The consumer's Era of Choice (as it relates to media consumption)is the result of dramatic shifts in the supply/demand dynamics in markets for content.
That this is obvious to some executives in the industry is not enough. Basic insights demand closer looks at how markets respond to unprecedented events. The technology of the worldwide web and the tools that come along with it have been a watershed in sharing information. The Internet is part of a trend as old as us being socialized beings. We gather, we share, we learn, we use that to endeavor to prosper. And while telegraphs and telephones were big leaps in this trending process reducing the need for proximity, the Internet has now achieved the needed social momentum where we are now organizing ourselves and allowing groups (markets) to effectively get what they want with little or no lag time.
Old media properties first encountered this effect in music sharing and then movie sharing. And while these proprietary forms of content are troubling many different business models, the new social dynamic is much better observed in the developments in the areas referred to as social media.
In the meantime, old media businesses are struggling mightily with profitability issues and remain focused upon new ways in which to monetize the Internet as a distribution platform. This is a natural reaction by the groups of businesses based on what seems obvious but, the real insight is available by looking a little deeper at the social impulses driving the behavior.
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