Are Corporations the New Kings of Content?

Here is the original article entitled, "Are Corporations the New Kings of Content?" recently published in Folio magazine. For the edited article in Folio, click here.

There are significant changes underway in the media business. Competition, which has traditionally been fairly straightforward and easy to identify, is now surrounding the playing field.

Of course, the internet is a big factor here, but something more important is going on.  

Magazine brands can no longer look at the other magazines or Web sites in their field as the competition. While most publications still fight it out with their direct competitors, their customers, the very ones they are fighting over, have started to compete with them, and are spending millions of dollars to do it.

That’s right. Corporations are the new content providers, jumping with both feet into the province once deemed the sacred right of publishing houses.

The new marketers call it “content marketing.” Its roots are in the earlier formation of custom publishing and the concepts of branded content.

The transition in the control of editorial content that started over a dozen years ago is gaining momentum and traction with increasing speed. The Custom Publishing Council, Veronis Suhler Stevenson and others put the value of corporate editorial projects somewhere between $28 and $55 billion and growing at 20% plus every year. Those are startling statistics.

The impact of this movement has effectively challenged traditional publishing’s claim of producing the markets “trusted, unbiased, and objective” editorial content. In case you haven’t noticed, corporations have figured out how to do exactly that. They have hired some of the best journalists around, looked for, found and paid for authoritative experts to inform their audiences, set editorial and graphic standards that surpass those of many publications. And, perhaps one of the most critical components, have launched stringent measurement analysis to both determine and improve the content they are sending out.

The challenge for publishers is understanding how to manage this change and become part of the new publishing paradigm.  Here are some of the issues shaping the future of content media:

 

• Change in consumer behavior. Today’s sophisticated, internet-savvy consumer looks for valuable and informative content from any source for making buying or purchasing decisions. This consumer does not care if the content comes from “credible, traditional sources.” A publisher’s traditional advantage as “the authoritative information resource” is sliding down a very steep hill. Media in North America is evolving much like the United Kingdom's, where seven of the top ten newsstand publications are custom publications. 
• Distribution. A key strength of both paid and controlled circulation magazines was in their ability to document and deliver specific demographics on just about any kind of definable market. Technology took that advantage away long ago. Most corporations today have better and more detailed information in their CRM systems than publications do. As they refine databases, the need for the publisher’s names gets marginalized.
• Budgets. Corporations often have bigger budgets and more resources to find and pay for the best research and content in the markets they serve. Unfortunately, too many media companies have been cutting both research and editorial budgets at the same time. The quality of corporate publications today are excellent and ever-improving. At some point, their quality will surpass independently-produced publications.
• The “Anti-Sell”. The more informed the consumer or buyer is, the more difficult it is to sell them. Smart marketers know this and are creating strong brand relationships by providing good, authoritative, even leadership-type content. Media companies are often in reverse, giving in more and more to advertising demands that weaken the editorial product in efforts to maintain ad dollars.
• Technology. Technology is the underpinning of much of this change and is increasing exponentially in ways that make content distribution easy. Corporate marketers are taking advantage of all the technology they can get their hands on.
• Editorial. The key to successful media programs for corporations is great content. Not just any content. Great content. Consumers know the difference between great content and a blatant sales pitch with no inherent value. Corporations address this issue by, in many cases, establishing editorial standards that exceed those of media companies.

 

But all is not lost. Media companies that want to participate in the content marketing revolution have some basic competencies that appeal to corporations that have or are planning to deliver their own content to the marketplace.

The primary difficulty for corporations moving into content is that they lack the built-in proficiencies such as setting editorial and production schedules, and planning and producing a “sustainable editorial product.” They don’t have inherent understanding of the importance and adherence to the production process, blending and coordinating the timelines of writers, graphic artists, editorial advisory boards, approvals, printers. Media companies, if they are good, excel at understanding how to effectively communicate with a marketplace. And they know how to project manage the process that delivers the communication.

Media companies can leverage their basic communication competencies on behalf of their corporate customers. Editorial, research, databases and technology can all be duplicated. Communication experts, who know how to market and manage media projects, are still very hard to find.

Participating in the content marketing marketplace means learning to sell your communication expertise along with the ability to sell advertising.

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