On Monday, media titan Rupert Murdoch wrote a letter published at Forbes.com to explain how media is evolving. He’s the majority shareholder and chief executive of News Corporation, that owns 20th Century Fox, HarperCollins, Fox Broadcasting, dozens of prestigious newspapers and magazines, and MySpace.
User Interaction
Murdock said “People’s expectations of media have undergone a revolution. They are no longer content to be a passive audience; they insist on being participants, on creating their own material and finding others who will want to read, listen and watch.”
Have you thought about building a community around your online content? Users want to comment and add their own ideas about your content. Is there a way to establish a forum for comments on your Web site? People could post their faith-promoting experiences, ideas, and testimonies. If you make it easy to use, it will draw more users because they will want to contribute and see other users’ comments.
Quality of Content
Murdock also states that the quality of online content “is more important than ever, because the marketplace is more ruthlessly competitive.” The content we publish must be valuable to our users. More isn’t better. Better is better. Don’t just publish “flashy toys.” The content or services must offer more value to your readers. After you publish good content, you need to keep working at it, making it more focused, impactful, relevant, and current.
Murdock concludes his letter with “The future of media is a future of relentless experimentation and innovation, accelerating change, and—for those who embrace the new ways in which consumers are connecting with each other—enormous potential.”