MediaVidea

Coming soon: Old Media's last stand

I read the Reuters story about Old Media’s deep grouses against New Media. At a recent meet they returned to the hallowed topic of New Media thriving by stealing Old media’s content.

By that, they mean Google news and other aggregators.

Time Warner Inc. CEO Richard Parsons says,

..."The Googles of the world, they are the Custer of the modern world. We are the Sioux nation," Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Richard Parsons said, referring to the Civil War American general George Custer who was defeated by Native Americans in a battle dubbed "Custer's Last Stand"."Rather than painting false pictures, Old Media must identify the rot within.

Umair is quick to point out the ‘lethal’ irony in Mr. Parson’s ‘ironical’ statement.

Who's advising Dick? With analogies like that, it sounds less like a consultancy, and more like Dick Cheney.

Google is the one who is hyperflexible and capable of mounting quick yet disproportionately devastating forays into new markets and new value chain segments.

Old Media is ‘trapped in an ever deepening value chasm’ (Umair’s words)

Umair explains that legacy bindings of Old Media, which doesn’t want to change from existing still lucrative business models to new digital media-based models, returns from which are small for the time being.

Google is not bound by any legacy unlike thickheaded General Custer.

For more on Old Media vs. New Media debate, read this earlier post on MediaVidea, Cliffnotes for Sam Zell.

Labels: news 2.0

posted by Pramit Singh @ 4:22 PM