So in a discussion i had at the Borrell Local Conference in NY, the subject of shall we as media companies try to be aggregators of audience, no matter where it comes from, or shall we attract more audiences because we own and control the quality of all the content we display , is the way to go?
I believe that marketing is about engagement, advertisers pay to be associated with brands, with othher products rather than just place their ads in front of the consumer. Why if not they will pay for advertisement in the digital world? Instead they could just create their own content and buy traffic to tho sites, no more media to come to for advertisement.
W will have in such world a consumer package goods company also becoming a media company. RedBull is trying to get there, prints more than a million copies of their magazine in Europe! But they keep looking for brands to associate their product… Why?
Simple, i believe that media profesionals have the key to “engage” the consumer with good, curated media.
Other than doing that, there is no reason for us to exist and we become another ad network.

Beet.tv did a great job interviewing Sean Morgan, CEO of Syndicaster and John Paton, CEO at Journal Register.
IT is easy to demonstrate that while many “old media” companies have decided to give up and just wont go the extra mile to analyze the strengths and think on what is the execution for taking back the cities they are so embed into.
John Paton points, in his new blog, that it is not easy (just tell that to the people behind TBD.com ) it requires a big cultural change in teh way traditional media companies are run. I even adventure to say that it is time to bring those down and make sure they are emerging with strong strategies copying from JRC their DIGITAL FIRST plan.
here are some links to all these :

on the TND and media companies read http://jxpaton.wordpress.com

on the Video piece watch the video http://www.beet.tv/2011/02/journal-register-ce0-we-will-beat-aols-patch-and-huffington-post-.html

SEcond video on same subject : http://www.beet.tv/2011/02/jrcvideopaton.html

Video interview of Sean Morgan : http://www.beet.tv/2011/02/big-newspaper-chain-scaling-up-video-project-flow-in-the-cloud-no-final-cut-pinnacle-avid-required.html

on full disclosure I have to state that I work for John Paton for several years and I now work at JRC.

I have been analyzing lately what is happening in the Hispanic market in the US. Consumption of media in spanish seem divided by those enormous amounts of hours dedicated to watch “Telenovelas” and the very small attention to any other media. Of course a big piece of the blame is to the “serious” media that has been downgrading their content to be more like the “stupid box”.
There is today, other than some very good radio shows (ie Fernando Espuelas in Los Angeles, Tsi-Tsiki Felix in Chicago), a lack of serious discussion about the role of the hispanic immigrants in this country.
My media friends from Spain are convinced that any other content that is not entertainment coming from Televisa, lacks a purpose. IT seems that the spanish language and being latino has become a definition for a non-thinking person.
I think it is time for a serious new way of thinking, new technology access, news and information hispanic focused, in spanish, bilingual or even in english, to come up front and starts representing those that have that heritage and we are worried that we are being classified just like the TV : the stupid box !!!!
Have a great weekend.

While reading the NYT today, came with the interview to Roger Ailes http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/business/media/10ailes.html?scp=2&sq=Fox%20News&st=cse , amazing that somebody charge so small for a job that is being unappreciated by many : $23M a year to destroy journalism….
Of course you have to love the idea that the best line in his resume is that he is not from Columbia School of Journalism. Of course that will talk to the quality of journalism that is today practiced at

If you analyze what Fox news has been converted into, is more a shouting match, who is the one that has a stronger voice, not the reason that prevails.

It is easy to do comedy or drama… a much tougher task is to do real journalism…