slippery for the horses despite the fact that snow has stopped falling and is already mostly melted.

Other news: Email Forward of the Day. Like most every other soul existing in cyber universe, I detest email forwards, chain letters, etc. But every once in a while a really nifty one comes along. Today was one of those days. Actually a double header, but I’ll only post the one funny stab at Uncle Sam. Who knows where these things are born. If I knew the author’s name, I’d credit her (him?) but I don’t so I won’t.

Here goes: “The U.S. government announced today that it is changing its emblem to a condom because it more clearly reflects the government’s political stance. A condom stands up to inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you’re being screwed. It just doesn’t get more accurate than that.” Yowzer!

And in final news, twenty five visitors to my eBay auction. Ce-le-bra-tion Time, come on! Bidding has totally stalled out after the first one. Hmmm… Obviously I need to be patient to see what’s going to happen. Excited to watch this play out, but sure would enjoy having some competitive bidding. I’ll keep you posted.

Still haven’t been able to get the Blogger.com upgrade to work so that I can begin adding pictures here. Not sure what the ongoing problem is, but my brother’s had some good luck getting hold of support. Maybe technicolor images will start appearing soon. Hang in there, I’m working on it.