Things are difficult Everywhere, but especially in the 2018 digital media business.
Probably the most prominent fire this year was at Mic, which laid off most of its staff prior to an acquisition by Bustle. Mic had raised nearly $ 60 million in funding, with major media organizations like Time Warner and Bertelsmann writing checks for the company’s vision of delivering news to a millennial audience.
But Mic’s troubles were only the cornerstone of a long year of layoffs and layoffs. Among the headlines:
It might not be entirely fair to bundle these stories together – some companies are likely to fail due to specific management or business problems, while others are victims of broader change, and others may bounce back after things are resolved. But collectively, they paint the picture of an intensely challenging time.
Peter Csathy, an industry veteran and occasional TechCrunch columnist, has just published a book, “Fearless Media,” about the changing media landscape.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Csathy argued that the world has become the best of times, the worst of times. The worst side of times seems obvious: companies that are struggling due to the “devastation of certain business models”, in particular reliance on large platforms like Facebook, and in an online advertising business that is currently “under a tremendous pressure. “
At the same time, he said, “the best times are companies like Netflix, the Amazons, the Apples, some of these big new tech-driven media companies.”
Of course, Amazon and Apple make most of their money out of the media business, leaving Netflix as the industry’s great success story. But even there, Csathy predicted that in 2019, “Netflix will be challenged like never before” as it tries to compete with a wide range of new streaming services, many of them created by the same companies that have been selling content to Netflix.
On October 25, 2017, a remote control is seen being held in front of a television running the Netflix application. (Photo by Jaap Arriens / NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“Ultimately, the question is whether Netflix can prove in the long run that it is more than a ‘House of Cards,'” he added via email.
And what about companies that are not big, dominant players, entrepreneurs who want to build the next Netflix or the next BuzzFeed? It won’t be easy, especially when it comes to convincing venture capitalists to join. However, there were a few digital media startups that managed to successfully fundraise in 2018, such as the Wondery podcast network and theSkimm, creator of women-focused newsletters.
And New York-based startup studio Betaworks recently announced an early-stage program focused on “synthetic media,” which partner Matt Hartman explained is an area that takes advantage of advances in graphics and artificial intelligence. This could include companies that fight against misleadingly fabricated news and videos (“The need for deep false detection is growing”), but also those trying to create new types of content, such as “virtual” characters like the Instagram celebrity. Lil Miquela.
More generally, Hartman suggested that business models in the media world are changing, particularly as publishers experiment with paywalls and also explore bundling their products.
Lil miquela
“I think next year we will see a lot of experiments – skinny packages, thick packages, companies that you wouldn’t expect to come together saying, ‘These things work together,'” he said.
And even if many of these experiments fail, Hartman suggested that they are pushing things in the right direction: “The last 10 years have been about building companies that have turned out to be getting our attention.” I think we are very excited about companies that treat their users in a more humane way. “How do we align incentives for companies that entertain, educate and inform us, but also respect our time and our attention?”
Csathy made a similar observation, saying, “These advertising-driven startups have no choice but to reinvent their business models. [Otherwise] they will get lost in the confusion, because monetization just isn’t there. “
Does that mean that, as a reader and viewer, you will keep hitting the paywalls everywhere? It will likely become more and more common (New York magazine, for example, just introduced a paywall), but Parse.ly CEO Sachin Kamdar suggested that subscriptions won’t solve things by themselves.
“The best publishers will probably have five or six sources of income,” said Kamdar. “It’s not just going to be one.”
As the CEO of an analytics company that sells its products to publishers (as well as marketers), Kamdar has a vested interest in the continued health of the media business. He was concerned that in the industry “echo chamber”, publishers would simply follow suit. latest trend, but he cautioned: “Just because everyone is going in that direction doesn’t mean it’s going to work for you.”
The key, he suggested, is “discovering what is existential: who you are as a publisher.” So he expects them to move from “a very short-term vision” to chasing the latest platforms and traffic sources: “Now, I think people are finally coming to the conclusion that sustainability must be a priority.”
And despite the current business climate, Kamdar said there is a direct reason for optimism.
“He spends more time reading things and looking at things,” he said. “You take the long-term picture, there is a great opportunity to find out what’s happening with that, where they are going, how you can capture those audiences.”
