Perhaps one should be perusing the marriage updates section of old media dealmaking, instead of harping on about those venerable old things that have died?
You have probably read more obituaries of traditional media in the last few years than actual obituaries. Are the pundits calling the death of “old media” right? If they mean old media companies, they are almost certainly wrong.
One thing that traditional media can do very well: the provision of quality “content”, in the jargon, still remains institutionally valued at these businesses. Given that this is what most consumers want, those companies which can navigate the internet age’s pitfalls, should be able to effectively harness corporate venturing and other innovation to get up to speed and retain their podium as titans in the new digital world. It will be interesting to see which of the old breed of media titans triumphs.
The two Big Deals this week, by US-based recruitment website Indeed and UK-based social media company Zeebox, show media titans are not going to go down without a fight. Do look at our September issue highlighting the media industry to see the companies, both old and new, which we think are best using corporate venturing to keep pace with the changing market environment.
Firstly Indeed, a jobs website which was backed by the New York Times in a $5m corporate venturing deal in 2005, last week made a 20 times return of $100m for the US-based newspaper, when it was sold to Japan-based trade buyer Recruit. This came alongside a $300m sale of About.com to IAC/Interactive Corp. Of course, problems in the core business have not been solved by these forays into new media, as this article on the company’s advertising problem by news provider All Things Digital illustrates. Yet at least the highly impressive financial investment has helped salve the decline.
Secondly two units of Comcast, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal, backed Zeebox, a social TV company, set up by Ernesto Schmitt, a former executive at music group EMI, and Anthony Rose, who led development of the BBC’s iPlayer. The backing of Comcast is highly interesting given it follows the company receiving backing from British Sky Broadcasting in the UK, suggesting Zeebox is perceived by key players in both the US and UK television markets as a means to reinvigorate television use on the part of the internet distracted.
Given its heavyweight backing Zeebox, which only launched in November last year, is certainly one to watch, especially as it is a start-up which is looking to wrestle back the control over the internet social media platforms, foremost of which is Twitter, have taken of live television events. Of course networks are working with Twitter, Facebook and the like for their strategies, yet they would be mad not to attempt to control some of the flow of information controlled by the social media stars.
The involvement of Rose in Zeebox is interesting, because of the undoubted success of iPlayer for the BBC. A read of this Wired profile and the realisation that the iPlayer service had nearly 2 billion programmes watched in 2011, illustrate the extent to which this project was a success at the BBC – which remains a 1950s-style organisation, to the extent that people in the UK call it “Auntie”.
Perhaps one should be perusing the marriage updates section of old media dealmaking, instead of fretting about the venerable that have died?
