What is the Future of Media Companies? What if there were no future for media companies? What if the Internet meant that, on the one hand, companies can go direct to their customers and don’t need them half as much as they used to, and, on the other, that the only “media” to speak of will be either algorithm-driven websites, like Google, or community-driven websites, like Facebook? Or a mix of the two. In any case, companies based on hard data and user-contributed information about what people search for and what they like, what they share, what makes them connect and to whom and why. What if it were totally over for top-down publishing venues, no matter how prestigious, and no matter how much low-cost user-generated content crap they add? Like it is! What if they knew it? My guess is that, rather than give up on their idea of being entitled to being the opinion makers and then trying to create the next Polyvore, they’d probably be launching their own branded products, just like Vogue is doing with Vogue Eyewear.
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Evil Plans
I’ve had my fair share of crappy jobs, as we all have. You know what? I never hated a job because of what it took from me – all jobs take a lot from you, especially the best ones.
I hated a job because it never allowed me to give enough to the world.
That’s all I ever wanted: my best self, playing my best game.– Hugh MacLeod, Evil Plans
Real Data Mining
I don’t know where Marissa Mayer read that, apparently…
credit card companies know with 98% accuracy two years before that you’re going to get divorced.
But I see a business model here. We should put real data mining to action. What if you and your boyfriend or girlfriend could submit your credit card purchases before you got married and could get an educated guess from them about the chances – how much more or how much less than the standard 50%? – of your future marriage falling apart?
The Cluetrain Manifesto in 2010
A few years after it was written, it seemed like the Cluetrain Manifesto really had it right. Back in, say, 2001, advertising on the Internet was broken. Banner ads didn’t work, tracking was little more than guessing, and buying ads was a time consuming thing which involved negotiating with different partners, dealing with different creativities and different ad-servers etc. It really looked like the web was a different ballgame, and companies better start doing something different.
Then Google came to the rescue. Pretty soon, you could buy ads next to search results, and then contextual ads, and then graphical ads, all from one single interface, one single check, no negotiations and for a price which seemed to make sense. For those who didn’t get it, or didn’t want to get their hands too dirty, search ad agencies were there to take care of their budgets. And just like nobody had ever been fired for doing Tv ads, the same exact thing was going to be true for ads on Google.
For most companies, “marketing” was once again something which had little to do with their product. Or with their market. But with the success of YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, came a host of consultants that told companies that “in social media” they had to be cool, hip and down to earth. But there was no need to panic, or to change their ways, for they could do it for them, and provide them with stats about how things were going, and reassure them that there is nothing to worry about…