RMISay What? Technology-Infused Publishing Is Good Company.
Damn. I nearly effectively made it through 2014 without publicly utilizing the term “platisher.” Like lots of in the digital media industry, I rolled my eyes when Jonathan Glick coined the unpleasant expression in a February op-ed on Re/Code, looking for to explain the modern-day digital media company that prospers both as a publisher and a platform for its users. Although much of the logic was sound, even Jonathan confessed it was a ridiculous name.
Fast-forward to Thursday night, and I found myself reading a report on the possession sale at Say Media, which seemed to use a single, unique company failure to call into concern the entire classification of modern-day digital content companies.
The trouble with the term platisher is that it recommends that any mix of innovation and material is like a duck with a beaver tail, or maybe a beaver with a duck costs nonsensical. Exactly what is, in truth, nonsense is to compare Say Media to Vox, Company Expert or any modern media business whose company depends on purpose-built technology. Say Media’s decision to divest its content possessions and return to its roots is not, as Lucia Moses suggests on Digiday, a sign of things to come for publishers that imbue their publishing procedure with empowering innovations. Rather, it shows the discord that occurs when merging together two companies in a wayin such a way that can not faithfully serve either audience.
Vox Media is absolutely a brand-new breed of publisher, developed from the ground up as a media organization empowered by its own brand of digital media devices. This includes its Chorus publishing platform, which was developed to serve the specific needs of today’s digital editorial and advertising groups.
As CEO Jim Bankoff has said, the business is made up of 3 parts: Its customer brands, income and innovation. That last piece is not an item the company is marketing on the side (or that generates the bulk of its profits, as is the case with State Media). It is “a method of doing things to make the finestthe very best possible stories and make those stories come to life and discover their audiences, wherever those audiences might be.”
State Media, on the other hand, was an advertisement network that attempted to layer on content maybe to branch out or to adopt a few of the sheen material delivers, or perhaps simply to strap on a duck costs and act it might fly. A comparison to Need Media may be more apt, givenconsidered that business’s roots as a DNS business (and time will inform how its “content company” will certainly pan out.)
Frankly, the AOL/Time Warner divided may be more illuminating as we consider State Media’s self-avowed problems being both an innovation and a content company. When earnings is generated developing technology for third-party use and in the case of Say Media for other publishers particularly you are left with a schizophrenic business model that does not work well in either world.
Organizations like Business Insider and Vox were built from the start as content business. However they carefully built technology to fit hand in glove with their editorial, content shipment and monetization procedures. Think about how, when The Atlantic chose to plunge headfirst into digital, it opted not to bolt on innovation as an afterthought. As Atlantic Media VP and GM Kimberly Lau explains it, its wildly effective brand name Quartz offers “a terrific example of building something from scratch and offering the team the resources they need.” In an article where Digiday positions Quartz as a model for modern-day publishing, editor Jay Lauf states he has learned the “importance of engineers and designers those individuals are integral to everything we do.”
And what they do and Vox and Business Expert and other so-called “platishers” is provide useful content that is created in a culture of innovation. Innovation is developed to create much better experiences and embedded in all elements of the business. They have no confusion over who they serve or what they serve: Excellent material, constructed much better through wise technology.
Jason Kint is the CEO of Digital Content Next, the only trade association that solely serves the varied requirements of digital material companies that handle direct, trusted relationships with customers and marketing professionals. He has a deep passion for journalism and advancing content brand names established and new media alike into their multi-platform digital future. A 20-year veteran of the digital media market, he previously led the development of CBS Sports into a multi-platform brand name providing top broadcast, online and mobile sports content as SVP and basic manager of CBS Interactive’s Sports Department. Reach him @jason_kint.
Comments are currently closed.