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The Long Tail

The Long Tail

Chris Anderson is touring the UK right now promoting his Long Tail book due for publication this month.

I’ve interviewed people who are tied up in the race to supply IPTV and related technologies to the unknowing public and to a man and woman they endorse the Long Tail thesis, that the future lies with millions of micro-niches.

Interesting then that Anderson is giving private briefings to the BBC and Reuters as well as Google. I’d have thought in the case of the BBC they could work it out – long term erosion of audience.

In fact just about every large content producer I talk to these days says the same thing. There’s a palpable sense of dismay around, as if these guys with audiences can do nothing to protect their legacy of monopoly and oligopoly.

The decent course of action for a public service broadcaster would be to begin taking the pile of cards down and leave the way open for new enterprises to grow. That is not going to happen. Big Media is like Big Tobacco, determined to keep growing whatever the cost.

But what are they going to grow? That is the bit they cannot yet answer. What’s actually happening is more edgy and contrived than a mere shift in economic forces.

Like alll theses Anderson’s is overplayed, at least in the minds of media moguls. Most media organisations are still highly profitable, one way or another. There may be high profile exceptions but what we are seeing is a significant downsiing among staff, putting people on the street (who can take up Long Tail opportunities), cutting frelance rates, and renegotiating the terms of trade.

There are few media organisations who really see a future where revenue will not cover cost. But there are many who are content to use the current Long Tail kerfuffle to rationliase a new round of lay-offs and renegotiations.

The question still remains though – for what? In mainstream business the strategic objective is always to be up there, to be in the top rank of companies in a sector, to have the best brand. Which traditional content producer has a really coherent plan for doing more, better?