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Traditional Media on the Move in Digital Media

Posted on | March 23, 2009

 

logo-interiorThere has been a longer gap in my post than usual on account of travel.  Last week I attended the Folio: Growth Summit in Chicago and the Digital Hollywood Media Summit in New York.  The Folio Growth Summit is a magazine publishing industry event, and a co-located event held at the same time is E-Media Summit focused on digital media strategies for the magazine industry.  Attendees are from small and large magazine publishers spanning business and consumer publications.  Digital Hollywood Media Summit New York is a conference on Broadband, Mobile, Advertising, Television, Film, Cable & Satellite, Publishing, Radio, Magazines, News & Print Media and Marketing.  

282x42summitslugDigital media is an active topic of discussion these days in general.  Much of the themes at these conferences were around sea changes taking place in all forms of traditional media, and digital media the bridge to the future for all elements the industry, be it magazines, newspapers, broadcast, advertising, or others.  But you already know this.  So, I’d like to summarize some common threads that I hope represent broad strokes of the discussions and views that I heard being expressed. 

Digital media is going to be a part of, and not usurp traditional media

While digital media is transforming traditional media, it is by no means going to usurp the role of traditional media, making it irrelevant any time soon.  In my opinion we have all seen the upheaval in the newspaper industry, and much talk of cutting the cord with cable.  As panelists pointed to recent reports from Nielsen and others, television viewing is up, even as Internet video consumption is on the rise.  While print media is being affected the most from audiences moving to the web, there are some print publications that are doing well at the same time.  News related publications are faring the worst, but the role of news gathering agencies is still relevant.  One panelist at Folio pointed out that most of the ‘news’ blogs are in fact ‘repurposing’ news from major news agencies.  I for one think there is some merit to this argument, but the jury is still out on some aspects of digital media impact on print media.  

Cover of "Convergence Culture: Where Old ...
Cover via Amazon

At the same time, the idea that digital media will not only augment traditional media, but also influence its direction was mentioned.  I for one think this is a powerful concept, one that is best captured in one of my favorite books titled Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins.

It bears mentioning that demise of certain forms of media has been predicted before in the face of new technologies.  If those predictions were accurate, we would not have movie theaters or radio today.

Traditional media companies are opening the throttle on digital media initiatives

It was apparent loud and clear that traditional media companies consider digital media as much a color on its pallet as anyone else, and are aggressively embracing it.  While digital media gives upstarts an opportunity to enter the media industry with a more level playing field than before, they are by no means appropriating digital media.  Traditional media companies while starting from a reactive position, are nevertheless on the move.  My opinion is that they can leverage digital media to their advantage.  The question is how quickly can they gather steam and purpose their assets and resources towards this.

Digital media is not a single pronged initiative

Most traditional companies are looking at digital media as multiple prongs within a growth strategy.  According to one panelist at Folio, they expect multiple digital media initiatives to address different opportunity spectrums, multiple revenue streams and strategic goals.  Another aspect of this is that digital media can help them expand their businesses in new ways as opposed to digital media itself being the business.  For example, at a keynote Bob Carrigan, CEO of IDG, suggested that their digital media initiatives are targeted to build user bases, information from which is then applied to other business objectives towards their research and consulting work.  In my view, a site like Hulu disparate from NBCs other property sites is indicative of this.  On the magazine side, Conde Nast’s destination sites like Epicurious.com or Style.com different from its magazine sites is another example. 

Pay media is in serious consideration

With advertising CPMs declining and increased online advertising inventories commoditizing advertising, the topic of paid media (subscriptions and paid transactions) was prevalent.  While prime time television shows online are garnering good CPMs relative to broadcast, magazines will find it hard to reach online parity with their rate cards for print advertising.  I am skeptical on how consumers will embrace paid media en-masse, but we are likely to see initiatives towards this.  At the same time, as I projected here, this is a logical new direction that media publishers large and small will pursue.  I am on the fence on the outcome of this, and will be watching to see how it plays out.

Both these conferences were packed with sessions and while this post by no means is an exhaustive coverage, I think these threads merit tracking as various types of media companies continue to refine their digital media strategies.

What do you think?  Start a discussion below.

 

 

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Category: Commentary, Magazines, Projections
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One Response to “Traditional Media on the Move in Digital Media”

  1. The convergence of digital media and social media? : TechMediaTalk
    March 31st, 2009 @ 9:05 am

    [...] at the Digital Hollywood Media Summit I attended in NYC a couple of weeks ago and wrote about in a previous post.   While at the conference listening to various panelists discussing digital media topics, it [...]

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