| Going up in smoke: the future of the media |
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| Written by Glenn Luther | ||||
| Tuesday, 15 June 2010 20:19 | ||||
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The future of the media is smoke signals. At least, that is what one of the panelists said jokingly when asked the first question, First we had smoke signals, later Gutenberg’s printing press, today we have the iPad, ‘What’s next?’.
The reality of his comment could not have been more apparent.
While the four panelists, representing SB Nation, Aol., CNN and the Washington Post, talked on stage about their vision of the future, audience members held their own discussion via Twitter.
tbridge Hearing CNN, WaPo and AOL talk about new opportunities in media is like hearing the buggywhip makers talk about cars. #dcwfom
Karpantschof Funny. Attending The Future of Media session (w/AOL, CNN, Wash Post) and not hearing a word about the future. What a shame. #dcwfom
ladyglock I was kind of surprised AOL had anything to say really. #dcwfom
NicoleInDC Someone from @TBDDC should've been on this panel. #justsayin #dcweek #dcwfom
hashtager # I really wish the panel monitored the hashtag - or at least the uncomfortable squirming in the audience.#dcweek #dcwfom
darthcheeta I feel sorry for the panelists when they read the twitstream. #dcwfom
The tweets kept rolling in.
The panelists for DC Week’s Future of the Media talk at National Geographic were: Vijay Ravindran, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of The Washington Post, Jim Bankoff CEO of SB Nation, Meredith Artley, editor at CNN and Martin Durkin of Aol.
“Content is king,” Meredith Artley of CNN said, one of the four panelists while talking about what will drive media of the future. “It’s all about the story you are trying to tell, whether it is the disaster in the gulf, protest or a unique feature piece, the story always comes first. The future is not about one medium you use to tell the story it is about the best way to tell the story.”
The story for this panel was the backstory.
Their analysis of the media shift from old media to online media was presented and discussed, while users of the online media both applauded and criticized their ability to fully understand the impact of online media in a old media world.
The media industry is in a formative stage right now, content has become unbundled from distribution,” Jim Bankoff of SB Nation, said. “One of the things we are going to see is a redistribution of big distribution channels. Content is no longer the king, it is the kingdom.”
Vijay Ravindran from the Washington Post said new business models are still emerging and it is creating a lot of uncertainty for traditional media.
“The print medium is under tremendous pressure,” he said. “We are hunting for the right business model for us to allow journalism to occur [online].”
Success is not just the percentage of revenue you get from advertising, Ravindran said. Every person that decides not to buy a paper and get news online is bad for our business.
ArielDL Have a feeling #dcwfom panel is just figuring out how very interested audience is in specifics on ROI and CPM. Can have a redo? #dcweek
jeffsonderman #dcwfom RT @davewiner: @jeffsonderman-- big companies rarely innovate.
jeffsonderman REALLY wish we had a blogger on this panel to question some assumptions #dcwfom
darthcheeta If #dcwfom panelists are in charge of the future of media and advertising, RUN don't walk to your broker and SELL your stock!
jodiontheweb Panelists on the Future of Media panel are from AOL, CNN.com and WaPo. Take from that what you will. #dcwfom
angelambrown: Trying so hard not to lol. Tweets have been better than panel #dcweek#dcwfom
EricHLewis Now, the internet is everywhere, fast, and endless. Thank you, captain obvious #dcwfom
bydanielvictor Can we please stop calling it citizen journalism? If not, can we please stop pitting it a corner opposite "real journalism"? #dcweek #dcwfom
mjenkins The #dcwfom panel is increasingly becoming a big media backslap session. Feeling smirky here in the#heyTBD corner. #dcweek
mpranikoff Best line of this panel so far to the moderator "No, I don't want to answer that". Finally breathed some life into the audience #dcwfom
melaniephung This panel about "future of media" needs a lot more focus on "future". #dcwfom #dcweek For more on the conversation follow #dcwfom on Twitter.
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David Johnson
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broken business models the elephant in the room was and is, if there is still a value proposition in associating advertising content against editorial content online. then, do media companies realize they are in the advertising business as much or more than they are in the content business? then, what are they doing to innovate the advertising problem online to raise the value for publisher, advertiser and consumer? Bankoff mentioned that SBNation was able to build a business through scale... "off the backs of bloggers," was the language I remember. This reminded me of google's adwords business model. while google makes the lion's share of revenue from keyword search advertising, adwords makes it on sheer scale. but if this, and other ad networks for ROS products, are the best the industry can produce, it is no wonder that the only ads that seem to work are short pre-roll video. and that's not very innovative. the audience expected more. if these speakers had more to offer, it wasn't evidently apparent. and it was very discouraging for the future of media. when i tweeted that i felt sorry for the panelists, andy carvin tweeted back that he hoped they saw the tweckling as constructive criticism. i hope they do, and realize that a lot more than just their own jobs are riding on their ability to not just broker and leverage existing ad networks - but actually innovate the advertising space to more effectively monetize quality content. otherwise, brands will see less value in being associated with content... and continue to see more value being associated with social and participatory media and products webmail where users spend vast majority of their time already. good luck, panel. i sincerely hope you get another shot. this town loves a comeback. |
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