Guest post: Digital publishers need a spine
Digital publishers need to find something they’re excellent at, argues Ben Shepherd, of media agency Maxus
We know that for humans, the spine is an important part of us. The spine is central to the skeletal system. It supports the head and encloses the spinal cord. Without it, we’d be in trouble.
I’m all for analogies and will take the opportunity to use one whenever the opportunity exists. A strong spine is as important for a media company – it’s what keeps the market interested and keeps employees motivated and focused. By a strong spine I don’t mean a strong sense of ethics (although that would be nice), I mean a strong product that is easily identified.
Being excellent at one thing is underestimated in this market, especially within digital media. It’s often considered better to be okay at loads of things than exceptional in one core area. Trouble is, to have a strong spine as a media company you need to be truly excellent at something.
Thanks Ben!
I like to think CBS indeed has a backbone 🙂 We’re diversifying a lot these days but we still do great technology content.
Cheers,
Renai LeMay
News Editor
ZDNet.com.au
(Published by CBS Interactive)
Ben,
A couple of items for I always take into consideration before forming an opinion and making opinions public.
1.I feel that less is often more
2. I seek the thoughts of experts within their fields and companies before issuing opinions and especially when making these public.
3. Remind myself of the industry I work in and the side of the fence I am employed on before taking a stance.
I feel that Maxus should take the same stance Stokes may of bundling digital in with traditional media.
The Bull
“I feel that Maxus should take the same stance Stokes may of bundling digital in with traditional media. ”
Great idea … that is exactly what is being done at Maxus Bull …
We’re based in Auckland. I was forwarded this article and read it without realising it was about the AU market. Ben it’s exactly the same here. They continue to mess up the media and then cry when they don’t get what they think they should have.
The spine is moved by the brain and the lower spine houses the guts.
Common sense, forward thinking and a bit of courage…
Some digital media have no content whatsoever, they are still unavoidable.
Unfortunately almost all corporate media sites in Australia are dominated by one thought – how to suck more revenue out of exactly the same market at a greater rate than the competiton. Senior execs do not understand any of the new concepts of Web 2.0 and will not invest in assets that do not drive pure revenue. Simply adding your company to Twitter is NOT making the most of new technology.
Not sure I disagree with the emotive argument here about participants.
I wonder if perhaps there is too much emotion.
Lots of opinion in this cottage industry, be better if there was lots of data.
I get that from a competitive point of view it helps publishers to be able clearly to differentiate from each other, but is it really too hard for agencies to understand a publisher’s offerings that are built on more than one strength?
“Digital publishers need to find something they’re excellent at”
yes exactly – some publishers are excellent at providing focussed content (cbs, kidspot) – and they will pick up their traffic for those interested (even though there has been considerable content dilution over the past few years).
other publishers are excellent at providing a broad range of content – and their is absolutely nothing wrong woth that either.
Ben – I think nearly all publishers have a spine – its that it looks different sometimes. You’re last paragraph is a real throw away line
chops – “is it really too hard for agencies to understand a publisher’s offerings that are built on more than one strength?”
no it’s not … but with the amount of supply around being good at a lot of things isn’t probably enough
jm – “other publishers are excellent at providing a broad range of content – and their is absolutely nothing wrong woth that either.”
It’s just my opinion but i think moving forward there’s not going to be much value in being a generalist. i could be wrong.