Your media business will not be saved

Screensaver from John Carpenter’s “Prince of Darkness” (this is actually about Satan, but it doesn't matter here)

Video does not save your media business. Neither bots, newsletters, nor the “morning news” application, nor the experience of “relaxing” on the iPad, nor integration with Slack, nor the Snapchat channel, nor extended collaboration with Twitter will survive. All this together could help, but even then you will not be saved by the magical New Creation, which, as everyone in the media community is convinced, should be the answer to the Great Problem.

I can say on the basis of personal experience over the past few months, having met with countless investors, heads of media companies, editors, writers and technologists of the media world - they all have a desperate faith that the Great Problem can be solved with the coming of the New Creations
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After all - damn it! - there must be something somewhere in the store. Well, for example, a new kind of video application. The best news of the day, except for all the video. Or video, but with subtitles. Or just 30-second videos designed for vertical screens. Some kind of personal Facebook bot, issuing only those videos that you want. Video on demand, stunning, with strawberries, informative, chic, exciting!

Or maybe some type of newsletter. Some kind of news feed.

But go back.
You ask what is the Great Problem? The great problem is that we used to have a really clear and tidy version of the media business, where very serious stakeholders managed the vast spaces of what we read, look and listen. Because that system was built on the concept of scarcity and locality — the limits of what was physically possible — it was very easy to control the situation and fill up the wallets. In other words, there were much fewer players in the game with significantly fewer outputs for their content, which made it easy for spectators to attract and easily sell them something.

Then came the figure. And we were alone in front of each other - you and me. And suddenly, all the usual, established channels began to fall apart. Sale of newspapers has stopped. Magazines are dead. Nets grappled with each other. Local news has become much smaller. Local newspapers have lost their meaning to an even greater degree.

Suddenly, much more free material became available online, and anyone who was willing was able to create their own blogs! But the media industry is a cumbersome, stupid, slow moving animal, poorly informed about threats and the environment. I skip a few parts, but, by and large, this industry has responded to the challenge (or the threat, as they saw it) of digital technology, ignoring or denying the digit. As a result, instead of content creators and advertisers who responded by shifting their attention and understanding of user value to the future (the figure is everywhere and everywhere!), Fussing in the old system continued. Basically: for this industry, it was really difficult to realize the advent of the Internet, and all the money (in particular, subscriber dollars) still went to traditional channels. So, for example, magazine advertising remained an order of magnitude more valuable than its digital representation (if the presentation called, in general, existed). TV was not even in that class. To say that a figure was worth a penny is simply to say nothing. And today, basically, everything remains so. A broken model that is rapidly aging.

The second change came along with the underlying problems of publishing: this industry, in which its ability to influence the population was controlled through ownership of property, such as printing presses, began to cede its power in the process of delivery and distribution to other people. People who did not care about the media business and did not understand it. To people who have said this business: the answer is not to be the best in something, but to be the most part of something.
It was partly made out of fear, but mainly it was made out of ignorance.
As a result, over time, some structure has been created in digital technology, reimbursing user value. We thought that we could, using the quantity (the new, seemingly infinite quantity, which the Internet and social media provide), solve what we could not solve, using attention. And with the addition of each new set of subscribers to the Internet services (or clicks, or views), we have reduced the achievements of what we have done. And advertisers demanded more, because those consumers were worth less. And we did more. And the value of this was less.

The media industry now basically thinks that its only working business model is to reach as many people as possible and sell — usually programmatically, but sometimes differently — as much advertising as the audience has gained as much as possible. If they tell you otherwise, they lie.
But they, I believe, ultimately wrong again.

And every few months - or, let's say, every year - suddenly some kind of technology or idea or person appears, and a very stupid and slow media industry thinks that finally this New Creation will decide everything. Will bring everyone back to the good old days. Turn those pennies into weighty dollars. In one year, it was expected to be an iPad, next time - a network of “amateur journalists”, last year it was, it seems, the site “You Won't Believe What Happens Next” (“You won’t believe will happen now "), next year, perhaps, there will be a video (or reality-video?) or bots. Maybe this will be the Instant Articles platform (“Instant Publishing”) of Facebook. Or - your new application.

Of course, the expected product could have a bit of everything. But in fact this is not one of them. You can always discover some new path from the New Creation. You can always get from the New Creation some quick hit that will look like success. But rarely - almost never - a descended New Creation is what solves your problem.

Your problem is that you make rubbish. A lot of rubbish. Cheap trash. And nobody cares about you and your cheap stuff. And an increasingly knowledgeable, intelligent and changeable public spits on your cheap stuff. They don't want your cheap stuff. They want good rubbish. And they will go to find her somewhere. And damn it! - they will even pay for it.

The truth is that the best and most important things that the media has ever done (say, more precisely, the news media) were not aimed at reaching out to most people — they were aimed at getting to the proper people. Because people live around, not content consumption machines. What will save the media industry - or at least that part of it that is worth saving? - The arrival of time, when we again begin to make Real Things for people instead of programming for algorithms or New Creations.

So, what will matter in the next era of the media industry?
Popular voices and stories, real, naturally talent, new ideas that are really useful to the public or delight it, brands that have meaning and weight - these are the things that will matter in the next era of the media industry. Think of your platform as an actual platform - not as a delivery method. Realize that you are more than just your words. Think of your business as a business of product and storytelling — not as a business headline and body copy of an advertisement. Think of your audience as well-defined and made up of specific people and build a sustainable business model around such an audience — that will matter. Think of a 10-year plan, not a billion dollar valuation — it will matter.

But as long as we build everything around all these kinds of Real Things, it will be hard. There will be blood, violence, repression. Someone from the content creators will die. Some of them will be bought up. They will be fragmented. Their TV networks will collapse. Their partnership will end. In truth, it almost happened.

We will have to learn a thousand hard lessons, most of which will be built around the idea that, if you want to do something really great, you cannot think of doing this great for all . You have to do great for someone . It may be a lot of people, but not everyone .

I tend to be optimistic - assume that the glass is half full. I really think that this is an incredible opportunity for intelligent people in the media industry. We can use the chance . We can create new things . We can start, but we are slow.

At the risk of appearing to engage in self-promotion, I will say that here is what I worked on for a considerable part of the year. I was only interested in creating interesting things for interested people. Want to support or be part of the process? Write to. I love to chat.