Timothy Post.com

All of us should spend some time reading the following articles and thinking about their implications for traditional media properties and the newly emerging web2.0 models we are all trying to wrap our brains around.

1. Fred Wilson, Disaggregated Media, June 24th, 2006
2. Fred Wilson, The Rise of Ad Networks, June 25th, 2006
3. Rob Finn, Ad Models History and Future, August 4th, 2006

The basic premise of Fred Wilson’s original article is that the traditional bundling of content creation, editorial, and advertising will begin to disaggregate and eventually will become separate businesses.

I found Fred’s premise very interesting in light of a conversation I had today with a friend at Network World. What she mentioned is that the content creation and the advertising folks are beginning to merge together and that sponsorship of custom content is becoming a valuable part of its revenue stream. See Techmeme’s new ad model for a great example of this merging of the two areas.

This is consistent with Fred’s point that media properties like Network World will need to change in order to survive. At the end of the day, media companies will need to choose which function they do best and build their revenues around that function.

I believe that what companies like Network World do best is provide a virtual forum where specific industry individuals can stay abreast of current events, communicate freely, and a place where they can continue to learn.

For that reason I would suggest that we will begin to see media properties like Network World focusing most intensely on the editorial function. As blogs and bloggers continue to encroach upon the professional writers’ turfs, the generation of content will become devalued but the need for tight editorial control critical. In essence, magazines will be the moderators who set the rules and help foster productive interaction within various sub-communities. It’s no surprise that companies like IDG have branched out into the conference and convention industries. A conference is basically a physical version of an online forum. Or is it vice versa?

Is this why Rupert Murdoch is shopping around for a blogging software platform? Yup. Rupert knows that he can’t control 100 million content creators but he can certainly profit from their need to blog. Leave it to Rupert Murdoch to take a cost center and turn it into a revenue stream.

// 10.03.2006 at 10:08 am // Tagged webwidgets