Traditional Media On Track For Digital Evolution

Traditional media are making inroads into evolving for the digital age, according to panellists at the latest MediaTel Group seminar on the future of digital, which was held this morning in London’s Westminster.

“Traditional media people do get it,” said Andrew Walmsley, co-founder of digital communications agency, i-level, adding that the majority were working hard to make the most of new developments and emerging technologies.

“I think there’s every chance for traditional media to make a play in online. I think there are lots of very encouraging signs that they’re doing exactly that,” he said.

Greg Grimmer, managing director of Zed Media, used the Guardian, Channel 4 and the BBC to highlight traditional media with “fantastic digital strategies”. He said these media were driving things forward for others to catch up, but pointed out that there was not the same shareholder pressure as other organisations felt.

Organisations that invested heavily in digital strategy around the turn of the millennium were the ones now reaping the benefits, he said.

“Google is still a one-trick pony. They’re still a fantastic money making exercise but they’re one piece of search technology away from losing 75% of market share,” he stated, using Yahoo! as a good example of an acquisition hungry business which is now able to sell across various channels.

“Agencies are falling into same trap as media owners,” he added, pointing out that Search is a channel ignored by traditional agencies.

Fellow panellist Blake Chandlee, director of UK Media Sales at Yahoo! UK & Ireland, believes that “traditional media by no means is dead.”

“Television is not going anywhere,” he added, acknowledging that there are shifts taking place, and that fragmentation was the biggest challenge for these markets.

“It’s not necessarily that consumers are all coming online or going to digital formats, it’s that all of a sudden there are 300 cable or satellite channels for people to choose from,” he said.

“The challenge that ITV faces is not necessarily that people are coming to Yahoo! or MSN and Google and YouTube, it’s that they are finding lifestyles and content that they find much more attractive through that whole process. What technology is doing is that it’s facilitating that discovery process, it’s opening up communications.”

The key elements of survival in the digital age are Search, communication, personalisation and portability, he said. “I think the traditional guys will do very, very well if they take content that they own, develop, produce and distribute it across all different platforms,” he said, stressing that Yahoo! believes that personalisation is incredibly important.

“Sharing content… is something that the internet does very well, and that the traditional guys need to get their arms round still,” he admitted, indicating that the structure of traditional media was changing.

“I think it’s very hard to underestimate the pain of trying to manage a traditional business and grow a non-traditional business when you have an infrastructure and your whole DNA is about the traditional side of the business,” said Adam Freeman, deputy commercial director, Guardian News and Media.

“Traditional media owners… are going through the largest structural change that I think any industry sector has gone through. But there are huge opportunities as well,” he said.

It’s about content over platform, giving the example that the Guardian is now breaking stories on Bush’s policy before the American media. “That would never have happened without the internet,” he offered.

“I’m actually really positive about this. All businesses need stimulation, you need an ecosystem around you that challenges you, that brings things you haven’t thought of, that threatens you, otherwise you get stale.”

All the clever stuff is happening with blokes in garages still, he said, indicating that this was the real threat to the traditional media owners and organisations.

In response to chair Torin Douglas’ suggestion that the Guardian Unlimited site had erred on the slow side of video take-up, Freeman responded that the company did not feel the need to rush.

“We have very, very clear video plans, which we’re launching in the spring, and we’re investing millions of pounds in video this year,” he admitted. “Whether we’re slow or fast, quite frankly, I don’t care, we’re going to get it right and it will be part of the day to day output of our business and a core part of our content.”

Media journalist Ray Snoddy was also positive about the metamorphosis of traditional media. “Old media can respond and can change,” he said. Snoddy was also keen to point out that the industry should not get too carried away with concerns over fragmentation, and that it should be kept in perspective, saying the fragmented channels have consumed themselves and have not impacted on the core channels.

Freeman added that traditional media has managed to “get away with what we have got away with because we… controlled output. When you have control of distribution, that’s fine, you can set the rules. That control is going. We’ll over exaggerate it in the short term and underestimate it in the long term,” he said.

“We now have to help people navigate and help them take part, not control their access, because that access control is going.”

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