Emerging picture on content shows pick-and-choose globalisation

So what is happening to content -- the broad word we use to describe everything from data and articles to video and audio --be it songs or news or movies?
With the coming of broadband, social media and blogs in a big way, the future could be "atomised" for piecemeal consumption of what used to be sold in big packages -- such as newspapers, TV channels and magazines. Here is my take on this after meeting Google's Nikesh Arora last week.

The Future Of Newspapers: Are micropayments the way out?

First came print advertising because people read newspapers.
Then came TV advertising, that took away some of those ads
Then came the era of advertising-supported content, as readers became more of "consumers" being targeted by advertisers who signed large cheques.
Then came the part about newspapers adjusting to the demands of advertisers, and addressing readers as "target segments"
That phase is still on now, but the Web is changing --or has changed things--all over again.
Classified ads have migrated to the Web.
Newspaper Websites are not really getting that much ads.
Digital ads are growing,but are they the way out?
How do we price content? Journalism is a costly business, involves travel and credibility -- and unbiased coverage that is under constant pressure from politicians or advertisers in some form or the other.
In the age of the Internet, the business has become more complicated. New York Times has its property on mortgage, and Chicago Tribune filed for bankruptcy.
So what is the future of the newspaper?
This article in Time magazine discusses it, and apparently bets on micropayments. Oh well, let us see how it all goes.

State of the Blogosphere-A cheat sheet

Here is an interesting insight into the blogosphere, from Mediapost, looking at Technorati

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 Blogs And Mainstream Media Intersect According to Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2008 report, the majority of bloggers surveyed currently have advertising on their blogs. Among those with advertising, the mean annual investment in their blog is $1,800. The mean annual revenue is $6,000 with $75K+ in revenue for those with 100,000 or more unique visitors per month. There have been a number of studies aimed at understanding the size of the Blogosphere, says the report, yielding disparate estimates, but all studies agree that blogs are a global phenomenon that has hit the mainstream. Reports in 2008 include these estimates: comScore MediaMetrix reports: (August 2008) Blogs... 77.7 million unique visitors in the US Facebook... 41.0 million MySpace... 75.1 million Total internet audience... 188.9 million eMarketer says: (May 2008) 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users) 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12% of Internet users) Universal McCann finds: (March 2008) 184 million world wide have started a blog 346 million world wide read blogs 77% of active Internet users read blogs Wikipedia defines the Blogosphere as the collective community of all blogs. interconnected and socially networked. While discussions in the Blogosphere have been used by the media as a gauge of public opinion, Technorati isolates the Active Blogosphere as the ecosystem of interconnected communities of bloggers and readers at the convergence of journalism and conversation. But, says the study, as the Blogosphere grows in size and influence, the lines between what is a blog and what is a mainstream media site become less clear. Larger blogs are taking on more characteristics of mainstream sites and mainstream sites are incorporating styles and formats from the Blogosphere. In fact, 95% of the top 100 US newspapers have reporter blogs. Technorati tracked blogs in 81 languages in June 2008, and bloggers from 66 countries across six continents, finding that Bloggers have been at it an average of three years and are collectively creating close to one million posts every day. Blogs have representation in top-10 web site lists across all key categories, and have become integral to the media ecosystem. The key findings included such things as: Personal, professional, and corporate bloggers all have differing goals and cover an average of five topics within each blog They use five different techniques to drive traffic to their blog. They're using an average of seven publishing tools on their blog and four distinct metrics for measuring success Bloggers ae receiving speaking or publishing opportunities, career advancement, and personal satisfaction Bloggers are using self serve tools for search, display, and affiliate advertising, and are increasingly turning to ad and blog networks. Four in five bloggers post brand or product reviews, with 37% posting them frequently 90% of bloggers say they post about the brands, music, movies and books that they love (or hate) Company information or gossip and everyday retail experiences are fodder for the majority of bloggers One-third of bloggers have been approached to be brand advocates Global Snapshot of Bloggers   U.S. Bloggers European Bloggers Asian Bloggers Male 57% 73% 73% Age          18-34 years old 42% 48% 73%    35+ 58% 52% 27% Single 26% 31% 57% Employed full-time 56% 53% 45% Household income >$75,000 51% 34% 9% College graduate 74% 67% 69% Average blogging tenure (months) 35 33 30 Median Annual Investment $80 $15 $30 Median Annual Revenue $200 $200 $120 % Blogs with advertising 52% 50% 60% Average Monthly Unique Visitors 18,000 24,000 26,000 Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, October 2008   Segment Snapshot of Bloggers   Personal Corporate Professional With Advertising No Advertising Male 64% 70% 72% 66% 66% Age              18-34 years old 52% 45% 48% 53% 45%    35+ 48% 55% 52% 47% 55% Single 36% 24% 31% 34% 34% Employed full-time 52% 51% 55% 49% 56% Household income>$75k 37% 49% 42% 40% 37% College graduate 70% 74% 74% 69% 72% Average blogging tenure (months) 35 35 38 35 33 Median Annual Investment $100 $200 $150 $100 0 Median Annual Revenue $120 $250 $300 $200 0 % Blogs with Advertising 53% 64% 59% 100% 0% Average Monthly Unique Visitors 12,000 39,000 44,000 46,000 4,000 Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, October 2008   Global Bloggers by Gender   Female Male Personal Blog 83% 76% Professional Blog 38% 50% Age        18-24 years old 9% 15%    25+ 91% 85% Single 29% 36% Employed full-time 44% 56% Median Annual Investment $30 $60 Median Annual Revenue $100 $200 % Blogs with advertising 53% 54% Sell Through a Blog ad Network* 16% 7% Have Affiliate ads* 41% 32% Have Contextual ads* 61% 73% Technorati, State of the Blogosphere, October 2008  (*Among those with advertising on their blogs) In 2004 when Technorati started, says the report, the typical reaction to the word 'blog' was 'huh?' Today... the blog has forever changed the way publishing works... anyone can be a publisher. The issue is no longer distribution, it's relevance.

Death of the 30-second (prime-time) commercial?

Now I am right, now I am not.

I was only a month ago wondering if I had spent three years predicting the end of prime-time (as we know it) to eat my words.

Then I thought that live TV will stay with a prime-time kind of feel (I still do).

Now I think could still be right either way. Anything that is recordable need not necessarily be watched live, and hence, the bulk of entertainment programmes will fall into this category.
For instance, now, viewers switch between channels when there is an ad on --while advertisers have to struggle to keep them viewing. With digital video recorders and time-shifted TV programmes, people will concentrate more on the content, with flexibility of viewing more than ever before.
Read this story on the death of the 30-second commercial for more on what things are headed for.

Time-Warner segregates content from carriage

The message is clear.

Nearly a decade ago, Steve Case was the big man at America On Line, which, like a tail wagging the dog, acquired one of the world's most reputed media content companies, Time -Warner Inc, because AOL owned the Net connections that would carry content to homes.
Then came the dot-com bust...and then Web 2.0 and all that. It is now clear that content and carriage of content need not be, and in fact, better not be, in the same company.
AOL's carriage part is being separated from the content part.
This is the future of the Net - and indeed the media.
A few decades ago, publishers owned presses.
One decade ago, the pipe-wallahs took content.
Not any more.
My next prediction: Ad sales will be increasingly separated from content. It is happening already on the Web with publishers and ad networks working as partners, and not as one entity.
Why can't that happen to old-world old media houses?
I see it happening, though the pace could be painfully slow.

Is User Generated Content heading for bust?

There is a quote my father used to cite, though I am not sure who this is from. Possibly Samuel Johnson: "No ass ever wrote anything but for money."

Now, we are living in the age of User Generated Content.
This blog is one example, but then I am told I can make money by using the Google AdSense program (me!).
Yahoo has Answers.
Everywhere, we have social networks being described as the hottest Internet thingie.
Message boards, discussion forums, self-created cartoons, photographs uploaded from the family album.... the list is long.
To this long list may be added this "citizen journalism" thing.
As a professional journalist, I often ask myself: Am I heading for unemployment, sub-employment, oblivion, whatever...?
I don't have the answers, but I can tell this much: It suits the creators of technology platforms, and those who make money on advertisements, to get content for free.
User Generated Content assumes that writing, singing, photographs...they are all done only for fun and self-satisfaction.
Some marginal money is shared through programmes like AdSense to encourage good content, but in the end, I do have my reservations about UGC.
If it is good, it must be worth the right price!
How much does one pay for something that is good?
In the current phase, there is a trend of disruption in which demand and supply are not being properly measured. The industry is, as it were, groping itself to find its own shape!
There are geeks trying to figure out how to get on top of Google Search lists.
There are geeks trying to measure how users consume content.
There are geeks trying to measure hits, impressions and usage patterns of content.
It is the lack of accepted measurement metrics, and the sheer novelty of uploading something on the Net that is creating a culture of "UGC-generated" revenues.
I expect this to settle into a rhythm.
Having seen the first dotcom boom -- and bust -- I expect the din on the side of the UGC evangelists from the technology and publisher side to die down.
Clarity will emerge a while later.
Remember the days when kids had 7 mail IDs?
Remember the days when a new email account resulted in 23 forwards read per day and 4 forwards done per day?
All that changed, and I expect this UGC thing to settle into a simple rhythm. A part of the advertisement revenue will most certainly go there, but a lot of the action will be in the mainstream media business.
Techies and ad-sellers trying to behave like publishers is a passing phase.
Loser Generated Content has its limits.
Just wait and watch.

M&A comes to blogging...

A feeble poll I set up on this very blog a few days ago ended yesterday. It asked: Can blogs turn into viable businesses? Only four people cared to vote and three of them said yes.
Now comes the news that GigaOM a blog-based content network founded by Om Malik in the Silicon Valley, has made its first acquisition...actually, the acquisition is by his venture-funded blog company, Giga Omnimedia.
In simple terms, the word blog can be misleading. Though its origins lie in the word web log, blogging tools are online publishing tools acquiring sophistication and method everyday. No wonder, quality blogs can and will -- as we see in this merger and acquisition of sorts involving GigaOM -- count alongside mainstream media.
Let's hear it from Om Malik on his deal:
"In the life of every company, there comes a time when it is faced with the choice of how to extend its reach: Either build a new product or service, or acquire the one that's already established itself as the best in its class. Larger companies face that question every day, but it is rare for a nano company like ours to have to make such a decision.
I am pleased to announce that Giga Omni Media, the company behind GigaOM, has acquired jkOnTheRun, a blog started by James Kendrick and Kevin Tofel that focuses on the wonderful world of mobile gadgets, including mobile phones and cloud client computers. James and Kevin will join GigaOM, but will continue to work from their respective homes of Houston and Telford, Pa., and jkOnTheRun will become the sixth blog in the GigaOM Network."
Congratulations, Malik Saheb!

Now, Flash applications with embedded ads...(Mochi cobbles them up!)

Now, startup Mochi Media has got funded because it enables game developers to embed ads within their Flash games. This means Flash applications can become (after pdf files, Web pages et al) as a credible advertising platform. I think it has tremendous implications.
I didn't see any Indian name in the management, but I do wonder if the name came from the Hindi word for cobbler!