In the age of free content, the future (and the money) is in the context
These days, "content"—be it a newspaper article, movie, song, or piece of market research—is of limited and rapidly diminishing
value. For this we have the Internet, its limitless cache of content and the ease with which that content can be shared to thank.
The digital age has made obtaining content nearly frictionless, creating a perception in the marketplace that content is free, or
worth very little.
Perhaps that's why so many companies are focusing their efforts on the next ruler of the media landscape:
context1. That is not to
say that content is unimportant. But it is quickly becoming the commodity backbone around which contextual services can be built. In
this regard, the media business is transitioning into a service model where the business value in large part comes from matching content
with the best context to maximize impact.
As an example of new ways of extracting value2 from content, consider Reuters, the global news organization, which has developed a
service that trades stocks based on whether a company is receiving positive or negative treatment in the press. In milliseconds,
software can scan the Reuters universe of news content, determine the overall sentiment of that news toward a particular company
or industry, and place trades accordingly.
As data analytics3 continue to be refined, and the ability to match complex and disparate data sets to an individual's preferences
is developed, there are many opportunities for content producers to learn more about how their content is consumed and where its true
value lies.
1Context, as it applies to content, comes in many shapes and sizes. The basic definition is this: "any information that adds
value to a piece of content, either for the producer or consumer, by affecting the delivery or consumption of said content."
The most commonly understood example of adding context to content is location-based services. When you add information about an
individual's physical location, it affects what kind of content they would like to consume (local restaurants, movie times, or news
broadcasts) and how they would like to consume it (mobile phone, Web browser, etc.). If content is the "what," context is the "when,"
"where," and "how."
2"By tracking and discerning the content that individuals habitually read, and creating a user's 'personal DNA,' we can match the DNA of news stories to a user's preference, thereby increasing relevancy. You cannot possibly see everything on the Web, so when it comes to getting the right things, less is more."
- John Snyder, founder of Grapeshot
3With advances in processing power and analytics software, the next ten years could see a revolutionary change in how we make sense of disparate data. Taking consumer or business data, making sense of it, and applying it in real time is an extremely powerful proposition. And the advances that are expected in this field will enable not only better personalization of content and marketing, but also predictive services for use in myriad business applications.
