Kassia Krozser

There have been more than a few interesting discussions this week about the old media dying and making making way for the new media. Each discussion concludes with the clear need for established media outlets to embrace change. And fast.

Any media business has two products to sell: its content (to readers and viewers); and its audience (to advertisers). The task for old media is first to protect its advertising revenues by amassing audiences online and, second, to offset their viewers’ intolerance of mass-advertising by making them pay more for content—which they are increasingly willing to do. It will not be easy, but then saving the heroine never was.

While I will not presume to speak for my fellow ‘lopers, I can say that we have been online, in a serious manner, for well over ten years. It’s getting to be that I don’t remember a time when Amazon.com wasn’t part of my everyday shopping experience. I think I downloaded my first e-book in 1998. A few weeks ago, we enjoyed a new episode of Monk on the big screen monitor (which, not surprisingly, has better resolution than our old-school television). I will even admit to downloading a couple of fansubs of Samurai Champloo because I was in dire need of a new anime series. It was the fansubs, by the way, that helped build early buzz for the series’ North American debut.

The record industry went ahead and spent a lot of money and energy not getting it. In fact, as an avid observer of industry efforts, I spent the better part of five years shaking my head in bewilderment. The solution was so simple, yet they rolled out a new partnership, format, initiative, plan, lawsuit, you name it, every few months. While the labels were scrambling to get a clue, the consumers had moved on. The recent demise of record stores like Aron’s may or may not have been inevitable, but the music industry didn’t help matters by continually fighting progress.

As we build the full-featured Medialoper site, we’re looking at the whole entertainment universe. It’s a big place. We think many of the old media companies will adapt to the new atmosphere. Those that won’t will be the ones who, like the music business, don’t get it.

• King content: Don’t write off Hollywood and the big media groups just yet

The other day, I noted that Verizon’s V Cast music service doesn’t play nice with iTunes. In fact, it doesn’t play at all. While I’m sure that announcing a partnership with Microsoft (or any other exclusive, proprietary deal between a small number of companies) makes for great press conferences, it doesn’t play in Peoria. In this coming year, we are going to see more services and devices than the average person will be able to fathom. In fact, the average person missed your press conference and only wants Stuff To Work.

The dream, as described at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, is to allow devices like TVs, computers and audio receivers to share audio and video around the home, with a single remote control running the show.

Since everyone knows the dream — let’s call it a goal — surely new products are being developed to fulfill it. Or not.

At CES, tech heavyweights such as Intel, Panasonic, Samsung and Sharp all showed off networking systems, but none of those systems are designed to work together. The resulting problems are similar to miscommunication between people who speak the same language but different dialects — sometimes they might understand each other perfectly well, but at other times they might not.

This isn’t an easy problem to solve, but if you look to stereo components of the past, you can see that a receiver from Sony managed to work just fine with a DVD player from Panasonic. They live peacefully together in the same dwelling. That’s how the new home entertainment network needs to be. Consumers want cool, definitely, but they also want cool that works straight out of the box. . .with all the other cool stuff they’ve bought.
Apparent winners in this high-stakes game will emerge quickly, but if the needs of the consumer aren’t addressed early in the process, there will be more expensive failures than successes. And, like the iTunes store proved, consumers will flock to the technology that works for them.

• Network Babel in the Living Room

How do you know the world is spinning faster? When the magazine industry starts thinking new paradigm. The Time corporation announced layoffs as a way to beef up its online presence (this is how things are done in the corporate world). Now Hatchette Filipacchi Media U.S. has institutionalized its web and electronics operations with the announcement of a new V.P.

The publisher named Marta Wohrle as VP-director of digital media, responsible for the development of 16 Web sites, four mobile applications, digital editions for all Hachette titles, joint ventures in new media, video-on-demand and new media acquisitions.

Looking to the future is the goal, and Hatchette will be increasing web staff and implementing cross-platform strategies — none announced as of yet, but Wohrle probably hasn’t had time to pick out her office furniture, much less cross-platform anything. Though we remain curious about the idea of video-on-demand. So intriguing.

“Migrating our assets to new digital platforms will require new strategies for creating content. As content is increasingly conceived for multiple platforms, we may, at times need to form new partnerships. We’ll need to develop the skills and systems that enable print- and screen-based resources to be shared and vigorous cross-promotion to be fostered,” he [Jack Kliger, president-CEO of Hachette] said.

Although magazine publishers were among the first to recognize the power — and threat — the Internet presented, Mr. Guelton said every magazine publisher now understands that the question is not whether to have a digital strategy, but how fast to execute it.

“The bigger difficulty for us is to truly understand and accept and implement the idea that we are not defined by paper or by a distribution form,” he said. “We are as magazines defined by content, editors and a relationship with marketers.”

This is certainly the right thinking, but, as we’ve learned, it’s all about the execution. The publisher is behind magazines as diverse as Woman’s Day, Elle, and Road & Track. Good products, but we’re going to offer a bit of useful advice: strong web presences begin at home. Finding the Hatchette (much less Hatchette U.S. operations) home page was an exercise in ingenuity. If they can’t find you, they won’t come.

• HACHETTE NAMES NEW DIGITAL OPERATIONS CHIEF: Creates New Post to Oversee Web and Electronic Ventures (Note: Subscription required)
• Hatchette Filipacchi Media U.S.