Charlene Li writes:
Media companies in the past derived their value from either: 1) their distribution channel; or 2) the content they created.
I believe that in the future media companies will generate the bulk of their value from serving their ability to aggregate and serve audiences better than the competition. It doesnt matter if the media company actually creates or even controls the content that draws them. Channels will be transparent and content wont necessarily even be owned in a syndicated and aggregated content landscape.
A case in point: digg.com produces no content of their own but has a very unique way to look into the interests of its users. Kevin showed a very cool software tool they use internally called Trace that looks at the stories a specific user is reading, and shows in real time how that users attention jumps to other topics. Kevin also showed how diggers were related to each other based on the stories they mutually dugg. The traditional audience management advocates like Tacoda have shifted toward behavioral targeting, but at the core, understanding users at a highly granular level will be an essential skill for media companies.
