emma's Blog: Time To Challenge How You're Doing Things
January 14, 2008 at 22:50Recently I spoke as part of a panel, to a group of television and radio executives who wanted to learn about opportunities in new media.
Their jobs are changing/disappearing/reorganizing, and their companies are changing DRASTICALLY, and so they wanted to find out about how transferable their skills are.
I said they should worry less about skill-set and more about mindset, and it's true. New media creators need savvy business people, audio specialists, storytellers and editors. We just need those people to be willing to change the way they think about their stories and publications.
Forget the linear. Forget the idea of being able to control, down to the point size, how your piece will appear. Forget those things, and embrace the random/user-generated/unpredictable side of new media and you'll be fine!! More than fine, you'll be invaluable. Because you know how to work with content which, ultimately, is what new media is all about.
And then I started applying the same notion of changing your mindset vs. changing your skill set, to our clients.
It can’t be a coincidence that the clients who have the hardest time embracing a new media strategy are our media clients, the companies who already know about content and publishing. These are companies who know content, who have content, and who are therefore poised to do big things online.
But our publishing and broadcaster clients are also often the ones who have the hardest time thinking differently. They have the skill set, but have to work harder to change the company’s mindset. It makes sense, both at the individual level and at the company level.
The more you know about something, the harder it is to think differently about what you know. But it’s also exactly this sweet spot where the really exciting opportunities lie. We love working with publishers and broadcasters and content owners. These are the people with the knowledge, assets and skills to do new, world-class stuff online. If they’re brave enough, that is.
