Content is, of course, king

 
 
Just saw a cogent comment in USA TODAY by Matt Krantz in response to a reader question:


Companies that make the entertainment and content viewed on the bevy of new mobile devices, websites and Internet-connected TV devices are winning new appreciation with investors. Disney (DIS), Time Warner (TWX) and Viacom (VIA.B) shares are all at or near their 52-week highs as investors appreciate the value of the content, not just the hardware.

For instance, a healthy piece of [Disney's] growth is coming from digital-streaming deals with Netflix and Amazon. And at Time Warner, part of the company’s potential upside comes from a number of digital projects ranging from HBO Go, TV Everywhere and All Access.

Disney’s $4 billion purchase of Star Wars creator Lucasfilm is another example of how media companies are bolstering their content.


(Thanks to blogger Mark Ramsey for the lead on this quote.)

I had already been thinking about a post in regard to the Lucasfilm/Disney deal.  This goes back to something I have been preaching for a long time: those who will be most successful in the world of rapidly changing technology as it pertains to media are those who provide CONTENT.  Consumers are ravenous for good, creative content, and so are the companies mentioned above and others who have cable channels, theater seats, download servers, mobile devices and more for which they have to supply CONTENT.

Oh, there is plenty of success available for those who develop, build and market the devices on which all that CONTENT will be accessed...computers, servers, smartphones, TVs, radios, and on and on and on...but that requires that you already have the infrastructure to do all that developing, building and marketing.  That takes labs, factories, offices, and lots and lots of capital...or an idea so great and radical that someone will supply you with all that to get it off the ground.

Today, creating CONTENT requires only one thing: a creative mind.  You can create that CONTENT on a keyboard, with a telephone, with a simple digital camera, or with other readily available devices.  Even a legal pad and a pencil.  Heck, I'm creating content right now!  And that's on a 7-year-old computer with a simple Internet connection.


By the way, on a not-really-unrelated topic, I have just done a soft launch on a new project about which I am way beyond passionate.  The UNTOLD MILLIONS Oral History Project is an effort to get as many people as I can interested in gathering, preparing and publishing some really vital content: the oral histories, journals, diaries and recollections of people who can supply us eyewitness history.

We are losing WWII veterans at a rate of 700 per day, and with each of them we are burying or cremating human history.  When you factor in those who experienced other wars, the Civil Rights movement, the Great Depression, the space program, and other significant history then you see where the name of the project originated.  We are losing millions of untold stories by not using a little effort and modern digital publishing to collect and archive these real-life experiences.



I've done an e-book on the subject, too, and it is available for download HERE.  Proceeds from the sale of the book go back into the project.

I appreciate your helping me spread the word.




Don Keith
www.donkeith.com
www.n4kc.com
www.untoldmillions.net