Content Sutra, Ep. 5: The Media Trends That Will Dominate 2016

Advancement in technology and media is accelerating faster and faster every year, so does that mean 2016 will be the craziest year in media and marketing yet? For the sake of our podcast, we sure as hell hope so.

Last week, Shane Snow and I sat down to tackle all the BIG QUESTIONS facing our industry. Brands are expected to spend a lot more money on content this year, but will they be successful or fall flat? With traffic growth and VC capital stagnating at a few prominent new media companies, are some of our favorite pubs in trouble? And as a result, will we see more journalists go over to the “dark side”?

In our newest podcast, we answer these questions and break down the prospects of today’s biggest social media platforms by playing our favorite game: Buy, Sell, Hold. Things get real fun when we get to Peach.

Listen below or download it here on iTunes.

Highlights:

(0:15) Shane reveals that he hasn’t eaten anything besides ice cream for the past 10 days. And he’s miserable.

(1:58) There’s a big incongruity in content marketing right now. Seventy-six percent of marketers plan to create more content this year, but only about one-third have a documented content strategy in place. We discuss how brands can avoid sabotaging their content marketing efforts—namely, by having strong KPIs in place and a methodology for continuous improvement.

(11:38) What does it mean to live in a world where BuzzFeed’s traffic remains flat year over year? Is the promise that led to an influx in media suddenly dying?

Shane puts on his entrepreneur hat and explains how there’s a lot of hype and knee-jerk reaction to what’s going on, but the reality is that new media companies have been running off the promise of revenues and profits even though that promise is miles ahead of their reality. At any high-growth startup, you have to show that the business is sustainable. The markets are the same but there’s more competition for attention, a the challenge that BuzzFeed, Business Insider, Gawker, and other outlets are facing right now.

(19:30) Will more journalists take content marketing jobs? Shane theorizes that content marketing has been an acceptable career path for journalists since the work becoming more respectable. (Also, double the pay.) Ultimately, though, you have to know the brand you’re going to and what the goals are. Do they just want you to write press releases or will you have real creative freedom and editorial independence?

(24:45) Joe and Shane play Buy, Sell, Hold on the prospects of the biggest social media platforms out there today: Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, and, for the hell of it, Peach.