The recurring theme of looking back to the "good old days" by media executives continues on, as many still struggle to find ways to monetize their digital efforts.
On Wednesday at the Argyle Executive Forum on Leadership in Media in New York, this message was reiterated again, as most of those in attendance were executives from old media companies, and they complained of the inability to make the transition at this time.
This is the same old problem of looking at the big profits of the 1980s through the 1990s, and lamenting the loss of those days. The problem is that time period was unique to the industry, and those profits won't be coming back. The 1960s and 1970s were also unique as the habits of consumers changed, and many afternoon papers were shuttered. This also resulted in earnings soaring for the industry.
Now that the changes are embedded in the habits of people, those days are long gone. To get together and talk about that, rather than embracing digital strategies and trying out things until they work, is a waste of time.
I think of Disney (NYSE:DIS), which went hard into the digital space, and is successfully navigating the waters. They didn't wait around saying "woe is me," rather they aggressively pursued a variety of ways of providing content digitally, and their properties are doing well.
One bright spot has been magazines, especially in Europe, where people buy them primarily direct from newsstands rather than through subscriptions as the do in the U.S., which is far more costly for startups.
As I said though, the problem with traditional media companies is they continue to look at the past earnings they enjoyed and compare that with the present ad revenues generated on the Web, which so far are way below the past models they used.
What good does that do? Rather they need to go forward, trying different things to generate the revenue they are able to generate in the new digital content era. The new way of consuming content by consumers isn't going to change, so to look to the past, while building out online businesses, is a poor and unprofitable way of going forward.
That's why the music and newspaper industries have struggle so mightily. They keep looking to the past results and compare them with what is currently happening. The problem is the digital space is completely different than the former way of doing business, and the two really can't and shouldn't be compared.
To continually look to the past only paralyzes industries into inaction, and causes them to stand still. Again, Disney is a good model going forward, and media companies should look to them, as well as News Corp. (NYSE:NWS-A), as old media companies that are successfully attacking the new realities.
Comment Preview