BRIEFING ON MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY | April 2005THEMEDIACENTER

S Y N A P SE

It’s mobile, immediate, visual, interactive, participatory and trusted.Make way for a generation of storytellers who totally get it.

INSIDE THIS BRIEFING:

4DESPERATE QUESTIONS FOR NEWS

4ICEBERGS IN THE VISIBLE FUTURE

4STORYTELLERS IN OUR SOCIETY

4GENERATION C

4REIMAGING AND REMEDIATING

This briefing summarizeskey findings from Media,Technology and Society,a multi-disciplinary researchproject on the media landscapeconducted for professionalsengaged in strategies, research,thinking, education, policy andphilanthropy related to thefuture of journalism and media.

The future of news

Conversations about the future of newspapers recall the story of JohnJacob Astor at the bar of the Titanic:

“I know I asked for ice but this is ridiculous,” Astor quipped wheninformed the ship had struck an iceberg.

Ten years ago the captains of news saw the emergence of the consumer Internet as a way to defend and extend markets, reducecosts and drive profits through synergies with digital media. I know Iasked for ice. They were also warned that the new technologies woulddisrupt their markets, challenge their control, and create new competi-tors. ... but this is ridiculous.

They should have heeded the warnings. The unsinkable ship hassteered smack into the Internet iceberg. It is leaking from a hole in thehull, there’s structural damage below the surface, and the passengersare manning the lifeboats. Things could get worse. Go to the bar andorder an Astor Cocktail.

A new wave of digital technologies and web services will enable ageneration of savvy storytellers. They will create content and transactcommerce through immersive experiences that make a newspaperlook like a sunken relic. More content will be available in more formatsthan ever. It will be created, edited, distributed and shared by con-sumers. Anyone can find what they want then act on it. A small sam-ple of what’s ahead:

4A visual Internet, accessible on many devices, in which storiesunfold in a video so real that consumers believe they are there.4Voluntary ads, each relative to a consumer’s wishes and desires,delivered at desired times through all forms of communication.4Personal news networks in which skilled editors, producers and con-tent managers deploy multi-media to inform each other.

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FOUR DESPERATE QUESTIONSABOUT THE NEWS BUSINESS

OLD QUESTION: What is the futureof newspapers?

REALLY ASKING: Will editors andreporters have jobs in five years?

SHOULD ASK: How is a connectedsociety informed? What’s paper gotto do with it? What future are news-papers and TV networks creating?What story do they represent?

OLD QUESTION: What’s the no-kid-ding business model for newspapercompanies?

REALLY ASKING: Do we really trustthis Internet thing?

SHOULD ASK: Which business modelsenabled by the Internet and mobile,digital technologies best serve aninformed, connected society?Can news enterprises reimagine theirbusinesses?

OLD QUESTION: How do we makemoney?

REALLY ASKING: How do we continuedoing what we’ve always done, main-tain high margins, and control markets?

SHOULD ASK: What are alternatives tothe advertising subsidy? What businessmodels can capitalize journalism-basedbusinesses? What is the value proposi-tion for new forms of journalism?

OLD QUESTION: From where willjournalism come?

REALLY ASKING: Do we really trustother citizens with journalism?

SHOULD ASK: How will a generationof talented storytellers use multipleforms of media to create and sharestories that are relevant to the citizensof an always-on world?

TIP OF THE ICEBERG

More tools, more devices,more creators, more content shapea sharing society where everyonecompetes for influence and attention

HERO RELIGIOUS ECONOMIC 4 SOCIALDEMOCRATIC ENLIGHTENMENT

The myth that news mediathink they represent

The myth that news mediaactually represent

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nMyth or story epoch

MISSION

The storytellerin society

COMMUNITYTRIBES

STORIES

Intersections represent opportunity

VALUE PROPOSITIONSIN ECONOMIC ERA1. What is the economicvalue of stories whenmany citizens are expertstorytellers?

2. Who is trusted?

3. What does the story-teller stand for?

BUSINESSMODEL 4

Access to knowledge has been a defining story of civil society. Information technologies have historically redistributed accessand knowledge from controlling institutions to the masses. In the current epochal transition, knowledge and economics areredistributed in a connected society with ubiquitous access to news and information. Privileged institutions are no longer able todominate markets by exercising control over them.

GROWTH AND PROFITABILITYOPPORTUNITIES IN VISIBLE FUTURE

Between now and 2010, enablingtechnologies and emerging consumerbehaviors will compel companies toopen content to consumer markets.Successful enterprises will create lean,transparent organizations that providecontent and transaction servicesacross digital platforms to an array ofpersonal, mobile information-commu-nication devices. The closed andproprietary media business models ofthe past will give way to open modelsthat facilitate transactions in whichconsumers create, compile, edit, shareand distribute content.

4400 million digital cameras by 2008, many embedded in mobilecommunications devices, capturing and delivering life as it occurs.4Pervasive media -- media everywhere -- with a dazzling array ofmobile applications for transactions, environmental sensing, wire-less transmitting, and personal information management of records,music, photos, research and data.

Consumers become the important storytellers of the era. Theytrust each other. They become self-reliant on the stories theycreate, skeptical of the stories created by “trusted brands” or“trusted institutions.” Although passive consumption of news willcontinue, new forms of interaction will emerge. Even traditionalconsumers will find ways to make content more meaningful.

To stay afloat, media companies must reimagine storytelling formsto vie for consumer attention. They must respond to the conver-gence of technological innovation with imagination. And they mustreact to the consumer’s creation of content with awe and respect,

Closed media

Innovative

Open media

IncrementalPRODUCT VISION VISIBLE FUTURE

AUDIENCE VISION

RETAIN

REAGGREGATE REMEDIATE

REIMAGINE

Media Center Matrix: Reimaging a future for news

REAGGREGATERS

4Disruptive technology & content4Mass customization of content4Capture time-challenged audiences 4Niche players challenge establishedmedia in specific markets4Multi-platform multi-media4Adaptive organizational cultures

RETAINERS

4Defend existing markets4Passive consumption of content4Controlled or curated distribution 4Defensive culture designed toshape rather than adapt to audiences 4Protective inside-in position onuser-generated content and digitalrights management

REIMAGINERS

4Visionaries and early adoptersof disruptive technologies4Create new delivery platforms4Develop new content formats4Emphasis on building changedrelationships with customers andconsumers

REMEDIATERS

4Ubiquitous immersive experiences4Consumer content creation andfeedback loops4Content customization4Create variable values for content4Transparency and trust4Continuous business-customer-consumer value chain

Technology

Consu

mer e

xperie

nces

Generation G captures the storyThe Content Generation creates, produces, participates andshares news and information in the connected society. It cap-tures life as it happens on digital cameras -- currently morethan 250 million, by 2008 an estimated 400 million on mobilephones. Content spreads through global networks that allowanyone to post news, thoughts, ideas, and images on the web.The messages resonate and vibrate through multiple mediumsshaping always-on lives. Media multi-tasking is the generation’sway to get through the day. Left: HP’s ad captures the culture

THE FUTURE OF NEWS IS ...

4Bigger, glocal4Accessible any time, any place,through any device4Transparent4Participatory: a conversation,not a lecture4Edited for more, not less4Funded through a variety of servicesand access points 4Reliant on social entrepreneurship4Authentic. Trust is the new trust

THE FUTURE OF NEWSPAPERS IS ...

4Smaller in staff, format, influence,attention, profits and margins4Specific or niche, no longer mass4Downstream from the Internet4Inexorably linked to other media4Explanatory, investigative and narrative