Media for a New Era, Demanded and Federated

There is a new kind of media. We all know the old media produced by the elites, and we've all heard of user-generated content. There is a new kind of media shepherded by new kinds of companies. It combines the best of the old media, and is generating value for the people who create it and the people who consume it.

Among other reasons, I'm paying attention to this because a couple of companies I know are in the heart of enabling this new kind of content. That’s partly why I like Demand Media so much. It’s also one of the reasons I’m a fan of Federated Media.

The vast majority of the media we consume is generated by an elite, largely full-time, generally well-compensated, tiny group of people, usually working in large organizations. Let's call it EGC, Elite Generated Content. EGC is generally a pyramid, with a tiny number of highly visible people at the top, a large supporting cast, and often a very large number of under-compensated people in support, many of whom aspire to climb up the pyramid. Katie Couric, sitting at the top of the CBS News pyramid with her $15M annual salary, is a great example. She can do her job only because of her supporting cast of hundreds (thousands?), the vast majority of whom will never have the camera focused on them except while saying “testing, testing.” They do the work and she takes the credit. While the example I’ve used is broadcast news, there is a similar structure in newspapers, magazines, books, music, movies, theater, etc.

The internet has brought us a new kind of media: UGC, user generated content. UGC is generated by essentially anyone who wants to. There are a vast number of UGC-er’s (millions!), who do what they do mostly on their own, mostly for free. Examples include blogs, comments, everything on Facebook, product ratings, Wikipedia, etc.

Some of the people who create UGC are every bit as talented, hard-working and effective as the elite producers of EGC, sometimes more so. Some UGC creators produce content for which they know there’s a market, but the existing rigid structure and cruel, anti-democratic hierarchy of EGC provides no mechanism for them to tap that market.

Some members of the old media have recognized and capitalized on the fact that there is a huge pool of frustrated, under-valued and ambitious UGC-er’s out there, and have created mainstream media vehicles for tapping into this vast labor pool. Perhaps the best examples are TV shows like American Idol. For every Susan Boyle who leaps from complete obscurity to fame and fortune, there are tens of thousands of applicants who either waste their time, or worse, become the on-air fodder for the laughter and cruelty of the wealthy, self-appointed judges. In typical old-media fashion, it dangles the hope of success to millions and convinces tens of thousands to donate their time and effort to the success of the elite handful at the top, for example the well-named Simon Cowell, who is surely the Simon Legree of show business aspirants.

Is there an alternative to old-media EGC and chaotic, unstructured and unpaid UGC? Simply put, yes. Demand Media and Federated Media each are pioneering new paths to enable UGC-er’s to advance to professional success. There is no accepted name for this new category (alert! naming opportunity!), so until a better name shows up, I’ll just call it PGC, professional-generated content.

What is PGC? Simple: it combines many of the most desirable characteristics of EGC and UGC. Here are the highlights:

• Like EGC, the content is vetted, it is good quality.
• Like EGC, there is a market for the content, and a way to reach that market.
• Like EGC, the participants in the process actually get money for their efforts.
• Like UGC, the participants in the process actually get credit for their efforts.
• Like UGC, there is no hierarchy barring the door to aspirants.
• Like UGC, the process is highly distributed and democratic.

Sometime soon, I'll show how DM and FM are each, in their own ways, leading the way to developing the market for PGC, professionally generated content, and thus providing opportunities for people and filling previously unmet needs.