What's a Media Mogul To Do

Andy Kessler's been writing on his blog about the state of affairs for being a media mogul. The the final piece about the new state of affairs has been published, as has a consolidation piece of all of the parts. The comparison to media control to control of The Pipes is an apt comparison.

Kind of Obvious But Valuable Advice

[eldavojohn]

Well, I haven't read the other three pieces of this line of blogs but after skimming over them and reading the fourth, it looks like this guy is concerned with a media mogul not realizing everything about his industry all the way down to Web 2.0 technologies like AJAX. I would counter this with just always being sure you're utilizing the edge of technology to the fullest.

What's A Media Mogul To Do

The fact is that the real big media moguls out there (like this guy [wikipedia.org]) don't worry about these things--if you're a mogul, you have money so pay some geeks to advise you and listen to them.

Secondly, the whole point of this fourth piece is to "go wide" and then the spin on horizontal integration and "layerfication" comes back into the discussion. Well, I'm going to offer a simpler and more general rule of thumb for media moguls: Bring your services and information to your consumers with the latest/cheapest/fastest technology. Just because newspapers have been around for hundreds of years doesn't mean you shouldn't change it. I wake up, go to work and click on the Washington Post link ... nearly zero waste and it's searchable.

Most importantly, don't skimp on a website. Consumers take seconds to decide if they're going to do business with you based on your site. The more tech savvy society becomes, the faster we'll decide. Don't forget that. Hire someone who's good, shop around for people who can make your site interactive and fresh. That's it.

The recipe for success these days isn't hard but requires a lot of money and sometimes you already have to be the leader in that market. Take something that everyone loves (music, TV, movies have been done) and streamline the process of delivering to consumers by going digital.

I buy my loose leaf tea online.

Why? Because it's easy. E-commerce is obviously good for a business. Media moguls are no different. Offering goods & services through an online store is good. Automating your good or service and its delivery through "The Pipes" is great. Control the pipes, control the world. The same was said of news some time ago (and in a James Bond film).

The P2P part of this article makes a lot of sense though. If you could simplify/automate something like BitTorrent for your consumer, you'd on to something big. The big problem then becomes securing/controlling the spread of it by protecting your consumers and raking in their cash in some way.

Skimp on the website. Please.

[krell]

"Most importantly, don't skimp on a website. Consumers take seconds to decide if they're going to do business with you based on your site."

If you skimp on the site, it won't take too many seconds to load. Look at www.google.com. Pretty skimpy, right? I understand it is an extremely popular page. Then go to www.msnbc.com. A slow-loading ugly colored jumble. I don't think they skimped here. That's why I never go to the site except to point it out as an example of how not to do a site.

Re:

[flumps]

Here here.

Keep it simple, Keep it short.

If you have a good idea, it will speak to the users.

Re:

[Angostura]

You can "not skimp" on a Web site and still have something simple, quick to load and well designed. In fact, skimping on the planning stage will often lead to a heap of bloated junk since no-one has bother with the annoying hard work of deciding what to prioritise and what to leave out.

Re:

[aplusjimages]

I think they mean don't build it in FrontPage, where it looks cheap, and build it to be user friendly. Google is clean and the information you need is right there. No hunting around for info. I've been to sites where I was looking for an address for the company and it took minutes to locate it because the information was buried within several pages. I've also been to sites that sell products, but I wouldn't buy from them because the set up was just so cheap looking.

The Internets?

[PrescriptionWarning]

Is that like a series of pipes?

Syntax error in line 2:

[DaveCar]

The comparison to media control to control of The Pipes is an apt comparison.

Is Slashdot being edited by Dr Seuss now?

Re:

[flumps]

Pipes from mine
Pipes to yours
Pipes that run from draw to draw

Pipes that make my network run,
Using pipe for pipe comparison!

Pipes that smile
Pipes that cheer
Pipes that make my granma fear

Pipes that make things fun fun fun
Using pipe for pipe comparison!

ithankyou

Change the Rules!

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

Any good monopolist knows that when the competition begins to usurp your position, you can't beat a nice fat lobbying campaign. Craigslist undercutting your newspaper ads. Make it illegal. Online distributors selling songs "for a song". Make it illegal. VOIP undercutting your long distance cash cow. Make it illegal.

Never forget the Golden Rule. He who has the gold, makes the rules.

a small request

[caudron]

The comparison to media control to control of The Pipes is an apt comparison.

Running Fedora here. Could you post a yum comparison as well? Sorry to be so much trouble. Thanks!

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/ [digitalelite.com]

Word Nazi

[mnmn]

Mogol really comes from Moghul which is Mongol in Persian.

As a Mongol/Moghul, I can say I don't know many 'media' Moghuls, least what is one to do.

Next: About tartars since we don't go into people's teeth.

Duh

[tacokill]

So, am I missing something here? Basically, the article is saying, "media is less consolidated now with the advent of the internet".

No duh. Not unlike the invention of the printing press, the internet allows MANY more people to publish than it's predecessors. Not exactly a huge revelation so I am wondering if I missed something in the article.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

The articles are about how to make big money in a world where anyone can create content. The big media moguls have full control of what goes through their regulated mediums so they charge what they want. The question is on the unregulated internet how do you actually make cash when your not selling a product? When your service is video or music, something that is so easily traded for free. How do you turn big Hollywood profits? It's not about content creation but profit from content.