The separation of traditional and new media are blurring to the point they are almost indistinguishable. Looking ahead, we will soon just have media, most of it delivered electronically.
Industry convergence is one reason for this. Industries being blended into one mega-industry are information technology, entertainment, news media, cable and telephone.
Even today, Internet services are provided via television sets, E-mail is accessible through cell phones, radio and TV programming is Webcast on the Internet and the Internet is being used for voice telephony.
How long until you can get a personalized newspaper summary delivered via your telephone? Not long.
Meanwhile, businesses that begin to move their media online will be ahead of this curve and benefit greatly.
– Media Integrates Into Web Medium
In “The End of Legacy Media” (1998), Jacob Nielsen wrote, “Most current media formats will die and be replaced with an integrated Web medium in five to 10 years.”
Working on a doctoral dissertation on media convergence, Norwegian graduate student Anders Fagerjord explained that a newspaper and a TV show use different technologies offline, but online they use the same technology and become more similar. As media convergence happens, the computer (in whatever form) becomes what Fagerjord calls the “all-media-in-one-machine.”
What does it mean for business? In a word, opportunity.
When businesses put their printed media online, they save money and do more. If newsletters and magazines are put online, businesses can save on printing and distribution. While development of the material costs roughly the same, distribution is handled through online forms, such as E-mail notification and providing a URL link.
The online environment also provides simpler and less costly storage of multiple magazine and periodical issues.
All issues can be readily available to any one at any time. Businesses can create internal libraries, and associations can create member libraries, without the cost of building or maintaining a physical infrastructure.
Another advantage of the online environment is availability to almost anyone, a real benefit to businesses that want to broaden access to their information.
– Magazines Archive Their Back Issues
The Council of Residential Specialists (CRS), a Chicago-based not-for-profit affiliate of the National Association of Realtors, for example, has archived its Real Estate Business magazine online back to 1995 and houses it in a “members” section of its Web site.
This is a widespread phenomenon, with a growing majority of industry and general-interest publications archiving back issues, including Newsweek, Money, People and many more. In fact, to get an idea of the scope of this phenomenon, see the list of magazines online at (www.psahome.com/onlinemags. html) and (www.newsdirectory.com/news/magazine).
But the real benefits of moving into the online environment come not in print media, but in the realm of Webcasting.
Visionary businesses are starting to use the online environment for broadcast media, which provides even more benefits than those described above.
Few businesses could afford to produce and air radio or television shows for employees and/or members, even if they use relatively inexpensive closed circuit transmission.
Webcasting is the way of the future, though. It allows businesses to add sound and motion to communications, which enhances interest in the material.
In addition, it is convenient because it is available on demand , any time and any place there is computer access. Webcasting also broadens access and, for businesses that have Web sites, which virtually all do these days, it adds value and “stickiness.”
– Radio Show On Web Site
CRS already has a “radio show” on its Web site thanks to audio streaming technology that we implemented for the association. It offers daily news updates of relevance to the industry, helping to attract and retain site visitors.
As this becomes the norm, the online media world looks and acts more and more like the offline media world. Microsoft, for example, is acting very much like a TV network when it abruptly cancels shows that don’t bring traffic to its MSN site, something it has done since 1997.
Putting traditional media online is just the first step and businesses should be looking to the holy grail of the online environment , interactivity. Using the two-way communication potential of this medium is what broadband access is all about.
The well regarded Forrester Research, in April 1999, opined that “Consumer adoption of broadband and bundled services will force ISPs to shift focus to delivering more than just Internet access. By 2003, cable and telecom providers will capture 26 million broadband subscribers.”
– Audience Can Control Delivery
Online media are dynamic, ever-changing and demand broadband. As the CEO of Shockwave.com pointed out in the November issue of Grok, a publication of The Industry Standard, “It doesn’t have a fixed format, it doesn’t have a fixed length of time . It can be 15 seconds, it can be one minute, it can be two minutes, and it can change.”
To begin with, the audience can control the delivery. True media streaming is best for long prerecorded programming or live events. Streaming media allows the user to skip ahead to get to personally relevant information in, for example, an hour-long program.
As bandwidth increases, interactivity will increase. Businesses will be able to communicate with customers and prospects, train new employees, update sales staff and more, in real time, simultaneously, through their Web sites.
Businesses that start today, in addition to deriving operational benefits, will position themselves on the leading edge, an added value in its own right. After all, the new media world is here; it’s just that not everybody knows it or uses it yet.
Gould is CEO of The Dakota Group, a San Diego-based new media company
