What should be done in the transformation of the media industry?

One, from the long tail, crowdsourcing to social media: the background of the transformation of the media industry

In the October 2004, Wired magazine editor Anderson, in an analysis of the business models of websites such as Amazon and Netflix, presented a long tail theory that revealed the business model Revolution brought about by mass customization in the internet age. According to the long tail theory, the future of business and culture is not on the traditional demand curve that represents the head of the "best-selling commodity", but the long tail that represents the "unpopular commodity" that is often forgotten. In the last chapter of the book, he wrote enthusiastically: The future is like a kite with a short head and a long tail, leading people to explore endless possibilities in a new direction of differentiation and individuality.

20 months later, Jeff Hau, a colleague at Wired magazine, further proposed the concept of crowdsourcing to make the implementation of the long tail more real. Jeff Hau's definition of crowdsourcing on Wikipedia is that a company or organization outsource the tasks previously performed by employees to a neutral (and usually large) mass network in a free and voluntary fashion. Today, there are examples of crowdsourcing: from the birth of Wikipedia to Alibaba and value China, to the growing number of audiences involved in the construction of media content, the community is rapidly growing beyond the company's strength.

Then, social media came, from Facebook to Renren, happy net and watercress, from Twitter to Sina Weibo, as well as dazzling video sharing, consumer reviews and social E-commerce, giving the average person a great deal of space and showing an explosive growth trend. With the help of mobile terminals and social networks, the Internet development trend of "social + localization + mobility" has been established in any time, anywhere, anytime,anywhere,anyone network environment,

The ability of the individual to produce and disseminate information has been aroused unprecedentedly; the long tail pattern advocated by the mass customization, as well as the realization of crowdsourcing mode of organization cost, was greatly reduced, everyone is the media mobile internet era has come.

And the Internet media, the corresponding, is the world's increasingly embarrassing traditional media, the European and American newspapers in a slump in the hard transition; even in China, where the media industry is still at a certain rate of growth, with the continued loss of audiences, especially from the younger generation of digital natives, to traditional media alienation, The media transformation has become an unavoidable huge problem. (Baidu Encyclopedia: Digital Natives, the number of Aboriginal people, meaning that even younger generations of this generation, born on the face of an omnipresent network of the world, for them, the network is their life, digital survival is the way they began to live from a young age. )

The media industry needs to think: What reports the audience might do better? If the answer is "all reports", then the days of the media will be over, but if the answer is "with your participation and help, the audience may do better", then quickly to design the implementation of the media and audience interaction structure. Only from this point of view the media transformation in the era of mobile interconnection, it is possible to find a sober and pragmatic path.

The long tail model of the media may be one of the answers. The purpose of this model is to facilitate the practical analysis of media transformation, such as strict interrogation from the theoretical point of view, there are many naïve, please readers understanding.

Ii. the new pattern of media integration into the Internet: an interpretation of the long tail model of the media

1, about the media long tail model of the basic description

Media long tail of the horizontal axis is the number of products, longitudinal axis is the audience size. In this model, I put the broadcast media into the ranks of the traditional media, including newspapers, magazines, radio and television, outdoor media, but also include the WEB1.0 as the main form of the portal site. Corresponding to this, is the social media community, including the micro-blog, video sharing, social networks, etc. shown in Figure Ii. Need to explain: 1 from the practical perspective of media transformation, I will be the model of "social media" defined as the media or individuals on the platform to open a separate account, rather than the platform as a whole. Because the essence of the underlying mechanism is different, the content and audience size of social media platform, traditional media is doomed to be unable to equate. 2 A celebrity Weibo with huge fans as an exception, because it is not representative.

In addition, the area between the head and the long tail, which I have understood as the media region of the divide, this is also based on the media industry product pattern of the description of the situation (such as youth times belong to the Zhejiang-Qing Media Group, which has a young Zhejiang business of the "Elite" magazine, university-oriented "college students weekly", the primary School "Niu Tong" brand, etc.). Broadly speaking, regional media is also divided into media, while social media is a further effective subdivision of the audience. The media fell between the head and the long tail, just revealing the direction of its development, that is, social media should be adjusted to the top of the layout, to avoid repetition of the development dilemma of broadcast media.

The model head of the broadcast media is the current media fight of the Red Sea. The head provides "best-selling products", mainly public hot topic reports and public service information (advertising) release, as well as traditional delivery and delivery services, with high attention and a large audience, as a result of policy control and cost constraints, the head media, high level of homogeneity, profit space is constantly squeezed, But still has a strong brand influence and a wide range of social resources, customer resources, and gathered a large number of well-trained professional team. The most typical example is the newspapers and radio and television groups around us.

The long tail of the model, it is the world of social media, but also my mind in the media blue Ocean. Long tail provides "unpopular products", usually community-type, personalized news and service information (advertising), while the distribution of functions by the social media to complete the dissemination mechanism. In the long tail area, the public mobile Internet provides powerful hardware support, and the open social media platform provides rich software support, and content is mainly produced by users through the crowdsourcing mechanism. Although the vast majority of individual social media accounts have a limited audience, the very low production and transmission costs provide an imaginative profit margin. Look at the active media, corporate and personal accounts on Sina Weibo, and their growing commercial value, and no one media can resist the temptation of the long tail blue sea.

2, the operation mechanism of the tail and the Echo

Along with the transformation of the media industry, the long tail model of the media gives the four lines which are echoed in the end. Take the youth times car plate as an example, the head of the newspaper publication (Youth times "fashion Car" special issue) and the long tail of Sina Weibo @ Hangzhou Automobile Market, can lay the brand, content, human resources and integrated marketing four pipelines.

Brand level, with the newspaper in the local 10 years of knowledge and reputation, "The youth times" fashion car "special issue" real name certification information, can provide credit for the @ Hangzhou Automobile Market endorsement, and @ Hangzhou Automobile Market active performance, but also for the youth times to win more attention and reading.

Content level, the publication content of the newspaper has been reformed, Hangzhou auto market can be injected with professional content and topics, and around the @ Hangzhou auto industry set up the topic, the automotive sector related to the official micro-blog and the general Bo friends through the post, comments created a wealth of content, these content through the forwarding and comments such as Bo friends "vote" mechanism of screening, Become the content of newspaper publishing, and the sense of achievement brought about by newspapers can continue to inspire the enthusiasm of Bo friends to participate in content construction.

Human resources level, the newspaper automotive Department of Professional Journalists, can contribute to the newspaper at the same time, bear the @ Hangzhou automobile market day-to-day management and maintenance, and @ Hangzhou Automobile market fans and attention to the object, will become a micro-blog content of the main contributors and the content of the newspaper part of the construction of participants.

Integrated marketing is at the level of customer resources to get through the sharp edge of the tail. With the continuous development of social media functions, micro-Blog real-time interaction and Word-of-mouth marketing, creating a wealth of marketing tools, more and more favored by advertisers, the original newspaper extravagantly car manufacturers, began to try the newspaper and micro-blog combination of advertising. At the Hangzhou Lamma Auto Show in 2010, @ Hangzhou Auto Market introduced micro-broad screen products at the scene of the automobile show for the first time, micro-Bo's on-site participation and network spread, effectively enhanced the overall effect of advertising, and achieved a win-lose situation.

Third, the four prerequisites for the implementation of the long tail model of media

1. The idea decides everything. The attitude towards the Internet determines the level of understanding and promotion of the long tail model of the media. The media must realize that the Internet is not introducing a new competitor into the original ecosystem, but rather creating a new ecosystem, not a challenge to the media, but a complete drop in the body and integration as soon as possible. If you look at the record industry's situation in the past decade, it is time for the media to lose their illusions. Especially in the development of the long tail, the traditional media should give up the idea of independent development of social network based on their own resources, because the social network is platform-level competition, relying on the traditional media own financial strength, talent reserve and understanding level, has missed the opportunity; for the same reason, Open will be the most important underlying design of social networks, the media can not hold the "development on the third party platform is for people sedan" concerns, platform developers than users know better: Once the open principle, they will quickly become the object of revolution. There is no doubt that there will be more advanced social media products in the future, but the current efforts will not be in vain, because the accumulated brand, resources and capabilities are the next stop to win greater business opportunities. In the process of change, it is the balance of business value and audience experience that really needs to be controlled by heart.

2, accelerate the transformation of media practitioners. The greatest resistance to media transformation comes from the inside, from the blind self-confidence and outworn of practitioners. Only by transforming itself into an internet-based media person can we understand and promote the implementation of the long tail model of the media. At present, the media may be divided into weaving scarf and non-woven scarf Two categories, can be asserted, I do not know what micro-bo what the media, will be left behind the next generation of Internet. The long tail of the media and the end of the model, the media practitioners put forward higher requirements, to make the head more delicate and effective, the key is to enhance the explanatory power and credibility, which requires the media to effectively improve the speed of reaction and thinking depth; to make the long tail do a good job, the key is to introduce crowdsourcing mechanism to stimulate the user's production and dissemination of energy, This requires the media to put down their posture, a profound understanding of network culture, familiar with network communication skills. Not thoroughly clean up the media industry general superficial impetuous, not only the head weakening irreversible, long tail will also have no our lizhuizhide.

3, jointly promote the social media ecological optimization. The development of social media is still in its infancy, although the future scenery is limitless, but there is still lack of clear profit model and cooperation rule. With Sina President Cao Chao recently in the Shenzhen IT Leaders Summit, that is to create a platform around the ecological chain. On the open social media platform, the media should actively intervene and promote the establishment of an industry chain that includes developers, media, businesses, advertising and e-commerce, and continuously optimizes the market order and legal environment, and gradually finds a profit model on new platforms and terminals. In this ignorant and tangled construction period, the media person may learn Ma Yun's thinking: "More than 10 years ago began to do Business-to-business and Taobao business, do not know how to make money, but know someone in use." Today Weibo is the same, as long as someone uses Weibo, always think of how to profit. ”

4, the system, or the system. The development of media industry relies highly on talents, and the realization of the long tail model of media depends on human factors. Unlike in the past, the long tail model relies heavily on the introduction of crowdsourcing patterns and relies on the human initiative, and the "people" referred to here are no longer confined to the media industry but more "people" on open networks. Whether internal people in the social media, or the participation of the audience to stimulate and value realization, all need a flexible and open entrepreneurial system, with an efficient organizational structure and flexible equity settings to create innovative culture, to protect entrepreneurial interests, so as to attract and activate talent. This is the gene of the Internet, now, to use it to transform the traditional media conservative bulky body, refused or catered to? old or reborn?

Hu in the book "The Future is wet" in the translator preface, borrowed Wang Meng "Long Live the Youth" verse, I took to do a little more disrespect to change, as the end of this article:

All the days, all the days come,

Let us weave you, with the golden thread of the Internet,

and free Ying Luo, weave you.