The Roadmap of Assets and Liabilities for Media Properties in 2016

It goes without saying that over the last few years the world has and continues to rapidly change. Few industries have been at the very center of the change in the way that media has been. How and where we consume information and entertainment, who we trust and who we get entertained by, and probably most of all — how all of this gets produced and distributed have all gone through significant evolution.

These changes have left both newly established media companies as well as those with a storied past reeling, trying to put together a path to the future from the present and past. Marketers who have relied on big media buys are left scratching their heads, packing their bags or finding ways to keep themselves relevant.

The scale that the social networks have gained is mind boggling. Underneath it, simultaneously exposed and well hidden, is the infrastructure to build new media properties and have content reach audience at a scale and speed we’ve never seen before. Very valuable companies are being built right now, with totally different cost structures from the past. And at the same time, the very valuable companies of our past have started to decay and fall apart at a frightening speed.

At its core, key assets are becoming key liabilities and visa versa. It’s a confusing world and not rare that the CEO, her management team and their advisors are often at a loss or giving dated advice. What worked last year is not necessarily the right path this year. We’re lucky at RebelMouse to be working with the best and the brightest in the faster growing brands and media companies as well as the ones facing the most struggle. So this overview is the Rebel view of the roadmap to understanding your key assets and liabilities.

Writers & Editors

What an awesome time it is to be a great writer. Especially for those that are curious about how distribution works and that enjoy building a community around their beat. They can build followings that they take from one media company to the next. More than ever any piece they produce has the chance to be seen by millions.

At the same time, adblocking has become a reality, not driven by technological or legislative demands, but as a cultural movement. Some writers see this as doom to their easy money of an ad network next to their content which has been paying the bills. But that world was (and continues more than ever to be) smoke and mirrors with zero real engagement. The reason this is awesome for writers is because marketers need the content writers and editors are producing, more than ever. And they are learning to ask not for a write up of how wonderful their product is, but instead data driven insights that will help produce content that turns their slogan into an editorial thesis and turns a campaign into a movement.

The writers and editors who are blind to these key points will miss the biggest opportunity to hit the industry in decades and watch their peers and colleagues soar past them. But so many great writers are becoming the lifeblood of both new media properties and the brains behind new marketers.

Asset: 95%

Liability: 5%

The Video Teams

It’s never been so good for the video editors. What was previously cost prohibitive and just so difficult to scale distribution on has turned completely on its head. A decade ago, while starting as CTO of HuffPost, I was also CTO of a video comedy site called 23/6. They produced brilliant pieces with some of the best and succesfull comedians of our times. But it was SO expensive for them to produce. And the network effects behind each video were too tiny, so few big hits that could pay the bills.

Facebook’s year of video in 2015 took the strength of YouTube and made video 10x more important to media companies. So few of them are getting it right, and many of them are missing the opportunity to turn video into more than just micro content. But the winners are emerging and for the first time there is a clear path to cost effective video creation with massive distribution opportunity. Look how important Ze Frank and his video teams have been to the growth of BuzzFeed, the recent round that Now This raised and the amazing hits of the Dodo to grow through savvy video on Facebook, YouTube and SnapChat.

Video has turned from attractive distraction to a must-have for new media properties. The video editors and producers who are figuring this magic equation out are reigning.

Asset: 95%

Liability: 5%

Tech Teams & Proprietary Technology

The era of media companies as technology companies is over. You can count on one hand the media companies that have built something which is actually an asset, a competitive advantage over the others. And they have had well over 200 million in investment to build it. But even they are struggling, confused and searching for direction. Inside some of the hottest media companies, cultural wars are waged between those who want to build custom technology versus those who want to use and take advantage of the platforms in savvy ways. Vox and WashingtonPost are struggling to sell a CMS to their competitors. We pondered the same at HuffPost, but the trust issues to pull that off at scale are difficult to swallow much less also pay high prices for.

The rest of everyone else is largely held hostage by their IT departments who find themselves every week two weeks farther behind. We thought the right metaphor was that the plane is producing revenue and requires re-building in mid flight. But perhaps a more fitting one is that the passengers on flight need to be transformed to a totally different fleet without being landed.

If you’re still building custom websites that are mobile first and experiences on top of open source frameworks, you probably have a significant cost overhead and find yourself struggling to maintain audience and revenue.

The smart money for 2016 is on super savvy organizations that find ways to be lean on tech for their size. Great examples of success in 2015: Elite Daily, ViralNova, Business Insider, the Dodo, Higher Perspectives.

Asset: 5%

Liability: 95%

Product Teams & The Product Itself

Often what we see blocking established media companies from embracing change is the product group themselves. Trained for decades to build websites, they find themselves put on their heels and building political silos to save themselves and justify following their visions despite the numbers heading the wrong way.

The great product leaders in media will stop chasing Snowfalls (the NYT hit piece) and start focusing on distribution of content outside the platforms they have a grip of control over. Not easy! But a huge opportunity for those that become guides to their organization to use the platforms and technologies built around those platforms to create growth in audience and revenue.

Asset: 15%

Liability: 85%

The Social Media Team

We’ve seen the power shift to social in so many ways. Oddly enough, at brands and media companies social media teams often have very little power and authority. Maybe it’s because there are so few that really understand distribution and so many understand how to post to what is a very simple interface.

The social media managers that are winning today are the ones that can see how to navigate the new infrastructure of distribution that are created, how to collaborate very deeply with the writers, editors and video teams and share information both ways.

Very few technologies have updated to bridge the gap between writers and social teams as the tech and product teams at media companies keep thinking and talking about websites and snowfalls. We can’t help being excited over here at RebelMouse at what happens when you enable every writer and editor to be a social media manager themselves, and what happens when social media managers use all that data to become gurus of the ever changing algos across the networks.

We do, more of then we’d like, come across a brilliant social media manager trapped inside an organization. Sometimes they are trapped in the body and role of an editor, and not seen by the organization for their full potential. And sometimes they are just marginalized by people who are more dominant in political cultures of larger companies.

But they will emerge winners, often times in new media companies where so much of the most promising and proven talent is fleeing to.

Asset: 65%

Liability: 35%

Native Apps Teams

More than ever content needs to be free to find its audience without barriers or friction. Media companies building apps for their readers are wasting their money. The apps teams need to be focused on creating experiences for their communities, where massive engagement turns an idea into a movement with grassroots organizers living in the apps. They need to build tools for their writers, editors, social teams and video teams to cover a story without getting up from their couch.

But so very few are doing this, and the product teams giving the apps team’s guidance are, in an overwhelming majority of cases, not helping anything here.

Asset: 5%

Liability: 95%

CRO & Their Sales Team

If you carry the title of CRO at a media company, you’re most likely at a large, established media company. The CROs who are leaning backwards on the legacy revenue find themselves at odds with changes in the world. They hold meetings to block the ad blockers (good luck with that). They see all their revenue at risk and don’t understand that the riskiest thing they could do is obsess with protecting against that risk.

The great CROs, who are few and far between, are helping the CEO and surrounding team build a premium content studio that takes all the learnings of a savvy organization, move up the value chain with the marketers who are their customers and solve the really big problem of the future. It’s not easy to do, partially because marketers who get it are about as rare as CROs who get it. And proving value that is measurable takes a sustained effort over time, which is tough to keep teams focused on. But the upside for those who are cracking this is enormous and it is just going to get bigger.

Asset: 35%

Liability: 65%

The CEO & Management Team

It’s primarily the job of the CEO to carry the vision, tell the story and hire the right people to work together on building the future while carrying the present. Its never been harder for a CEO of a big media company — whether it’s an emerging and growing company or a storied one. The wars between personalities, ideas, risks and opportunities is just not going to end soon. Bringing these cultural wars back down to debates that end up with decisions which leave the company leaning forward is just simply not easy. And it’s very rare.

The CEO’s of smaller new media companies are in a really awesome position. They have the opportunity to keep their teams small, their cost structures minimal and yet reach nearly the same size audiences. They can build the culture around the talent that is just sick of the problems at larger media companies and build fun companies with clear missions.

Asset: 50%

Liability: 50%

The Investors

To media companies, investors appear to be in the enviable position of being in the judge’s chair at court. But the world is changing so fast on them that they often make decisions based on what their kids are doing on their phones. They often hold on to stereotypes of success like 5 guys in a room with a white board (and I mean literally guys btw), and don’t understand the new emerging cost structures of media companies that are dodging building their own proprietary tech.

That said, fundamentally they’ve learned to ignore lots of signals which often end up as noise and trust in what built them their own success — an instinct on people. Founders and CEO’s who talk from a point of strength about their unique approaches, the way they are dodging huge infrastructure costs by being tech savvy, how they are reaching huge and valuable audiences are winning with big exits and valuations. They deserve it. And the investors that take this risk and see through the noise to the new emerging stories are going to win big as well.

Asset: 25%

Liability: 75%

That concludes the breakdown as we see it from here at RebelMouse. But what we really love is how many different forms of success are emerging and the different types of people pulling it off. The lines are blurring! Please send thoughts and ideas for what you see in your own roadmaps, companies and across the industry. You can email us and we’ll put together a second follow up post from that send to industry@rebelmouse.com or use #IndustryRebel on a social post.

founder and ceo @RebelMouse. was CTO of @huffingtonpost. married to @MilenaBerry, proud father of 3

founder and ceo @RebelMouse. was CTO of @huffingtonpost. married to @MilenaBerry, proud father of 3