Soup: In a zero sum-game, turn back the clock
It’s becoming increasingly apparent to me in a world oversaturated with daily content (see the opt-repeated number of 34GB per day in daily content consumed) that the source of the content is becoming increasing less important to individuals, replaced by the delivery format and immediacy of getting that content delivered to you. In short – “I know quickly, and when I know once, I don’t need to know again.”, though, seeing the same story in multiple places reinforces it’s perception of importance.
The proliferation of blogs, who will often source just enough of a story’s source to not be accused of plagiarism (see Huffington Post, for example), have essentially made content a zero-sum game. Increasingly, the loyalty to one content source or another comes from it’s ability to repeatedly deliver information of immediate relevance to the user consuming it.
Why does this matter? Well, it lumps mainstream media in with blogs in the battle for mindshare. Loyalty is gone – sources that deliver enough information quickly enough to get the point across to provide watercooler fodder for social media, search engines, and yes, well, watercoolers, is king.
So, what are some old media stalwarts do?
Use their archives to compete. LIFE does a particularly good job of taking their photo archives and creating pieces that speak to timeless stories that play well in today’s “created for sharing” content ecosystem.
The New York Times has long had their archives digitized, allowing timeless debates to easily be compared to those of today. (Though, paying on a per article basis for older stuff kinda sucks 🙂 )
TIME magazine’s digitization of all issues from 1923 allow you to revisit controversies that take a very similar track to those we deal with in the present day.
This use of the “past” gives new life to old debates and content, and gives a new generation of people the opportunity to learn and share from the past (I’ll save the parable about history repeating itself)
There’s so much to be said for “we were there” in media that today’s blogs are lacking. Even the best and longest have lasts merely a decade or so, and in the scheme of things, ten years isn’t really much “history” – in fact, it’s just “getting started”.
The true test will take some time. In 20 years, will the NY Times be replaced with Mediaite? Will the Wall Street Journal be remembered along side Business Insider? Will WIRED and Mashable be in the same sentence all the time?
We’ll see. They’ll just have to “be there” for a little bit longer.
Content was king, but I think the next wave is Context is king. With a slew of information for us to wade through, leverage the wisdom of the past to make sense of the present and help us understand the future.
Long standing media properties have something that upstarts don’t, as Matt points out, their extensive archives. Most of them are under-utilizing the value of that information.
The Times and WSJ are uniquely positioned to present value by opening up APIs to dig into the archives and produce all sorts of interesting applications using that deep, rich well of years of original reportage. The Times already does it to an extent, with their R&D group, others would be wise to follow their lead.
Good ideas right there. Nothing to add from me. Yet.