Michael Surtees shares some interesting thoughts about the bizarre situation of media shape-shifting that is happening these days. He explains how after he stopped subscribing to the bulky print version of the New York Times, he discovered via micro-blogging site Twitter that the Economist magazine has a word-for-word audio recording of it’s issues available for download. After all this jumping around in different media worlds, Surtees discovers the usefulness of the audio version of the magazine, and sees a future in this kind of media-hybrid.
He explains:
As weird as it is for all the different types of media to be converging and mutating into each other, the control and ability to finish something like the Economist is great. Maybe there is a future for magazines as a better version of radio in the form of a music file.
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You know what could be a great idea from this? iTunes Genius meets Media. Look at those pictures with the genius symbol. Imagine you just finished listening to a report from The Economist about the North Ireland situation (http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13278360) and you want to learn more. Just press genius and stories from other magazines, radio shows, etc. are there for you to choose from. This probably isn’t too far off, in fact.
March 18th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Note the Monocle Podcasts too! Interesting pov.
March 18th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Content is King, Media is Neutral.
March 19th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Information, it’s intention is to be free and that’s exactly what’s happening… starting to burst thru mainstream structures :)
Does this mean there is the possibility of hearing information being delivered by real people… (vs the monotone ‘news’ voices which somehow have a sound of eery sameness).
Any information that is worthy of being shared will somehow reach the diverse range of people on the planet (blind and deaf included). Internet users have the skills to translate and deliver rich content in a variety of different forms… giving great ideas like Matthew’s a chance to be real-ised.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:21 am
One can only hope that more traditional media companies will take the Economist’s lead in exploring new technology-enabled formats for their content instead of whipping themselves into a frenzy about how their medium is ‘dying’. There will always be a place for good content as long as it is presented in a form that people actually enjoy consuming.
March 22nd, 2009 at 10:23 pm