ON NEW MUTUALISM AND MEDIA

Media companies found themselves increasingly subject to the whims of the platforms’ algorithms and business models. They replicated a Packaged Goods Media model on top of the platforms, and discovered – shocker! – that they no longer owned the audiences they were trying to sell to marketers. Instead, they had to buy audience from the platforms, an... See more

Traditional business models no longer work in the internet age because they’re dependent on monetizing access to content (production) or selling ad space (distribution). The business of internet-native media shouldn’t be primarily concerned with either of those things. People must pay to support a specific POV – a subculture.

This is what we call lu... See more

What does this mean? All of the infrastructure and services that were once optimized for physical SMBs / mom-and-pops need to be overhauled to accommodate internet-first businesses. If you were a YouTuber and you walked into Bank of America asking for a small business loan, you would be met with a quizzical look followed by a polite but firm dismis... See more

Amazon is at a crossroads and like the brands who depend heavily on Instagram or Facebook.com, the rule of online retail is multichannel diversification. The product manufacturers and brands who keep up an even-handed approach to acquisition will not be impaired when one channel determines their fates for them.

Perhaps the demise of traditional retail and media can be explained by the Internet offering better alternatives for curating your own community of like-minded people/products and removing most of the friction around connecting.

The media brands that have excelled in this era of paid subscription and media-driven eCommerce share two attributes: healthy direct traffic and high loyalty.