Great Content is The 21st Century Oil

Google Panda is here to stay. Google is happy and I think that the media publishing sector is too. What Panda means in terms of media publishing business is relevant and has to be explained. If you watch Rand Fish's video you will understand how Google Panda will impact websites technically, but there are other factors that will benefit media publishers as well.

Since 2000 online content and ad inventory hasn't stopped growing. The online ad inventory offer grew much faster than the advertising demand for those ad spaces. Thus, prices went down to a price that was insufficient to finance an online publishing business. I remember when CPM were at USD 10,00 and how now the same online ad spaces can be sold at USD 0,50. Content farms and low quality content websites will get less traffic from Google, so they will be not able to maintain revenues and will finally go out of the business. This is good news for online media publishers.

Another important issue is that online advertising exchange platforms are pushing CPM higher due to auction pricing systems. Advertisers are bidding in real time for advertising spaces on the good quality content sites, with the correlative CPM pricing increase. This again is good news for online media publishers.

Now, we are talking about content and not algorithms. To conquer the Google index we need arguments, tales, debates, questions and not automatic processes, algorithms or all the technical stuff. Facebook and the other social networking sites brought a disruptive approach to content. It has to be social in order to get Google first page results. People have the final vote for great content, and this is more good news for online media publishers.

Finally, TV will reappear as the primary device for leisure. As TVs get internet access and people have the capability to use TV as an Iphone or Ipad, great content will reconquer a lost space and thus a very important part of the business. I believe that video and multimedia will have a very important role in this new internet era. Google did an impressive thing buying YouTube in 2006 and we will see how they capitalize their extraordinary work in the following years.

Nevertheless, online publishing media will continue to suffer low profit margins for a few years. The transition has to be made. Many important business issues have to be fixed in the online media business, but more than ever it seems as if great content has always been there waiting to be distributed in the digital era. How much revenue it will finally produce is what everyone is looking to discover. But I believe that great content will be the 21st century oil.

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