Media

Chris Anderson on the new and the old media

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It’s already in my list of recommended reading from other blogs, but this is interesting to the point that I decided to quote a bit here and send you over to Chris Anderson:

Don’t Confuse Media With Media Institutions

First, let’s agree that “media” is anything that people want to read, watch or listen to, amateur or professional. The difference between the “old” media and the “new” is that old media packages content and new media atomizes it. Old media is all about building businesses around content. New media is about the content, period. Old media is about platforms. New media is about individual people. (Note: “old” does not mean bad and “new” good–I do, after all, run a very nicely growing magazine/old media business.)

Chris Anderson on the new and the old media

eirikso in the news

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Yesterday I was quoted in the biggest financial newspaper in Norway, Dagens Næringsliv. An article about the fact that people are buying equipment for consume of online media like never before. And the fact that they actually spend time on online content.

I am telling them something close to what I wrote about here. If you are talking about the death of TV you first need to define what you mean about TV. I also told them that for very large live events reaching millions of people in High Definition we still have problems with distribution on the internet.

To put it short, the future traditional television broadcasting will be more about large live events in high quality. For that kind of content a platform that won’t break down regardless of the amount of people turning on their equipment is still the best one.

But for a large quantity of the content that we broadcast through traditional channels today we’ll see a shift to the fact that people use the internet to access it in different ways.

For me, the most interesting thing about the article is the company they have put me in on the page with the images. There you have it. Me, the chief executive of the Norwegian Broadcasting corporation and the chief executive of Norwegian TV2. To put it short. The two most powerful persons in the media industry in Norway, and the author of this small publication called eirikso.com

DN eirikso

eirikso in the news

Radio is dead

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At least in our house. The FM radio in our car and the tuners around our home are never used. So, radio is dead. Or is it? I listen to huge amounts of audio content. Mostly as podcasts on my iPod but also as live streams on the internet. And what audio content? I listen to very interesting shows from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and some audio books.

What did you say? Audio content from the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation? Yes, the same stuff that they broadcast on FM, or radio as some people call it.

So, you listen to radio? No. Or, it depends. What is radio? The content or the transport technology or the reciever or all of it?

My point with this cunfusing rant is to emphasise that in some discussions we need to separate the content from the technology. I think that much of the fear that content creators see in these so called new media channels are completely irrelevant. When Bill Gates says the TV will be dead in five years it is important to discuss what he mean by TV.

In our home we have a huge LCD monitor connected to a computer in our living room. Is that a TV? If it is a big monitor on the wall it is a TV and if it is a small monitor on a desk it is a computer monitor? Most people would look at it and say that it’s a TV. Technically it’s a computer monitor.

In the media industry we need to understand what kinds of delivery platforms people want our content delivered through. FM, DAB, podcasts or all of them? Satellite, cable, terrestial, streaming or download? And we need to learn how to build business models on those platforms.

We don’t have to go around getting scared when people that don’t know what they’re talking about are saying that something that they don’t know how to define is going away in five years.

For me it’s about podcasts, streaming and download. If you’re there with your content and your business models you win. You win my attention and if you’re clever you even win my money.

Radio is dead

Broadcast 2.0

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Traditional broadcast is pretty simple. Media companies try to reach as many people as possible through terrestial, satellite and cable. They want to reach people in their own home. All the way into their television of choice. Sony or Samsung. Tube or flat screen. Stereo or mono. Broadcasters try to reach them all.

And, you are free to invite friends over to your home and share the experience. Come over to my place and watch the game on friday!

On the internet the model is slightly different. Broadcasters make their own homes. They call their homes mtv.com, cnn.com and so on. They choose their own players and choose what technology you should use. You don’t have windows media player and internet explorer? Sorry, in our home that’s the key to get in.

So, they try to drive people into their home. Come to us. We rule. We have full control. Don’t you dare choosing your own television. We control the experience. You want to share an experience? Take your friends over to our place.

During the last couple of years people have started making their own homes on the internet. Through their own blog, their page on MySpace, their personalized home page. Their RSS reader. Their own house in Second Life.

Now people want to watch, keep, organize and share media in their own home on the net. They want to share music, video and interesting stories through their page on MySpace or on their blog.

Yes, these people with an advanced home on the net are still a minority. But it’s a very important minority. And people are building. Blogger, WordPress.com, MySpace, Netvibes, Google/ig and all their competitors are growing. Steve Rubel has a very interesting thought about how peoples blogs are becoming start pages.

So, are there any broadcasters out there that understand the power of this shift? Not really. Unless you understand that YouTube has become one of the most important broadcasters out there.

YouTube let people watch, share and organize content in their own home on the net. We suddenly have something that looks like the illustration I used to start this aricle. YouTube as the broadcaster. Blogs and start pages as all the homes.

Of course we’ll see combinations of these models. But it’s important to understand this shift. Because it has serious consequences for the way we measure success.

You can’t measure the success of lonelygirl15 through the traffic on one specific web site. She’s on YouTube. She’s on Revver. And on several web sites. The stuff gets even more difficult when you add Democracy Player, iTunes and BitTorrent to the important places to be.

Pageviews are sooo last century. Unique visitors are slightly better. But for the people that start using all the available distribution methods we’re back to the old model here as well. We have to measure the way we’ve done with radio and television for years. Ask people. Make surveys. Install special measure devices in peoples homes. Make advertising that is easy to judge the effect of. It’s about reach. Not clicks.

The problem is that the advertisers don’t understand this.

Broadcast 2.0

How to be successful on the internet – part 4

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Content, conversation, context and:

Control

Yes. It is important that you have control. NOT! It is important that your users have control. Let them paste your video player on to their own pages. Let them link directly to what you publish. Give them RSS feeds. Let them add your content to their pesonalized start pages. Let them mash up. Let them remix. Give your users an API so they can have fun with your content. People will do that anyway. Through hacks and technologies like greasemonkey.

Use creative commons. Of course you should not allow other commercial companies to simply take your content and use it for whatever they want, but through creative commons you can put restrictions without locking out all kinds of positive and traffic driving use on peoples blogs and pages.

But, never underestimate the power you’ll give your audience:

Link to article in Wired: Commercial Break

In a risky experiment, Chevrolet asked Web users to make their own video spots for the Tahoe. A case study in customer generated advertising.

…sorry. Now we’re all just confused. Yes, give away control, but not too much!

How to be successful on the internet – part 4

How to be successful on the internet – part 3

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We’ve been through content and conversation. Today I have a short note about:

Context

In this world of infinite content you need context. In the form of metadata describing your content. In the form of tags. RSS feeds, widgets. All possible tools you can think of so that people find you and understand what you are up to.

On YouTube you are not even allowed to choose the file to upload before you give it a title, description, tags and a category. A video on YouTube with no metadata is wasted space on their hard drives.

Context makes it easier for people to find your content. On your site. And through Google.

And context is extremely important when you want people to find you down the long tail. Remember, “90 percent of everything is crud“.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you why you should loose control.

How to be successful on the internet – part 3

How to be successful on the internet – part 2

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As promised. Part two in my series of posts on why content, conversation, context and control is important issues on the net. Today, it’s all about…

Shouting to the world

Conversation

I have mentioned Cory Doctorow and how he question that old saying that content is king. It seems like the people that combine content and conversation is on to something.

Have that in mind. MySpace and YouTube is about the combination of content and conversation. They use the internet as a communication channel. MTV is still mostly about content. And they still think about the internet as a distribution channel. If your bosses talk about this new distribution channel and the information society you should tell them about this new communication channel and the conversation society.

People still want professionally produced content and huge hits, but it must be made available and it must be possible to discuss it.

Yes, I know. 90% of the pages on MySpace are crap and 90% of the comments on YouTube are crap. Still it is important. It makes people feel in control. We feel like we own a part of it. We feel important. And we are. Even if 90% of the stuff we create and discuss is crap.

And the conversation gives you google juice. You know. That magic that makes your stuff hit on page one in Google. Because the discussion is not only taking place on your page. It is all over the internet. And people are linking. My readers have discussed my pretty detailed list of media center alternatives on their blogs. Currently it is among the first ten hits of 70 million if you search for “free media center software” in Google. The conversation got it up there.

Other stuff:
How did I make that ugly illustration? Like this.

How to be successful on the internet – part 2

How to be successful on the net – part 1

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This is part one in a series of four articles about content, conversation, context and control. Put that on a yellow sticker and cross check your ideas towards these four words when you design your next big hit for this new communication channel. First out:

The Long Tail

Content

Yes, we still need content. And you should make it available. When people want all their music on a small player in their pocket you should give them that. The music industry is in a big mess partly because they did not understand the concept of availability.

They wanted to keep pushing plastic when people wanted hard drives and availability. Mr. Jobs came to the rescue. Maybe too late.

So you have made your content available. Then you should think about the long tail. The concept of how behaviour change when the amount of choice gets closer to infinite. 57 million blogs. 100 million MySpace users. Millions of videos on YouTube. Insane amounts of content.

On the internet you don’t have the benefits of being the only one with an expensive license to reach out. Or being the only one with a printing press and a huge system for distribution.

On the internet your million dollar content have about the same priority as that video about people having fun with Diet Coke and Mentos on YouTube.

So, you need to read the next three articles. About conversation, context and control. “Conversation” will be out tomorrow.

How to be successful on the net – part 1

Bold people

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Today, VG – the biggest newspaper in Norway quotes me as one of Norway’s leading experts on new media. I take that as a compliment.

I am saying that traditional, linear broadcast channels have had their best years. That young people will not change their new media habits back to traditional media as they grow older and that Schibsted, a big Norwegian media owner that just sold their ownership in traditional broadcasting are pretty bold people.

Link to the electronic version. (Norwegian)

Bold people