Traditional publishers in the 1920s expressed similar disdain
for an upstart weekly magazine that summarized news for
the on-the-go professional: Henry Luce's Time Magazine.
No doubt it's a bummer when an amateur fill-in-the-blank gains
access to professional tools and produces -- for free, just because
he or she cares -- good content that competes with stuff that
erstwhile could only be created by a paid professional. (I know,
these amateurs produce crap too; and so do the pros – turn on
your TV and click upward from Channel 2 to 200 and see if it's all
ready for prime time.)
In the case of media, there are two kinds of tools that were
once too expensive for the average Joe: the tools of production (a
printing press, an Arri video camera, an Avid editing suite, etc)
and the tools for distribution (delivery trucks, some rented
spectrum on a broadcast satellite, an expensive pay-to-play deal
with a cable operator, etc). New digital technologies have broken
down many of these barriers to entry. You can shoot HD videos on
your iPhone, publish your magazine on Wordpress, your photo-journal
on Tumblr or Instagram, and the work once done by deliver trucks
has been supplanted by search engines and social sharing.
Most of the time greater competition creates higher quality
stuff at lower costs. Sure, it stinks for the railroad baron to
watch Henry Ford
mass-producing cars or for the big record labels to acknowledge the
rise of digital music. You end up with two choices. Mock, threaten
and sue the new competition; or embrace innovation. History
(and Clay Christensen)
is pretty clear on which is the wiser choice.
And come on, people, look at the numbers. There are a lot more
eyeballs looking at the 300 million "amateur" photos that are
uploaded to Facebook everyday than will look at Vanity Fair's
photos in a month. The photos and videos that gave us access to the
Arab Spring weren't taken by photogs from CNN or NY Times. And if
neat iPhone apps make pictures more appealing to your audience,
then stop calling them cheap amateur cheats and start using them
(like Sports Illustrated is
doing). It's time to change the question from "was this picture
taken by paid, professional photographer" to "does this picture
deserve my attention."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chas Edwards is chief
revenue officer and head of publisher development at
Luminate.