Call it the billion dollar question of today’s digital revolution: When it comes to online media, who's in charge?
Looking back on the first phase of the digital revolution, when big media companies chose to give away their content for free online, their system of power started breaking down. Later came the upstart phase, in which bloggers and niche news sites added more content to the online world, but also stole away eyeballs and revenue from the big guys. Now, it seems the power shift is near-complete — in today’s online media world, the consumer is in control.
Don’t follow the money. Follow the behavior.People from all walks of media life gathered at the HBO Theater in Manhattan late last week to try to discuss this issue and find answers to the new Big Question: If consumers are the king of content decisions, how can you make any money?
Sure, there have been countless conferences which have yet to change the world. But the MOB (Monetizing Online Business) Conference, hosted by the Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, set out on a slightly different approach than the rest. *[Ed: Wired.com is owned by a company owned by S.I. Newhouse]. *
Rather than bring in the usual suspects, focused on ways to preserve and port old business model, Vin Crosbie, co-moderator and adjunct professor at the Newhouse School, said this one-and-a-half day conference aimed to “start the discussion over with a clean slate.”
A clean slate seems necessary because let's face it — at this point, everyone already knows the bad news. But now in phase three, the era of mobile internet and the tablet and, there may be new ways to get back into the business of business.
The problem is, nobody seems to know exactly how to do it yet. There is reason for hope — everything companies need to know to make consumers happy is being played out in plain sight. Unlike the old days of print, when media content was sent into the world with no precise way of tracking how it gets consumed, the new world of online analytics and tracking technologies helps companies understand the who, what, when, and where of media consumption.
To that effect, David Zaslav, President and CEO of Discovery Communications, offered this valuable nugget to the entrepreneurs, media executives, and others in the audience at MOB: “don’t follow the money, follow the behavior.”
In other words, in order to steer their ships towards financial success, large companies to stop focusing on itself and what used to work. Instead, find out what the audience wants, and figure out the best way to give it to them. Even if it doesn't play to a current strength.
To do that, companies need to get more connected to consumers and other companies, and to Publish2 co-founder and CEO Scott Karp, that means going further than making the obligatory Facebook Fan Page or Twitter account. Channeling his inner guru, Karp advised that rather than getting on the network, companies should “become the network” by linking to each other online.
If you advertise to people at the wrong time, you’re going to get yourself in big trouble.Taking it further, Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare, said he plans to use the “check-in” information collected on his social network to track the patters and behaviors of users, similar to a company like Netflix.
“What he’s creating could be very disruptive to big businesses,” said Mike Duda, Chief Corporate Strategy Officer of Deutsch Inc. “He’s turning ‘Abe’s Coffeehouse’ into media. With all that data about the consumer, he could be going up against agencies [and media companies] like Viacom.”
By utilizing this sort of data, companies can deliver their content, whether it’s an magazine article or an advertisement, to their customers where, when, and how that customer wants it.
Adam Penenberg, associate professor at New York University and author of the book Viral Loop, thinks this is the key to fixing the current problem online. “If you advertise to people at the wrong time, you’re going to get yourself in big trouble.”
But at the bottom of it all, the overall tone at the conference was that media companies need to start completely anew.
“There’s too much replication out there,” Penenberg said during a panel discussion. “I think big companies need to pull a George Constanza and do the exact opposite of everything the think they’re supposed to do."
The crowd erupted with laughter.
Funny sit-com reference that may be, but it may well be the damned truth if companies are going to find their place in the brave new world of online media.
“Whatever we think we know, we don’t,” said Larry Kramer, adjunct professor at the Newhouse School. “We have to keep listening to the consumer.”
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