For Quality Engagement/Think Local

Welcome to BlackBox Media!  We look forward to hearing your input, thoughts and insights into what we do and how we can work together.    Before starting my first post, I thought to re-read an article I had written a little over a year ago on the value of local media and markets for perspective…see live link to “For Quality Engagement” above.   What struck me was how much has transpired, which made me wonder how 2007 will be remembered years from now.      With about 25 years of media, marketing and sales experience under my belt, I lived through a time when paradigm shifts took at least a decade.  It took Cable TV at least that amount of time to hit 33% household penetration before it was considered viable as an ad supported “medium.”  Now, new “paradigms” seem to be shifting every 3 months or so.    There is no question that the internet has fundamentally altered the way we interact with and consume media but will 2007 be remembered as the year that forever changed life as we know it?   As I will elaborate, it depends on what happens next.   From a media and consumer behavior perspective, 2007 will probably be viewed as the year the walls came tumbling down.   CGC revolutionized communication and unleashed a virtual tsunami of content.  In 2007, the internet became a conduit through which anyone can communicate with rest of the world in real time.    This unfettered creative freedom will usher in an era of communication that is uncharted in modern media history.  It also raises a lot of questions…can it be managed, should it be managed and if so, how?  What is the role of traditional media in this new media juggernaut?  Will it be subsumed by it or be empowered to create a new golden era?    IMHO…while the rules have been re-written, the fundamentals will remain intact.  The old adage, “content is king” has been overlooked but will become increasingly relevant in this brave new world.  All media, traditional or online, is a blank screen without it.  Google has created the most efficient media buying machine ever ideated but with all the change, it’s a way station not a destination.  CGC has provided the opportunity for affinity groups to find each other and converse without geographical boundaries but will it replace editors and reporting?  The growing ubiquity of broadband has added sight, sound and motion to the CGC revolution.  But, while two people with a video camera can be hilarious, will it replace the entertainment value of TV or movies?  The resources required to create consistent quality entertainment or to verify, quantify and separate truth from innuendo is not insignificant.   

My point is not to get on a constitutional soapbox, but to say that content may be free but you get what you pay for.  The incredibly robust profit margins of most traditional media companies will be severely challenged but they will survive.   They are making good strides in finding ways to participate in the digital revolution by leveraging the asset that keeps them in business…content.   Evolving more efficient distribution will be their challenge.  Traditional distribution is costly, so increased utilization of digital will help drive tremendous ecomonies of scale, leaving more money for content. 

 Social networking is here to stay and is a wonderful piece of media evolution.  FaceBook and MySpace have given us reason to believe that there might even be a robust business model behind it as well.  But, using the personal information that is volunteered to “profile” users is already under fire in Washington and by consumers.  The miracle of the internet is also its curse.  As fast as it rises, so it seems it can fall.    I believe that social networking and CGC will find its place in a permission based environment but trust must be built over time….kind of like a newspaper or magazine web site.  TV is a more visual and entertainment based medium and will probably evolve over time to be  YouTube on steroids.    Free content will continue to intermingle with paid…whether paid through commercials, subscriptions or both.  But, there will continue to be a choice.  And, traditional media has got to figure out how to entertain without bombarding consumers into numbness with commercial messages.  What is old is new…the sponsored content model has been around since the earliest days of TV.    Technology has taken us a long way.  Perhaps we should take a break from pushing new technology and go back to our roots and re-discover the value in what made media so popular…content.  History does tend to be cyclical.    So, what do you think?     http://technorati.com/claim/wdbatuj5r” rel=”me”>Technorati Profile