My Predictions for the Digital Media Industry in 2020

It’s a brand new year and so you know what that means…it’s time for that time-honored tradition of sharing predictions for the New Year.

1 Audio will be the new video

I don’t think anyone will dispute the idea that video has emerged as the format of choice for content. Video is the format most likely to surface on your social media news feed. And it’s also the format in which brands have been investing in the most for their content marketing. But if you want to stay ahead of the curve, start thinking about audio.

Consider this: big tech is investing heavily in audio. Just look at all the voice-enabled devices and services coming out from Google, Apple and Amazon. And let’s not forget all the audio services already available on all our smartphones, from music to podcasts to e-books.

In fact, the three tech giants just announced they’re putting aside their competition and forging a rare collaboration over smart-home standards. The idea is to develop and promote a new, royalty-free connectivity standard to increase compatibility among smart home products, most of which will be voice-controlled. The TL/DR version? That sounds like an open API so that it’ll be easier for third parties to develop voice- and audio-enabled services.

When it comes to audio, just to show you I’m putting my money where my mouth is, I’ve just launched the first in a series of podcasts.

So whether it’s podcasts or voice-enabled services, if you’re a brand without an audio strategy today, you’re going to be playing catch-up in twenty-twenty and beyond.

2 Print will make a comeback

People always raise an eyebrow every time I say this, especially from someone known to be part of the digital media industry. But, yes, I do believe we are set to see a renaissance for print…but probably not in the way you think.

This is a copy of a magazine called Smart CIO. It comes in both digital and hard copy. And it even comes in English, Japanese and Korean language versions.

Full disclosure: my wife Jenny is the Editor-in-Chief of this publication. But Jenny doesn’t work for a publishing company or a media company. She is the APAC head of Communications at a Silicon Valley-headquartered cloud technology company called Workday. That’s right, the publisher isn’t a media company but a brand.

The publication contains industry information, interviews with industry figures, Workday customers and non-customers (I’m sure they hope, future customers), alike. To me, this makes a lot of sense. By developing original content, Workday is able to reach out to and build credibility within the CIO and CTO communities. And, just as important, they are building an audience and community around their brand.

So why print? Well, there’s just something about the printed page that you don’t get from reading off a screen. There are many studies that show words printed on hard copy somehow have more credibility than, say, something you’ve read online.

Having a physical copy also adds an inherent value. Just think of all the old books and magazines you have stockpiled at home over the years that you just haven’t had the heart to throw away. When you hand someone a magazine or a book, people almost can’t believe it when you tell them it’s theirs to keep. This is why so many business leaders are publishing their own books and giving them away when you meet them. It’s that instant credibility and authority that comes with being an author and having your words on the printed page. 

If I were the CEO of a major company, I would be shopping around for a struggling magazine with a small, niche, but otherwise loyal audience. Think about it. You’d not only be buying a media property with a reputable brand name in its own right, you’re buying the community that comes with that brand. And because you’re not a publisher reliant on advertising revenue (although, ad revenue would a welcome bonus), the economics are different for you. Think of how the cost of reaching your target audience today through multi-million dollar ad campaigns compares to reaching an audience that not only reads your publication willingly, but actually looks forward to every single issue. Isn’t that audience worth a lot more?

3 More will be joining the Gig Economy

Deloitte recently released a global survey of nearly 10,000 people revealing trends that impact HR leaders. One of them is that people electing to work in the alternative workforce has now become mainstream.

When most people think of the Gig Economy, they tend to think Uber or Grab drivers, photographers, freelance graphic designers, web developers, etc. That’s not really new. What I believe will happen is that more senior executives, people in their 40s or older, will consider moving out of traditional employment to this new way of working.

Whether that will happen by choice or whether that decision will be made for you, it’s something for everyone at that stage of their career to think about. There’s bound to be more upheaval in the media industry as industries are disrupted, companies consolidate, get swallowed up or are broken apart.

One big difference is that in 2020, opportunities exist today that didn’t exist just a few years ago. Services like Fiverr and Upwork make it easier than ever for freelancers to find work. For senior executives, there’s LinkedIn, which has enabled many executives to transition from the corporate world to building up their own personal brands and starting companies of their own.

After all, when many people say they work in the Gig Economy, I prefer to think of them by the more traditional term: Entrepreneurs.

I wish you all a fantastic 2020!

Originally published in my blog at www.miguelbernas.com.