Yesterday marked the beginning of the SIIA Content Division’s Information
Industry Summit. In order to keep up
with the flow, I’m posting my notes and highlighting other blogs that are
commenting on the presentations.

The keynote speaker this morning was Tom Glocer, CEO of Reuters. PaidContent.org
covered his presentation in detail, but here are some additional points.

According to Tom, the following forces are shaping
our industry and determining what the media company of 21^st century
might look like:

• Personalization of media – the increasing ability to receive the content we want.
• Two way pipe – busting the content creation and distribution monopoly previously enjoyed by publishing companies.
• Social networking – allowing upstart competitors to disrupt media giants.

His premise (with the stated goal of being
provocative) was that the economics of the information industry make consumer
media companies ill-suited to be public companies. The pace of change is rapid and the investment
is large with payback occurring only over the long-term. It’s hard to reconcile long-term payback with
the short term financial view of public companies.

However, Tom believes the economics can work in
professional publishing. Professionals
will pay for content. Why?

• Professional publishing deals with must have information and software.
• An individual’s professional reputation and millions of dollars in value are at stake.
• Often the professional’s employer or a third party (the client paying an attorney for research) pays the information bill.
• The professional is looking for the right information and doesn’t want an excess of information (they value a trusted filter).
• Information can be delivered precisely at the moment and in the format that fits a professional’s personal workflow.

Of course Thomson/Reuters plans to fulfill these
needs!

Other SIIA presentations yesterday included:

From Content Matters by Barry Graubart: After
the Froth: How the Financial Markets Will Affect Information Companies.

From The AppExchange Blog by Clara Shih: B2B
Social Networking at the SIIA Information Industry Summit

From PaidContent.org:

• Interview with Caroline Little, CEO WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive
• Old Media versus New Media, a panel discussion with Ken Auletta, Author and Annals of Communications Columnist, The New Yorker; Michael Barrett, EVP, CRO, Fox Interactive; Jim Kelly, Managing Editor, Time Inc.; and Alan Patricof, Founder and Managing Director of Greycroft Partners.