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Search and Journalism: What’s the Connection?. John Battelle Federated Media Publishing UCBGSJ March 2006. WHO IS THIS GUY?. WEB 2.0. Version 1.0 of the Internet: Long on vision, short on execution, shorter on profits; market & tech immature
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Search and Journalism: What’s the Connection? John Battelle Federated Media Publishing UCBGSJ March 2006
WEB 2.0 • Version 1.0 of the Internet: Long on vision, short on execution, shorter on profits; market & tech immature • Version 2.0: Long on execution, long on profits, even longer on vision; platform is maturing
THE RISE OF WEB 2.0 • Mid-Late 90s - we thought it was a battle for the window into computing: Netscape v. MSFT. • Instead, it became about the content and services, not the window • Web itself became a robust development platform
Web 2.0 Principles:THE WEB IS A PLATFORM • Building on the lessons of the 1990s • Ten years in: Net hit critical mass of usage • Open source, cheap processing/storage/bandwidth opens new economic options • Platform sites embrace the open: data, access, portability • Entrepreneurs began to build on the platforms, creating new approaches to established markets - like media…. • Best sites are search driven • Join the “Point to Economy”
Linux Web 2.0 Principles:THE ARCHITECTURE OF PARTICIPATION • Leverage user-generated content & the force of many to create advantage and build network effects • The remix culture: the best sites are mixes of other sites’ APIs, data feeds: Prosumer rising
Web 2.0 Principles: INNOVATION IN ASSEMBLY • Aggregate, manage, analyze complexity • The essence of the “content business” • Dell, Spikesource, SimplestShop.com, Topix, MyYahoo, Technorati/Feedster
Web 2.0 Principles: LIGHTWEIGHT BUSINESS MODELS • The Web as Platform plus AoP = new generation of “lightweight” competitors • Google/Yahoo News & Craigslist/Blogs v. Newspapers • Tivo/NetFlix/VideoIP v. Comcast/cable • Federated Media v. Primedia
Web 2.0 Principles:THE POWER OF THE TAIL • The force of many: 1 million sites with 1000 users is far larger than 100 sites with a million users • Adsense/YPN/Adcenter • 100,000 bands selling 5000 albums, not 50 bands selling 1 million albums; Blogging is this dis/re aggregation phenom for web publishing
Web 2.0 Principles:SEARCH RULES • The driver of Web 2.0 businesses • Search heralds the new Web OS • Our culture’s point of inquiry, the spade with which we turn the web’s soil, artifact of a new culture • A new reality for all forms of traditional business • Barely begun to realize it’s impact…
ONE REASON SEARCH RULES Piper Jaffray
HOW’D WE GET HERE?A Bit of History… • The tragedy of AltaVista • Search in 1996: “Car” = “Sex” • Portalmania meant search decline was ignored • Google broke out by finding one signal from all the noise • Right at the same time the world was ready for a UI breakthrough • And Journalists **loved it**…..
NEW MEDIA WAS NOT THAT NEW • MSM model: Similar to packaged goods • Make a “thing,” distribute and market the heck out of it • (First) new media model: same model • Make a “site,” distribute and market the heck out of it • Is this “site-based” model really new? • Search gave us the answer…
HOW MEDIA HAS CHANGED: Intent Over Content • Before Search: Content as proxy for audience • After Search: Audience declares intent, then content finds audience • In the Web 2.0 publishing world, intent drives content… • …and content disaggregates • As intent became a proxy for audience, paid search took off…
HOW MEDIA HAS CHANGED: Conversation Over Dictation • Online, marketing is driven by permission/conversation, less by interruption/dictation • Creative should invite conversation, not demand attention • Treat marketing as an opportunity to engage in dialog with a high value lead, rather than an attempt to persuade or cajole
HOW MEDIA HAS CHANGED: The Architecture of Participation • Employ your customers in creating new products, services, campaigns • Include the voice of the site in the campaign - encourage the sense that you are participating in the conversation • Criticism is OK, in fact, how you respond to it can build your brand
HOW MEDIA HAS CHANGED: The Point To Economy • Search drives attention, attention drives search • Conversations and links are proxies for attention • Search is an opportunity to convert a customer • If you are not in the conversation, you’re not in the Index… • Join the conversation by allowing deep linking, and having a robust search strategy • Google’s indexer is an opportunity, not a threat
HOW MARKETING HAS CHANGED: Attention Over Distribution • Media is no longer ruled by distributors, it’s ruled by attention. However, there are now conduits of attention…the search platforms • Search rules, but not just paid search: Search is how content - and audience - is found. • Join the point to economy. • Content is once again king • Blogs are a great place to start…
HOW MEDIA HAS CHANGED: Innovation In Assembly • Problem: How to market in conversational media like blogs? Blogs are difficult to buy at scale, lots of noise… • Bundle an ecology of sites together - 10-20 per category, each site vetted for quality • Aggregate audience in the millions, adviews in the tens of millions • Focus on appropriate advertising, messaging for each site • Reporting and analysis for both Marketer and Author, meta-site/feed for Audience and BD • Authors federate under FM, yet each owns/operates their site • Marketers gain efficient and appropriate access to robust, passionate conversations • And the model scales…
THE REALITY OF MOST PUBLICATIONS: AUTHOR IS HELD APART • Publisher retains authors to gather Audience (content-driven) • Marketer goes through Publisher to reach Audience • Ideally, Audience then begins conversation with Marketer • But, the conversation is limited and the author is marginalized • And leads to publishers being driven more by the marketer, and less by the audience Marketer Publisher Authors Audience
Example: FM • Blogs are hard to buy at scale • Bundle an ecology of sites together - 10-20 per category, each site vetted for quality • Aggregate audience in the millions • Focus on appropriate advertising for each site • Reporting and analysis for both Marketer and Author, meta-site/feed for Audience and BD • Authors federate under FM, yet each owns/operates their site: FM is like label or book imprint • Marketers gain efficient and appropriate access to robust, passionate conversations • The model scales Authors Marketer Audience
Search and Journalism: What’s the Connection? Thank You! John Battelle Federated Media Publishing UCBGSJ March 2006 jbat@fmpub.net