Next Issue Media - All You Can Eat Magazine Content

Over two years ago , I wrote a blog titled "Google Ain't Go'in Away!" and several other posts directed at traditional media organizations, who needed to reinvent how they viewed media, Google and themselves. The creation/evolution of Next Issue Media is an indication that some organizations are willing to take on Amazon and Google at their own game, by building a content distribution platform. As I have said, new media is all about sharing.  That is the sharing of content as well as revenues. Organizations who still haven't established a tablet strategy will do well to hop on board.

Over 2 years ago:

Google ain’t go’in Away!
 by Louie Torres

Whether you think Google is evil or not, Publishers need to face up to the fact that they aren't going away.

I cringe every time I hear "well-paid" executives blame Google for their financial woes. This is the equivalent of telling the teacher the dog ate my homework.

So, here's a news flash. The media game has changed and Google had a lot to do with it. Now get over it. Google provides services that wouldn't generate revenue if companies didn't consider it a necessity for creating competitive advantage (Google Ad Words). Sure, if you're not on the receiving end of the big checks being drawn from advertising dollars, it stinks. But what Google has done is create a marketplace where one didn't exist and let the market create the demand. This is capitalism at its best. Google was willing to rethink, reshape and take the risks that traditional media organizations wouldn't.

Many media brands have been arguing that Google is "stealing" their content and that is not the case at all. Any publisher can prevent Google from scanning their websites through the robots.txt file, but they won't. Why? Google sends an enormous amount of traffic to all of these media organizations. Which translates into increased traffic and ad revenue for them. So, I don't expect anyone to be blocking Google's bots.

I find it fascinating that so many executives are wasting time telling Google how it needs to change to better accommodate them. These executives need to start focusing how they can adapt their business' to the new media landscape and start creating their own rules, like Google does.