Old media's woes: The Difference Engine: Beyond content | The Economist

THE old-media world of newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television networks has a daunting task ahead of it. New-media upstarts like internet TV, social networking, mash-ups, web stores and online gaming—with their ability to stream content direct to smart phones, tablets, e-readers, laptops and game consoles—have begun to eat the green-eyeshade brigade’s breakfast, lunch and tea. At last week’s Digital Hollywood meeting in Santa Monica, California, the question on a lot of people's lips was how to fight back.A recurring  theme was “beyond content”. By that, the gathering of film, broadcasting and entertainment executives meant how to turn the current threat to their livelihoods into a solution for at least survival, if not runaway success. All agreed that, apart from getting their content online in the best shape possible, they needed to move much further downstream in marketing terms. In short, they should start offering services—beyond content—that add to their…

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