Media industry disruption

Written in 2010

Sweden is in recession. Most companies and organisations are cutting down on their R&D and trimming external consultants. The whole media sector is experiencing disruptive changes, many of them are seeing their revenues dwindling.

I find it a bit strange that everybody in the established media sector seem to agree on:

1. There will be big turmoil in their markets due to internet and media digitalisation.
2. Nobody really knows what will happen or what will work in the near future.

And still they cut down on R&D!
It is as if they just hope that somebody else will come up with a working internet business model and they will be able to jump on that wagon when it starts moving and then everything will be fine again.

But hey, there will not be one or two internet business models replacing today’s media models.
There will be hundreds!

And we are now seeing just the beginning of the media industry disruption, it will get much worse soon.

But disruptive times have always created opportunities for those that see them, often people from outside the existing industries, people that are not hindered by “we have never done it like that before”, or “that won’t work”.

The way to create real innovation and progress in disruptive times is to gather a wild mix of creative people of all types and enable them to brainstorm and network. Add the low cost of developing and live test web apps these days and great stuff can evolve quickly!

I am attending three very different social gatherings this summer where I have big hopes that great things will happen:

Moving Images in Malmö, June 4 2009. a conference about new and cross-media.
“This is no ordinary conference! We build it up together.”

reboot11, June 25-26 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. I had a great time at reboot last year, and this year’s them appeals a lot to a doer like me: “it’s time to act, time to focus on the act of acting, time to figure out where to begin the reboot.”

Sweden Social Web Camp, Tjärö, Blekinge August 21-23 2009 This will be great!:
“We”™ll meet by a quiet lake, beautiful sea or a red cottage and talk about the social web. Some activities are pre-planned, but the agenda will mostly be set by the participants. Demo your latest project. Start a discussion on a topic you care about. Or present something you learned. And we do all this barefooted, sipping a cold beer, watching the sunset. And then we gather by the fire and chat late into the Swedish summer night.”

So the summer of 2009 will be known as the turning point of this deep recession.
There has never been more opportunities to create great stuff, let’s do it!