We're talking a little about Barry Diller and some of the comments he's made recently about new media and some of its assumptions.
In this second post, we'll look at his comment about audience fragmentation. It was reported and quoted this way:
"He argued the commonly referenced trend of audience fragmentation is not actually happening in a big way-- not yet anyway. 'Sites that have traction gain audience....You will see fragmentation inevitably at some point.'"
It seems to me that he's actually right and wrong here. To say that fragmentation hasn't happened in a big way yet seems counter to everything I've seen, studied 
and heard. Now he might be thinking in much different terms than I am or, he believes fragmentation is going to even be more than I'm thinking at this time.
Fragmentation of markets and audiences have been going on since the institution of cable TV. It will only continue and increase on the Internet.
Now there is another subtle thought he says that will be an important truth to keep in mind in these months and years ahead, and that is that there will be fluctuations in audience growth and fragmentation; one of the reasons last post I mentioned that we need to have plans in place for when the fluctuations increase to us to grab some of those people for a long-term customer relationship.
What this means for us is that as far as the Internet goes, travel and moving is a click away; people will swarm, hang around awhile, and then swarm to the next area. This will probably go on forever on the Internet. Again, the key is to have things in place for when we receive that swarm, so that we are able pick off some of them for the long haul. In many ways, I believe for online marketing, this is one of the keys to future and long-term success.
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