Welcome to the mediaquake newsletter #5 — the pre-Christmas edition :)
This past Spring, prodded by my good friend Sacha Declomesnil I started an infrequent newsletter (sign up here) to share links related to the mediaquake, a term I started using in 2009 and the theme of the first bi-continental TEDx event. New Year’s resolution: I will strive to make this a weekly newsletter in 2016.
Here’s the fifth edition, pre-Christmas:
The mediaquake tremors are never ending and shift the media tectonic plates on a daily basis. In our hyperconnected world cadenced with notifications, auto-refreshing newsfeeds, FOMO sets in and we can get antsy. Selfless curators pick out some choice links for your enjoyment, here’s a selection, covering topics from OTT to Axel Springer to other newsletters :
1. An Old-Media Empire, Axel Springer Reboots for the Digital Age: “instead of enlisting an army of high-priced consultants, Mr. Döpfner opted for the corporate equivalent of electroshock therapy. In the summer of 2012, he sent three of Axel Springer’s most senior managers to California for nine months. They roomed together in a rented house in Palo Alto, with marching orders to network with Silicon Valley executives and study the habits and mores of American start-up culture. The lessons took hold. Digital activities now generate more than 60 percent of Axel Springer’s revenues and just over 70 percent of its operating profit, suggesting that its leadership has shed any lingering ambivalence about the company’s online future.”
2.We’re not in the podcasting renaissance, we’re in the age of discovery: ”But the discovery and promotion tools for podcasts haven’t evolved much. When iTunes launched its podcasting service, there was no streaming Netflix, no Kindle, YouTube had been in existence for four months, and the smartest phone on the market was a Blackberry. Aside from cosmetic upgrades to apps and a surge in use of mobile devices, the listener experience largely remains the same — a striking revelation considering how much web-based content has evolved. Content creators still largely rely on word of mouth, recommendations within other shows, or curated lists from podcast enthusiasts. For non-celebrities and creators outside the world of public radio, there’s no obvious path for getting word-of-mouth traction. At a more basic level, tracking how people interact with audio files is almost impossible, which is one of the reasons advertisers have been slow to get comfortable with the medium.”
4. The rise of “homeless” media: “We could soon see the emergence of a new wave of publishers that don’t require home pages or apps; their sole purpose is to syndicate content through different channels and social platforms.”
5. The rise of frictionless video: “When my kids turned on the hotel TV the other day, they couldn’t find Netflix.“All it has is stupid live TV?!” the 7-year-old proclaimed, while the 5-year-old shrugged and punched up YouTube on our iPad.This is not the future; it’s the present, and it’s not isolated to our youngest consumers anymore.”
6. Content Sutra Podcast, Ep. 2: Can Ad-Supported Media Survive? “Right now, the media industry is kind of like a 16-year-old who just started getting really into Camus: There’s an existential panic that grows stronger every day and a total uncertainty over what the next five years will bring. (Also, lots of Diet Coke and weird crushes.)”
7.4 other newsletters to discover:
Jason Hirschhorn’s MediaReDef
Scott Monty’s Week in Digital
Robert Scoble’s Life and Tech
Om Malik’s relaunched 7 things to read this weekend
