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If you have been paying attention you will realize this is not a new idea - the media has become commoditized. The internet has made information widely available thus lowering the quality of the majority of traditional media.

Newspapers like The Des Moines Register, whose staple content is the AP/Reuters wire, are publishing content that once available only to major publishers is now available to everyone via thousands of websites and RSS feeds. Magazines like Business Week publish the same content in a paid subscription model via their magazine as well as a free model via their website.

I started thinking about this idea several weeks ago when I got my latest copy of Business 2.0 in the mail. I thought, as I pulled it out of my mailbox, “Why do I still subscribe to this?”. I can get this content for free on any one of the thirteen computers I have in every room of my house.

So we all know and have realized this issue over the last several years, but what are publishers to do about it? Many have adopted new media strategies but that is not enough. It’s the content that differentiates a publication, not the method of production. You can run the same content through the newspaper, blog, podcast etc but it is still the same thing I can read/see/hear in another media channel.

Enter the hyper-local user generated model. For example, while the Des Moines Register republishes the same content as USA Today and other Gannett news publications, websites like Iowa Blogs focus on user generated content often of the hyper-local variety. This is the new paradigm of which cannot be ignored by major publishers. They need to learn it is their content that creates value, not their advertising inventory. And if the content being published can be acquired by its target audience anytime, anywhere, anyhow then your model has been commoditized, thus lessening the value of your publication.

Some publishers get it…

Oh, and why do I still subscribe to Business 2.0? Excellent content and great design, of course…

Sorry to pick on The Des Moines Register - they are just the local newspaper. Although I still think they should hire me for a weekly tech column… instead of, ahem, republishing everyone else’s content…

Disclosure - Simplifive runs the Iowa Blogs website and I am the editor.

Tags: Media, Commiditization, Des Moines Register, Iowa Blogs, Hyper-Local, User Generated Content

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