welcome to this ninth installment of hip
mojo I’m a skank revolution and I’m CT
more and this week we’re going to be
talking about media and tech we’re gonna
be talking about media and tech and were
going to be talking about content and
distribution will be drawing a parallel
between those two things then in
lightning round we have five topics to
go through today and then the email of
the week will take Don’s question about
original programming something obviously
that we know a little about let’s get
right to it so this week it’s a bit
different because the segment’s one and
two are not going to be totally
different they’re going to be almost
parallel believe it or not back in 1994
so 17 years ago knight-ridder one of the
biggest publishers of newspapers which
no longer exists it’s now part of
McClatchy which is a huge newspaper
which I think the third largest
newspaper group in the u.s. so night
raider actually came out with what was i
would say an ipad for lack of better
word it was a tablet the knight ridder
management actually forced saw this that
over time people would not be reading
newspapers in print form now clearly
newspapers are now being decimated
because they cling Don to print they
didn’t necessarily embrace digital let
alone iPads and tablets and whatnot
let’s start off by asking the basic
question are all traditional media
management types dumb are they you know
dinosaurs or are there some that
actually get it and get the future but
they just have you know the innovators
dilemma which they don’t embrace the
future I I think what it is is
innovators per se they tend to start new
things they tend to kind of go into new
era areas of the unknown when you do
have something as big as an established
publication it is my suspicion that the
people that the board are putting in
charge of running it their management
types they were hired because they know
how to do that one thing really well and
they’re so focused doing on that one
thing it’s it’s almost detrimental or
risky for them to think outside the box
too much yeah I think this is something
you’ve seen in with television scaling
back from digital distribution free
ad-supported digital distribution you’re
looking at NBC ABC and fox all pulling
back even
those guys on hulu they’re almost
considering killing Hulu or just moving
towards subscriptions because they just
don’t like this idea of giving away
their content for free there was an
article on ink think that talked about
this reality of media companies being at
the mercy of tech is that true I mean we
always hear that content is king and you
know technology is as easy to duplicate
but media does seem to be at the mercy
of tack yes or no well you know let’s
think about the word tech actually means
it’s technology it’s just a new way of
doing something in a sense print was
always at the mercy of technology as far
as the printing press went as far as you
know the trucks that distributed their
product one so yeah the media itself is
the kind of content they’re producing
but yeah to a large degree I think
everyone’s at the mercy of tech to a
certain amount okay I put media types
into two different categories I think
it’s it’s almost not surprising that the
people at night greater saw the future
but just didn’t act on it because they
had no economic incentive which is
something I’ve covered on surprise
surprise one of my articles on
TechCrunch there what a shock but but I
then I think that there’s a second type
of person I don’t doubt that these guys
are also sharks super bright and whatnot
but you hear a quote from a Doug Morris
who was the chairman and CEO universal
music and he basically in an article in
wired magazine last year’s you know when
they were talking about digital
distribution of music so we’re not
talking about something that is
radically different than what they do
right it’s like you produce music you
either put it on a CD or tape or a track
or vinyl and then you just put it in a
store for people to come or guess what
its digital and people can sort of share
it over the internet so it’s not
radically different to me that’s just an
evolution but anyway Doug Morris
basically said about digital music and
downloads it’s basically like if they
suddenly ask you to operate on a dog we
don’t have the skill set to see what’s
coming I think that’s ridiculous I
actually think that you know I
understand why then the folks that
Knight Ridder see the future of tablets
but realize it’s not really an hour
incentive to blow up the you know
printed newspaper format so we’re going
to sort of shelve this and then an
innovative company like Apple comes and
just takes over that market but I do
think that some other managers should be
blamed when they have something like you
know the no-brainer just an evolution of
distribution that they
holding this out on I I think that is
that’s a skill set that someone needs
you know when a board does appoint
someone in some kind of managerial or
executive role you would hope that they
have some kind of foresight so to not
just you know make the company
profitable today but to have a plan to
keep it profitable in this case I think
the technology evolved really quickly I
don’t think anyone working outside of
technology itself could have really
forced seen those what do you think of
vivo is vivo an evolution for you or is
it just like is a revolutionary or no no
vivos a YouTube channel like that’s all
it is you know they got a little bit
more savvy but to expect the guys behind
vivo to have gone and created YouTube
just for this purpose like that that was
unreasonable they do they would have had
to pioneer the technology they would
have had to create a market demand and
not being technology guys I probably
would have done a half-assed job of it I
don’t know do you think that was
possible for them to know I think what
was smart about them as they basically
said let’s learn from the mistake that
we made with Napster which was basically
handed to us at the eleventh hour to say
this could be yours record labels use it
and this is your digital distribution
strategy and they didn’t Don dodge was
currently the evangelist with the Google
he used to be at Napster I mentioned Don
dodge like once every five shows but he
wrote this fascinating article on his
own blog post blog site a few years ago
talking about the seven year anniversary
of Napster getting killed and I think
with VEVO they sort of realized you’re
right we’re never going to do this
ourselves so let’s basically just take
YouTube and everything that is a music
video that belongs to us we’ll just skin
it and call it VEVO well I think that
goes back to the technology versus media
thing is like I don’t think it’s the
onus is upon the media companies to
innovate the technology I think the onus
is upon them to innovate the use of it
yeah okay good stuff we’re gonna take a
short break we’re going to come back and
we’re going to cross over the bridge and
talk about the parallel between media
being at the tech of sorry media being
at the mercy of tech and then we’re
going to see if that also applies with
content companies being at the mercy of
the aggregators we’ll be right back
mojo I’m a skank revolution and I’m CT
more and this week we’re going to be
talking about media and tech we’re gonna
be talking about media and tech and were
going to be talking about content and
distribution will be drawing a parallel
between those two things then in
lightning round we have five topics to
go through today and then the email of
the week will take Don’s question about
original programming something obviously
that we know a little about let’s get
right to it so this week it’s a bit
different because the segment’s one and
two are not going to be totally
different they’re going to be almost
parallel believe it or not back in 1994
so 17 years ago knight-ridder one of the
biggest publishers of newspapers which
no longer exists it’s now part of
McClatchy which is a huge newspaper
which I think the third largest
newspaper group in the u.s. so night
raider actually came out with what was i
would say an ipad for lack of better
word it was a tablet the knight ridder
management actually forced saw this that
over time people would not be reading
newspapers in print form now clearly
newspapers are now being decimated
because they cling Don to print they
didn’t necessarily embrace digital let
alone iPads and tablets and whatnot
let’s start off by asking the basic
question are all traditional media
management types dumb are they you know
dinosaurs or are there some that
actually get it and get the future but
they just have you know the innovators
dilemma which they don’t embrace the
future I I think what it is is
innovators per se they tend to start new
things they tend to kind of go into new
era areas of the unknown when you do
have something as big as an established
publication it is my suspicion that the
people that the board are putting in
charge of running it their management
types they were hired because they know
how to do that one thing really well and
they’re so focused doing on that one
thing it’s it’s almost detrimental or
risky for them to think outside the box
too much yeah I think this is something
you’ve seen in with television scaling
back from digital distribution free
ad-supported digital distribution you’re
looking at NBC ABC and fox all pulling
back even
those guys on hulu they’re almost
considering killing Hulu or just moving
towards subscriptions because they just
don’t like this idea of giving away
their content for free there was an
article on ink think that talked about
this reality of media companies being at
the mercy of tech is that true I mean we
always hear that content is king and you
know technology is as easy to duplicate
but media does seem to be at the mercy
of tack yes or no well you know let’s
think about the word tech actually means
it’s technology it’s just a new way of
doing something in a sense print was
always at the mercy of technology as far
as the printing press went as far as you
know the trucks that distributed their
product one so yeah the media itself is
the kind of content they’re producing
but yeah to a large degree I think
everyone’s at the mercy of tech to a
certain amount okay I put media types
into two different categories I think
it’s it’s almost not surprising that the
people at night greater saw the future
but just didn’t act on it because they
had no economic incentive which is
something I’ve covered on surprise
surprise one of my articles on
TechCrunch there what a shock but but I
then I think that there’s a second type
of person I don’t doubt that these guys
are also sharks super bright and whatnot
but you hear a quote from a Doug Morris
who was the chairman and CEO universal
music and he basically in an article in
wired magazine last year’s you know when
they were talking about digital
distribution of music so we’re not
talking about something that is
radically different than what they do
right it’s like you produce music you
either put it on a CD or tape or a track
or vinyl and then you just put it in a
store for people to come or guess what
its digital and people can sort of share
it over the internet so it’s not
radically different to me that’s just an
evolution but anyway Doug Morris
basically said about digital music and
downloads it’s basically like if they
suddenly ask you to operate on a dog we
don’t have the skill set to see what’s
coming I think that’s ridiculous I
actually think that you know I
understand why then the folks that
Knight Ridder see the future of tablets
but realize it’s not really an hour
incentive to blow up the you know
printed newspaper format so we’re going
to sort of shelve this and then an
innovative company like Apple comes and
just takes over that market but I do
think that some other managers should be
blamed when they have something like you
know the no-brainer just an evolution of
distribution that they
holding this out on I I think that is
that’s a skill set that someone needs
you know when a board does appoint
someone in some kind of managerial or
executive role you would hope that they
have some kind of foresight so to not
just you know make the company
profitable today but to have a plan to
keep it profitable in this case I think
the technology evolved really quickly I
don’t think anyone working outside of
technology itself could have really
forced seen those what do you think of
vivo is vivo an evolution for you or is
it just like is a revolutionary or no no
vivos a YouTube channel like that’s all
it is you know they got a little bit
more savvy but to expect the guys behind
vivo to have gone and created YouTube
just for this purpose like that that was
unreasonable they do they would have had
to pioneer the technology they would
have had to create a market demand and
not being technology guys I probably
would have done a half-assed job of it I
don’t know do you think that was
possible for them to know I think what
was smart about them as they basically
said let’s learn from the mistake that
we made with Napster which was basically
handed to us at the eleventh hour to say
this could be yours record labels use it
and this is your digital distribution
strategy and they didn’t Don dodge was
currently the evangelist with the Google
he used to be at Napster I mentioned Don
dodge like once every five shows but he
wrote this fascinating article on his
own blog post blog site a few years ago
talking about the seven year anniversary
of Napster getting killed and I think
with VEVO they sort of realized you’re
right we’re never going to do this
ourselves so let’s basically just take
YouTube and everything that is a music
video that belongs to us we’ll just skin
it and call it VEVO well I think that
goes back to the technology versus media
thing is like I don’t think it’s the
onus is upon the media companies to
innovate the technology I think the onus
is upon them to innovate the use of it
yeah okay good stuff we’re gonna take a
short break we’re going to come back and
we’re going to cross over the bridge and
talk about the parallel between media
being at the tech of sorry media being
at the mercy of tech and then we’re
going to see if that also applies with
content companies being at the mercy of
the aggregators we’ll be right back
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