Folio: Roundtable - "Taking Back the Web"

From Folio:

"(There's) a new aggressive push by publishers to re-establish themselves as authorities on Internet business. The perception is that this space has been defined by companies like Yahoo and Google. Now it’s time for magazine publishers to serve as the new thought leaders, particularly as the models of companies like Google are starting to resemble a standard ad sales model.

"The future of magazine publishers online is more as full service content and marketing services providers and not as ad sales-based businesses. Folio: hosted a roundtable with eight leading publishers about how they are redefining their Web strategies and making the Internet their own again.

Link to the roundtable discussion.

(posted by Rex Hammock)

Comments

[Paul Conley]

The Q&A is interesting. Although I think it's kind of funny that the piece doesn't use any of the tools that make for compelling Web content -- external links in the copy, subheads, "bite-size" copy, graphics, etc. It's a nearly 4,000 word piece in traditional "print" style that someone just dropped on to a Web page. That is EXACTLY what publishers should NOT be doing on the Web. I'd have preferred to see a news-you-can-use piece in a Web-friendly format that then linked to the full Q&A for transparency.
Nonetheless, despite the flaws in Folio, the Q&A is worth reading. Pay particular attention to the smartest guy who ever worked for me: Prescott Shibles. "The thing that scares me is when our publisher has a new online competitor and doesn’t recognize it as a threat, because they think their branding’s so strong. If you have an online competitor that jumps into your space, you’d better watch it right off the bat because they’ll have you cornered in no time."