In the early 2000s many companies buried their heads in the sand hoping the internet would go away. The retreat strategy in those days involved a reinvestment in analog-based business models. There was plenty of life there to do interesting things, and they got a chance to think through their digital transition after everything calmed down.
But the game has changed again. It is moving much faster than before, and failure to complete the previous transition from analog-to-digital means there are no safety nets to fall back on.
Getting through this storm is going to require something really different.
What’s exciting for those willing to think in terms of networks instead of destinations is that the arrows on Mary Meeker’s slide on Google and Facebook’s dominance in advertising are all pointing up and to the right.
There’s a massive advertising market that keeps getting bigger and, as the newcomers keep demonstrating, there are new ways to capture pieces of that market appearing every day.
What’s stopping media orgs from joining up and doing something about this?
I’ve tried to explain what’s going on and describe some of the things the media industry can do in an article for The Guardian. I think the answer is to form a network.