We have been writing for years that every company is a media company. And yet while it’s been a painfully obvious truth for many of us, plenty of people are just now waking up to this reality.
There are several stories floating around the web about the Tesla / NYT back and forth saying “everyone is a media company now” (emphasis mine). But really it’s been this way since the ability to publish content digitally existed. The funny part of all this buzz is that many of the same media outlets and pundits I’ve seen sharing this story are the same people who declared self-publishing dead in the past.
And yet. This example proves once again that a self-hosted platform on a company or independently-owned domain is the most powerful response mechanism. It’s platform agnostic, meaning that media of all types (social, professional and otherwise) can link and react to it. Not true in walled gardens which lack the same flexibility and benefits. In fact, more people spending more times in macro social sites increases the value of this type of independent publishing.
The stream is frequently a problem in search of a solution (something to point at). Media of all types have become a threaded, linked conversation with parties on all sides participating. But the best play to build a community and brand that people react to is still to self-publish. This isn’t a new trend and in fact how intelligent brands, professionals and journalists have been interacting for the last decade. You’ve either built a team around this and embraced being a publisher or you have not. I’m also not saying to abandon platforms, I am saying it is “and” not “or.” You need both despite many companies thinking it’s a good idea to yield their presence to the stream (it’s not as yet another recent example proves).
As we’ve said before (and continue to say): self-publishing gets no love, but you shouldn’t care. Perhaps it is starting to finally be recognized?