"Seeders Of Clouds"
By Neil Dodds
02 March, 2006
The Guardian is blogging live from the Online Publishers Association "Forum for the Future" in London.
Here's the major dilemma, says Martin Nisenholtz of the New York Times: "How do we create high quality content in a world where advertisers want to pay by the click, and consumers don't want to pay at all?"
Reuters boss Tom Glocer thinks its possible, and gave a three-point plan in his address.
1. Be a "seeder of clouds." Eh? The Guardian translates this as "offer something of quality consumers can react to" - a tool, perhaps, to allow them to interact, remake and reformat news and information for personal use. Get their creativity working.
2. Be a provider of tools. That means keeping your operating standards open, so users can easily access your content, putting it "at the crossroads" of their digital consumption. Avoid old-style media protectionism. Translated, I reckon this means Glocer is urging online publishers to continue to give stuff away for free. If users have to pay, the chance of your content becoming the centre for thousands of blogs, mash-ups and so on practically zero. The Financial Times might be making money online, but FT.com subscribers aren't necessarily known for their cutting edge digital creativity.
3. Be a filter and an editor. Only the most demented blog evangelist would claim that all blogs are good. Most are rubbish, and busy people need a way of finding what's good and what can be safely ignored. Media companies should do some of this, and better, give their readers the tools to do it too. It should encourage interactivity. The cream will always rise to the top, but sometimes it needs a little help.
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