ChasNote

From Times Online UK:

“What’s surprising, though, is that the pure-play internet media companies that might have been expected to benefit from the tectonic shifts in the industry have done badly too. Yahoo!, CNET Networks and Interactive Corp all seemed to be in a great position three or four years ago, and yet all three look like they’ll soon cease to exist in their current form as investors express their displeasure with poor stock performance.”

“Part of the explanation for this is simple enough. Yahoo! and CNET could be considered new media versions of old media models; they aim to drive large numbers of people to their pages with expensive investments in content, and monetise that traffic via display advertising. But low-cost blogs — especially in the technology news space that CNET once led — have scooped up a lot of the audience.”

FM, Huffington Post, PaidContent, TechCrunch and others are called out as alternative models.

From Media Week.

“Like much else in the digital world, Google stands at the center of this shift, Horan said. The ability to use search engines to find information means a more meritocratic media world, where a smaller advertiser or publisher can compete with larger companies on the basis of relevance. A car shopper, for instance, uses search to find information and considers a variety of sources rather than turn to a single trusted brand, he said. Intent-driven media also means a blurrier distinction among content, commerce and community, he said. As an example, Horan pointed to Nike+, the running system and social network that blend product, branding and service.”

I’m wondering if Horan read Battelle’s book.