Media 2020 Vision: Perspectives and Solutions for the New Decade | short

Originally published January 2010

The first decade of the 21^st Century seems to have passed in a nano-second, yet this past year moved at a glacial pace as cracked corporate walls came tumbling down and eroding financial foundations collapsed. Ten years ago, the media and advertising businesses appeared to have a prosperous road ahead. Google and eBay were still in their terrible twos. Amazon and Craigslist were in their infancy. YouTube, Hulu, Facebook, My Space, Twitter, Skype and most of today’s hottest media growth properties did not yet exist. A very different reality exists as we enter this second decade of the 21^st Century. Wall Street and corporate investor relations groups remain mired in quarterly financial details that often obfuscate the true value of a company – or lack of value. In the context of the speed with which the industry is changing, analyses and forecasts looking forward just one or two years seem irrelevant. As we enter the second decade of the 21st Century a look forward to the state of the industry in 2020 strikes me as far more pertinent. We are in an industry in which “Chicken Little threats-that-the-sky-is-falling” have become a cacophony even though traditional business models survive and often appear to be thriving. But the fact is that for many the sky is actually falling and their infrastructures are truly collapsing. The media industry is at a historic turning point. What will the media world look like in 2020? In my first subscriber-only report of this new decade, I share my Vision of Media and Advertising in the year 2020. Share your comments at Media 2020 Vision