Feature: The Long Tail and the new media marketplace

Rest assured, things have been happening since the previous post, just not online.

Allow me to introduce you to the Long Tail, the underpinning idea for the feature article I'm working on currently for Humber's Mag World:

Think back to your first memories of the Internet, around 1995 or '96. Remember the rigid formatting, neon backgrounds and absolute lack of functionality found on the average abomination passing itself off as a website? Me too.

Nowadays, everyone is well aware of the mammoth progress the Web has made in becoming the revolutionary force it was hailed as during its ascent into the mainstream in the mid-1990s.

We do so much online that the Internet no longer merely augments the the real world, large tracts of our physical activities have moved into more virtual environs. Think about the amount of people that bank online now, or get their news; the Web almost certainly factors into even the most conventional person's media sources.

The chart to the left (courtesy of Economist magazine) shows how many blogs have burst forth into existence since they began tracking this in 2003 - 25 million at the beginning of 2006!

As you may or may not be aware, Technorati is now tracking over twice that volume -- 55 million active blogs. This isn't an isolated phenomenon, its a revolution (er, or is that evolution?).

Blogs are but one example of how the so-called Web2.0 is reshaping media demand, as it intices consumers to stray further from mainstream content toward a world of niches.

The problem is, how best to conceptualize this new structure of demand. Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired, provides some clarity: The Long Tail.

Anderson articulates the concept of the Long Tail in his book, which you'll find a link to on the righthand side of the screen. Or you can check out Anderson's blog for some background.

In the article, I'll try to shed some light on how the dynamics of the Long Tail hold deep implications for magazine publishers (as well as the rest of Old Media). I've only begun trawling through my research, and haven't vetted my notes enough yet to give an in-depth explanation here.

But briefly, the Long Tail idea says that with the broadening base of non-traditional information and entertainment sources found on the Web, old guard media is in decline (think YouTube vs. Warner Bros., or Rolling Stone vs. a hundred blogging superfans also at the same concert).

Major media firms are losing marketshare to these medium, small, and mirco-competitors that comprise the lower end of the product demand curve, or tail (see graph below).

Through the democratization of the means of production and distribution (because costs continue to fall through tech. advancement), these smaller players are increasingly siphoning off the bread and butter of Big Media -- consumer eyeballs and the ad dollars chasing their wallets.

In aggregate, Anderson shows, there is an almost equal amount of value in the tail, comparatively, with the head. What's more, demand is increasingly shifting away from the head, down the tail, as these niche players improve content and gladly offer it up on the cheap, even freely (motivated by the 'reputation economy,' a buzzword for a later post).

I contacted National Post media critic Warren Kinsella two weeks ago to bring my article closer to home, and he's managed to succinctly cobble together the idea better than I in his column from Feb. 15.

Kinsella was working on a similar story (the Spin interview) when I contacted him with the idea, which then found its way into his column; he gave me my due props during the interview, crediting it to "some weird ESP thing happening," (or maybe media folks are collectively beginning to click in?).

At any rate, it's a work in progress that I'm pretty excited to polish up and get into Mag World. Alongside Mr Kinsella, popular culture prof. Mark Federman at the University of Toronto has aided me immeasurably, and I'm looking forward to an upcoming interview with Naomi Angel, senior editor of Capital Mag -- one of those 'tiny giants' Anderson says will thrive in the new media marketplace.

Like I said, the wheels are turning ...

Check back around mid-March for the finished product.

-JS

“Almost anything is worth offering on the off chance it will find a buyer.” -
Chris Anderson and a maxim of Long Tail economics.

Editorial: UK education reform is a step forward

Spectre of domestic terrorism prompts Britain to reform education toward creating a greater national identity

This week's op-ed piece written for the Humber EtCetera:

By James Sturgeon
02-02-2007

An epic struggle is currently underway in the United Kingdom that Canada's education policymakers should observe closely.

At root, it's a struggle to mend and unify a population that has become, according to British Education Secretary Alan Johnson, increasingly fragmented and disenfranchised.

The most recent manifestations of this occurred two weeks ago, with the arrest of nine suspects in raids on Jan. 31 in Birmingham, England on charges of conspiring to kidnap and publicly murder a British Muslim soldier.

The suspects are alleged to be Muslim extremists exacting revenge on a “traitor,” according to a website reported by the BBC.

The raids took place a mere five days after Secretary Johnson announced the completion of a report calling for a deep and comprehensive redesign of what is being taught in that nation’s classrooms – starting with a greater emphasis on an inclusive national history, compulsory until the age of 16.

The arrests illustrate the crux of what the education reforms are trying to fix: Britain’s multicultural society has no clear identity of itself, or a collective vision for its future.

In such a diverse environment, divisive angst – most acutely felt towards government and its role in Iraq and Afghanistan - has filled this vacuum.

The effort by the British to create a national identity through a shared and common history is the best measure yet by a Western government to quell these anxieties – not just from British Muslims, but from all uncertain Britons.

There exists a myriad of problems that confront the liberal-democratic state in the twenty-first century, but chief among them is the integration of a growing kaleidoscope of vastly different cultural groups who have different worldviews, values and social expectations.

Johnson's report may represent a (nascent) solution to the inherent friction such differences typically cause.

The program, called “Identity and Diversity: Living together in the UK," is a bottom-up approach that aims to generate a culture every member of society holds an equal stake in.

This may sound like a rehashing of an old idea, and indeed, it is. The education system is designed to normalize individuals into society.

But this is the first attempt since the attacks of 9/11 by a Western state to use a method beyond bludgeoning its will for security upon those who are subversive to stability.

It’s an attempt to knead out those inflammatory elements, not incite them.

This may also be disagreeable to those who would say that their own history deserves separate recognition - not a role in a multi-faceted one.

But than where does unity and cohesion come from?

On some level, we must share something in order to peacefully co-exist, and history is an excellent starting point.

The fruits of the reforms will be greater integration and opportunity for all.

Canada can also learn something from Britain’s struggle.

The arrest of 18 young adults in Toronto last June on charges of plotting to bomb several targets in Ontario is an ominous example that even our seemingly tolerant society is capable of breaking down in similar fashion.

In an age where disgruntled and terror-minded groups can operate easier than ever before, nations must not fail in unifying all elements of society to ensure mutual security.

Creating a common story that all lawful people hold a place in is the first step in doing so.

- JS

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
- Charles Darwin