by: Idris Mootee
There’s
never a better time for media executives in terms of fun. This whole
consumer-generated content thing is turning the media world upside
down. There’s always that question of who is the content provider and
who is the distributor? Who is the intermediary? The lines between
them are blurred. Consumers are both distributors and/or producers.
According to a new Jupiter Research Report “Networked Media: Thriving In An Intermediated World“,
in the long run, content producers must acknowledge the importance of
blogs, portals, and aggregators in connecting with their audiences. The
report points out that 57% of 18-to-24-year-olds internet users get
their news from portals versus 21% from cable news sites–and online
users now trust portals nearly as much as traditional news media. That
makes sense.
“To thrive on the Web, news sites must become
more network-focused and aggregate content from other sources while
distributing their own content through intermediaries,” according to
David Schatsky, president of Jupiter Research. “By paying closer
attention to the tendencies of the end user, these sites will be able
to evolve and meet the needs of a wider online audience.” Sounds simple
enough. The big question is not the “what”, but the “how”.
So how should content producers embrace
intermediaries and what is it that is needed to be done to exploit
opportunities to become intermediaries for their core audiences. It
seems the dynamic cycle of “dis-intermediation” and “re-intermediation”
continues with no end in sight.
As marketers are quick to jump on these CGC, picking an choosing
what to leverage and adding “filters”. And presuming that consumers
will continue to be willing to play along and create free content that
marketers can in turn attach some marketing messages. This assumption
is definitely worth challenging but also gives us some ideas for the
next big thing.
Original Post: http://mootee.typepad.com/innovation_playground/2007/08/jupiterresearch.html
