The Connection Magazine AIM MUTUAL Spring 2020 | Page 23

is far superior to what's coming from agencies and brands. And
it’s probably fair to say that these media companies have superior
distribution capabilities, as well. These are two top reasons why
brands are investing billions of dollars in media companies, providing
brands with ways to reach their audiences leveraging valuable and
compelling content.
However, brands are getting better at content every day. And so
are agencies. These businesses are now actively hiring journalists,
skilled writers, broadcasters and expert content creators. Heck,
Cisco Systems has over 200 content-related roles by itself. They are
also bringing on specialists to help with audience development. It
only takes a few internal moves like this to turn disparate corporate
databases into powerful content distribution machines.
In the corporate world, it seems like all the right pieces are being
gathered – they just need to be put into the proper place. And did I
mention corporate coffers? Brands have so much more money to
invest in this, it’s not even funny. Apple, for example, can buy The New
York Times 100 times over and still have $30 billion left over.
In five, 10 or 15 years, when these brands finally get their acts
together, I'll be genuinely concerned for the future of media
companies. Just as they did with traditional advertising, these
content-empowered brands will likely start to pull back on their
sponsored content investments. When they do (and they will), what
business model will media companies fall back on? Without other
revenue sources to depend on, and with advertising all but dried up,
this pull-back could represent a final, fatal blow to the digital media
industry.
Look, I don’t want to be right about this, but I'm sure as sure can be
that it will eventually happen. Just as we have seen the rise of content
marketing, we will someday see the demise of media if they continue
to solely focus on a revenue source that is, at best, fleeting.
Joe Pulizzi
Joe Pulizzi is the founder of Content Marketing Institute, a UBM company,
the leading education and training organization for content marketing,
which includes the largest in-person content marketing event in the world,
Content Marketing World. Joe is the winner of the 2014 John Caldwell
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Content Council. Joe’s the author
of five books, including his latest, Killing Marketing. His third book, Epic
Content Marketing was named one of “Five Must-Read Business Books
of 2013” by Fortune Magazine. You can find Joe on Twitter @JoePulizzi.
JoePulizzi.com
23