In the modern media age, there are no sacred cows.
The internet has turned the industry upside down by allowing everyone a chance to be a content creator. Sites like BuzzFeed have emerged and gobbled up market share, leaving many media organizations -- including well-established titans -- with the challenge of reinventing their business models to maintain their footholds.
Matt Galligan and Shane Snow, two sculptors of the face of new media, came together at FORBES’ first-ever “Under 30 Summit” to discuss the ins and outs of making and breaking the news for the connected generation. Circa, Galligan's creation, is a mobile news app that breaks down stories to their core details. Contently, of which Snow is chief executive and cofounder, helps freelance writers succeed among the new landscape.
Yet, when two of the new era’s leading voices sat down to discuss the future, their message to the old guard wasn’t “try to keep up.” Galligan and Snow instead proposed a more measured approach for the traditional media: stop chasing fads and focus on creating quality content that adds value.
According to Galligan, coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing showed established media outlets reacting to what works now rather than pursuing what suits their brand and what will be successful in the future -- CNN was trying to be faster than Twitter.
“That need for speed [attitude] is a real danger to accuracy of reporting,” Galligan said. “It’s a systemic problem of the pace of our technology these days.”
The key to success isn’t necessarily to be quicker -- or even catchier (“A piece of me dies every time the Washington Post does a BuzzFeed-style list,” Snow added.) -- it’s to focus on quality content and build a relationship with readers. The laser-like fixation on some metrics that dominated current thinking is overblown, according to Snow.
“It’s chasing fads,” Snow said. “They’re chasing pageviews instead of the things that actually add value.”
But it’s not just that the old-timers have lost their way and should leave the listicles to their grandchildren. Galligan and Snow aren’t even sure BuzzFeed will even be around a decade from now in its current form. In their view, the recipe for long-term success involves more than simply following trends and what people are already reading about.
“I think BuzzFeed can be around in ten years,” Galligan said. “But they’ll have to drive that leading [aspect] more than following.”
As the dust settles from the digital gold rush when sights were set on little more than going viral, these two media moguls suggest a steadier course: behind the clickbait, it’s crucial to produce quality content.
