Web Forefront

The premise behind 'content is king' is rather obvious, if you publish interesting stuff they will beat a path to your door, simple enough for web technology circa dot-com mania ('97-'00), but enter web technology circa '07: web services, RSS(data feeds), frameworks like Ruby on Rails and Python's Django which make building sophisticated web sites a walk in the park, a network of advertisers who now 'get' the web and eager giants trying to connect this latter network with an equally eager network of content providers.

At first sight you might believe these facts only reinforce the premise of 'content is king', after all, content is now at an even higher premium since it will now be 'syndicated' throughout the web via data feeds, web services and probably even web scraping which has become easier throughout the years, if your content is king, your kingdom will now be extended even further, right ? Well, I hate to break it to you, but if your kingdom is limited to the Internet you are in for some hard times, unless you can leverage some non-content or brick and mortar kingdoms soon.

Lets take some queues from content syndication which has passed the test of time, TV syndication: A syndicated TV program is sold to stations for "cash" (rights are purchased by the stations to insert some or all of the ads at their level); given to stations for access to airtime (wherein the syndicators get the ad revenue); or the combination of both. The trade of program for airtime is called "barter." (Wikipedia source : Broadcast Syndication )

The TV syndication model has been in use since the 1950's which says something about its viability, but notice how only two out of these three characteristics are in place for the web syndication model: "the syndicators get the ad revenue" and "some or all of the ads are placed at their level", which roughly equals the thousands or millions of web-sites getting -- or trying at least -- to get ad revenue by inserting ads on their level via AdSense or some other advertising network, the big rub of course comes that no station -- or web-site -- pays "cash" to the content producer.

Replaying syndicated content through the air-waves presents a hefty technical and legal barrier even for local TV stations, but even for a minute lets assume you could manage to send out re-runs on your own scale, what advertiser would even take part in this syndication and pay you anything in return ? Point is, its difficult not only to syndicate content, but also to sign-up advertisers.

This particular problem in web syndication will only get worse for two reasons: The easiness with which content can be obtained and 'curated' in some other shape or form -- via data feeds, screen scraping or some other means -- and the lower barriers to entry for monetizing this newly re-packaged content -- think AdSense and the other ad networks willing to share a buck with every web-site in existence -- with the end rub falling to the content provider for not getting direct revenue for their work, even if it was shown on another site network.

This phenomenon is already entrenched on the web, I won't name any specific sites but a simple search for job sites or travel sites will reveal dozens if not more sites which are aggregated or new front-ends to actual content creators, some using data feeds legitimately others out-right scraping content, some bootstrapped by a few people others backed by Venture Capitalists.

So is the outlook for producing content on the web this dire ? I believe it is, unless you make your content an anchor for another business outside the web.

If your an individual, writing on the web will not change much, many of us do it precisely for getting some indirect benefit either in the form of new business or simply for bouncing ideas of peers, heck syndication may even be a benefit for some circumstances.

However, if you are in it for making direct revenue from content think it over, just look at the primary content providers as they stand today, most of them make money from software, books, conferences, or some other service not related to content, the actual direct revenue -- as in ads -- generated from content will continue to diminish for providers, not due to the intrinsic value of the material, but rather from the content being syndicated across the web, with the syndicators getting first crack at the ad revenue and the content providers left with either ad revenue crumbs or some other means to make up revenue. Granted, allowing content to be syndicated will help get the word out and bring in new prospects for other revenue channels, the share of the syndication pie in terms of revenue simply doesn't pan out for content providers, making content the peasant if you only live in the Internet kingdom.

Update: On a related note, the blog entry There's No Money In The Long Tail of the Blogosphere also sums up how difficult it is to monetize content, though it does not mention syndication, its arguments are solid and are based on 'long tail' economics.