@ Mipcom: Making Money From User-Gen — Distribution Equals Power

User content panel Oct 2006I wanted the panel to comment on my observation that all of these companies are making money (in some obvious cases a phenomenal amount of money) out of cleverly organizing and distributing other peoples’ content. It’s not a coincidence that they don’t produce the content themselves because it’s a skilled, time-consuming and expensive to produce good content. I’m talking more about the professional realm here, but user content counts too. So how can creatives benefit financially, or do user content platforms take all the benefit?
Mark Goldman focused on the position of individual users and said Current TV always pays its contributors, more recently introducing viewer-created ads for brands including Sony and Toyota that keep paying the creator even when they are picked up on other media systems. Heavy.com co-founder Simon Assaad answered from the point of view of today’s indy producers and said he’d be thrilled to have the opportunities they have now, because distribution and promotion have no barriers.
Google’s head of content partnerships EMEA, Patrick Walker, gave the biggest hint yet about the impending monetization of Yoogle’s content: “There’s the opportunity to partner through new ad-supported video models and produce real money, though it might not cover the cost of production of something was initially made for TV.” He said producers should make sure they free up some rights for content they can experiment with online that will allow them to make intelligent decisions about the direction of their businesses. “Not being able to produce for this new revolution is going to put you at a disadvantage. The other thing is nothing old needs to stay old anymore. You can monetize material that has been sitting on dusty shelves for years in new ways and make them available to the people that are looking for them – and we know that people are looking for pretty much everything every time of the day.”
And if YouTube and all the other pure-web distribution systems because the norm, where does this all leave traditional media companies? They have to be proactive, rather than reactive, said Walker. “You have to engage, engage, be creative, have fun, hire crazy people with spiky hair – see what works and what doesn’t rather than waiting for that magical moment when it all falls into place, because it won’t. You either be a leader, or you’ll be a follower and you’ll disappear.” Spoken like a true Googler. (He doesn’t have spiky hair.)

This article originally appeared in MediaGuardian.

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