What's wrong with "content is king"?

"The content is king", this is the tradition media person to serve as the Bible four words. To say "content is king" wrong, outdated, I like many traditional media people, is emotionally unacceptable! But reality is telling us that in the new media age, "content is king" is not only wrong, but also wrong. Reflect on the dilemma of traditional media today, we are wrong in the "content of the King" on! Those who are still shouting "content for the King" Media, do not understand all this, will be dead to the end of the day do not know why they will die!

So why is it wrong to be "content King" in the new media age?

The "content is king" is the Viacom, President of Redstone, a world-renowned media group. His logic is: only to make better content, only more audiences accept! Audience acceptance of a wide, media circulation, also means more influence and market share, which can sell more, higher prices of advertising! This is the core of the traditional media business model: to attract users with content, to sell ads by user volume, The level of circulation or ratings is the yardstick of advertising value.

The essence of "content is king" is the quality control of production link. This is in the traditional media environment, of course, is not wrong, "content is king" is precisely to seize the most upstream of the starting point, the most critical selling points. But, dear fellow, do not forget, now is the new media era, the media's ecological environment, the audience's reading habits, the content of the production mechanism, information channels, and so on, and so on, has undergone a change of the upside! At this time also adhere to the content of the king, that is really kezhouqiujian, impossible!

To illustrate the depth of the "Content-King" error, we may wish to ask a few questions:

First。 Is there more audience acceptance of quality content?

In the traditional media age, this logic is reliable, there are two important reasons: 1, the scarcity of good content, 2, readers access to content is not convenient, high cost. Therefore, the quality of content to be far better than the quality of the content of the audience acceptance of high, the audience is more willing to spend more time, more money in the good content.

In the new media age, the foundations of this logic have changed:

1, this is an era of information flooding, information overload brought about by the explosion, so that the value of quality content sharply reduced. The emergence of a large number of homogeneous content, so that the previous ones with strong quality attractive content, it is easy to be replaced. In the new media era, if your content can not be absolutely exclusive, absolutely irreplaceable, that "content is king" is no value of an empty word.

2, the advent of the Internet and mobile new media makes content access extremely convenient and inexpensive. No more newspapers, no newsstands, just open news sites, download an app, move your fingers, and the reader's news needs can be met.

This is the change in user reading habits and communication channels that can be a fatal blow to the "content-King" Creed. Under this new change, the value of channel and terminal is increasing, and the value of content is decreasing. Content is valuable, but in any case it can no longer be the king, because: the good content, can not be seen by the reader, that is in vain, and have channels and terminal advantages of content, even if not so good, but still the audience is huge, spread very wide.

We can give an example. NetEase News Client, March 17 released data shows that the total number of its users has exceeded 72 million, daily active users over 28 million. Dare to ask, which newspaper in China now has such a large group of users? For such a new media, its channels and terminal value of how much, you can weigh yourself to weigh! You have good content to spread not to go out, NetEase News client has no original content, also has more than 70 million of subscriptions, you say you are still diehard shout " What is the value of "content is king"?

Second: The content of the audience needs, is the better quality?

This is not the case. Obviously, the news is not to buy cabbage, do not need to around, the reader will be preferred to choose the most convenient, easiest to obtain, the lowest cost of news reading. For example, the reader read the content of micro-bo 140 words, scan the mobile phone client news push, get the most basic news message is enough! If there is no special need, he does not have to go through the original text, every word to study the seam clearly.

This is the new media environment, the reader needs changes: Fast reading, light reading, easy to read! The reader needs, just 50 points, you need to do is to give him 50 points is enough, up to 60 points beyond the expected to do, you don't have to bother to get 120 points. The reader said: "What others need is enough!" you have to say: I "content is King", give you are all good things! But the question is: you this good thing, who look?

Therefore, the media to change, we must keep pace with the changes in the reader's taste! First of all, the idea must be changed, should not be preoccupied with what "content is king", but to understand what the reader's real needs? What is the reader's content acquisition habit? Around these two points, the content that satisfies his needs makes him comfortable to receive, That's the way!

Third: Good content can sell a good price?

If you give this question a negative answer, a lot of people are sure to jump three feet tall! A lot of people will still like this to refute my voice, good content can not sell a good price, the poor content will be able to sell a good price? In order to take into account the young minds of these people, I still say "not necessarily"! Yes, good content, It's not certain that you can sell a good price.

To be clear about this problem, we must clarify the fact that the media is selling content? Not really, is the brand value and influence! Advertisers are willing to vote for you, the first consideration is not how good your content, but the impact of how big, the name of how loud, the impact of the audience how wide! Good content, It's just one of the keys to building a media brand's value and influence, not having good content.

In the new media era, media dissemination is no longer the content of the page, but the full range, the spread of the media, is the integration of communication, the final need to achieve is a comprehensive transmission effect. Good content must also have excellent communication operations, otherwise the value of the content will be greatly compromised, to play the influence and visibility is difficult, not to mention selling a good price!

In the future, a good media, must not be superior to the operational capacity. You don't have to have the best quality, the best content, because you can integrate content (this cost is much lower), you can rely on user production content (UGC content also has great value, such as tiger sniffing nets, snowball nets), but in any case, you must have the best communication operating ability, this is the king!

To sum up, above I just said a few things:

1. The information explosion, the content overflow, the user reading habit has changed, the channel and the terminal value unceasingly promotes, the content value already cannot be the king.

2. Readers need to change, more inclined to fast reading, light reading, easy to read! The media needs to keep up with the changes and provide the content to meet their needs, rather than the dogmatic insistence that the quality of content is as high as possible!

3. Modern communication is stereo communication, it is necessary to have a good operation ability to get influence and popularity. The era of content all has passed, the media must be good at communication, proficient in operation!

Well, the reflection of "content is king" ends here. Since "content is king" is out of date, what can be the king in the new media age? Where should the idea of media people turn? I personally think that instead of "content is king", it should be "User is King"! Content for the King "the most fatal mistake, is the user's disrespect, the user needs of disregard!" As for why to say so, or left to the next article to explain it! The next article, called "Content for the King" has died, "the user for the King" when the stand.

Wang Kanpeng, author of the Xinhua News agency, Caijing, email:wangkpeng@126.com, this article only represents the personal opinion, has nothing to do with the unit.

Personal microblogging account @ Wang Kanpeng, micro-letter "Media sinks" (account: Mediaunion), welcome to discuss media-related topics!