Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Content is a commodity; Creativity is king
Not that long ago, people were fond of saying "content is king" because media were dependent on content, not distribution. Later, some (myself included) argued that the equation had shifted to those who controlled distribution, who simply acquired the content producers.
Today I would argue that content is a commodity, now that media operate in an environment of abundance rather than scarcity. The Internet has ended scarcity and forever altered ad-supported mass media whose outlets were scarce (and therefore valuable). Content is a commodity because it's ubiquitous and prevalent.
Creativity, however, is still scarce. Anyone can borrow content, but only someone who can differentiate via creativity will make money. Or monetize, as they say nowadays.
