Seventeen minutes with Sergy Brin – a glimpse of media evolution

The consumption of media on a global scale has shifted dramatically the past few years. The rise of the internet and synchronous movement towards a real-time web has catalyzed the development of new media distribution models while smothering the media channels of the 20th century. Although this change is radical to publishers and media producers, it is, in many ways, natural and intuitive for the media consumer.  As media becomes more readily available from digital sources, intrusive advertising may be forced to adopt a more subtle existence…second to information and entertainment.  But will this shift in media consumption crush television, print, and radio along the way? Or, will it force media companies, publishers, producers, and advertisers to adapt; to offer new forms of marketing centered around brand/content availability rather than a marketing experience?

The soft spoken and enigmatic Sergy Brin certainly has a few thoughts on the matter.

During his interview with John Batelle of Federated Media Publishing at the Web 2.0 summit this past month, Brin offered several profound insights regarding the increase of search engine usage and the subsequent competitive market for search engine dominance.  Brin also addressed, quite eloquently, a pressing question which has kept media moguls and publishers enraged since the Google IPO in 2oo4:  Are search engines replacing the need for centralized print based information resources like newspapers?

“I think they are conflating Google with change in the sense that I do think the world is evolving, people consume their information in new and different ways and the business models around that are changing…and certainly Google has done well with those newer types of business models. But I think they are making the leap that Google is either causing that or that Google is somehow stealing that from them. I don’t agree with the conclusion, but I certainly hear the pain, and I think it is important to have institutions like, certainly, the world’s leading newspapers, publishers and so forth…i think it’s important for those institutions to remain sustainable.”

- Sergy Brin Web 2.0 Summit October 2009

Sustainable? Should we take that to mean “operational in some form” or sustainable in the “they should continue to exist as is” sense?  Seems to me, based on the dramatic decline in newspaper distribution and the struggling print journalism industry that newspapers, magazine, and other printed media can not and will not continue to survive if they fail to embrace digital publishing, content syndication, and social news technologies. The manner in which “the majority” of media consumers purchase, discover, and share media has everything to do with the evolution of publishing companies.  Media entities which fail to provide or harness technology their consumers are actively embracing will vanish.  Those which do adapt, will only benefit from making their content accessible.

A combination of search and social media adaptation may not be the immediate answer for media companies faced with bankruptcy and massive personnel firings – but social adaptation and technological innovation with regards to media distribution channels is certainly a start.

Smells like the evolution of marketing to me.