MediaNama turns 9 today, and honestly, we weren't sure of whether we'd see this day, given how dramatically things changed over the past year. That we're around today, and still doing what we love doing, and that things appear to be improving, gives us reason to celebrate. For the past few years, every year, we've taken this as an opportunity to look at ourselves and the environment in which we operate, instead of looking at how digital is shaping your business or your lives. Last year I'd looked at the funding ecosystem for media publications like our (and as always, been sceptical about the colour of money). The year before, I'd highlighted operational challenges that media publications face. This year I'm going to look at things from a slightly more existential perspective, given the media (and digital media) environment that we currently inhabit, and why we're still here. 1. Our environment 1.1 Platforms and aggregators are eating media: Social, for most of us, is the primary source for news and content. Instant Articles and AMP are making things worse, since platforms are executing the final bait-and-switch of adding a distribution cost to media delivery. There are publishers who are willing to go where the consumption is, not fighting the shift in patterns, but in the end, they will be at the mercy of platforms. Remember platforms operate on the idea of increasing fragmentation and monetization aggregation, whether it is media, cars or groceries. Aggregation at scale reduces the ability of individual…
