After yesterday’s post about The Independent, this cropped up in the Media Guardian today:
Archive for December, 2007
Media in transition
Something which has fascinated me recently ar the stories of how old media institutions are launching or relaunching parts of their set up, to come in line with some of the new pretenders in their sphere. Earlier this month we saw the launch of the BBC’s catch up service dubbed the iPlayer (*groans* not another ‘i’ prefix. I swear I’m going to iSlash my own wrists if I see another one of those*) which plays catch up with Channel 4. Now we see self-righteous snoozepaper The Independant go all Web 2.0 on us with the launch of its all new web site, complete with video content.
This is all good news of course, but it proves a point I made in a previous post, where I might have mentioned Rupert Murdoch clambering around somewhere filthy, looking for the money in social networking. Old media has been slow in spotting the real benefit in new fangled Web 2.0, but just maybe, it’s now seeing the real money in online networks.
Clicks count, and brand awareness counts double.
The Guardian has been the best example of this, with a brilliant web site, and while the BBC might have fluffed the iPlayer, its web presence is still fantastic. Unfortunately, I think the poor old Independent may have missed the boat, and that may just be the last new media nail in that old medium’s coffin.
*I saw a paper knife in WH Smith the other day called the iSlice. Wtf?
