The Net: An unfettered medium of one-to-one, or many-to-many, publishing? Hardly. It's a network of enterprising middlemen, packagers, and matchmakers, all arguing that content X placed in context Y will surely bring profit Z. Web pages too static? Try Marimba! Need some corporate eyeballs? Try PointCast! Still not enough folks coming back for more? Push it, print it, insert it, sell it, email it - do it all, and it might eventually add up to something disarmingly similar to a positive cash flow.
The horrible part is that it very well could, if you had the manic energy, zealot's persistence, and economic dexterity to see all these incremental strategies through. But who'd want to? Not Time Inc. With their announcement of intent to syndicate content and let others manage the platform, redistribution, and technology issues, they're showing an inclination refreshing to see amongst content shops. Namely, to choose better middlemen.
With so many novel delivery mechanisms getting so much press, it's easy for the Net's editorial committee to forget that it's not just being taken for a ride, it's also supplying the gas. Making the transition from paper or television to the Web was traumatic enough for most online publishers; feeling compelled to repurpose on the platform-of-the-month, every month, is pure Kevorkianism. It's as if the music industry underwent the progression from vinyl to 8-track to cassette to CD in the course of a year. It's Digital Business 101 for speed freaks. It's no way to earn a living.
And it's unnecessary. If more major publishers adopted Time Inc. New Media's stance, the level of frenzied development wouldn't ebb, it would just become someone else's problem. And there are plenty of outfits, other than Time Inc., eager to make a fortune repackaging Fortune and People for the people. There'll never be a shortage of enterprising middlemen on the Net, willing to swap risk for upside potential. Letting them get between you and your audience might remove you from an onslaught of valuable traffic, but it also may help keep the tire tracks off your face.
