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 bug thing.
