Traditional media companies play to keep their lead; not win.

The challenge with traditional media companies is they are still mentally stuck in the early 2000s. They think like "Field of Dreams" and that if you build it, they will come. While that was once true in a Web 1.0 world, the game has changed and they are under siege, losing eyeballs, subscribers and, most important, revenue by the day.

Why?

Can you think of the last time that a print or local broadcast company invented something original? Outside of Hearst StoryStudio, which really took the industry lead in native advertising and sponsored content, the real answer is they have not. They adopt late or buy their way into the market like Gannett | USA TODAY NETWORK purchasing a company like ReachLocal since they wasted millions trying to do it themselves. This is common with large media companies and it is where cutting-edge companies go to die.

If you are media buyer, how many "Free ROS" impressions do you get that are labeled as "Value Added" when it is just leftover impressions that do not perform and are sold to an exchange for pennies on the dollar. If you are an agency or business owner, when is the last time your traditional media representative brought you something "valuable?"

Playing to maintain?

Show me a start-up company, just off a Series-A, and I will show you someone playing to win. Show me your average newspaper or magazine, and I will show you a group wondering if 2008 is ever coming back. There is a mindset that is needed for these valuable, local media brands to succeed and it is playing like a start-up. They are waiting for the consumer and advertiser to come to them since they started out ahead of everyone else (playing to maintain a lead) and they are getting hit on all sides, from social media and influencers to Google Ads and CTV/OTT (Just to name a few). It is now a game of who wants it more and gets there first.

Think I am off base?

Ask a certain yellow page print company, who spent over $100M to buy the domain www.yellowpages.com (a natural progression in the early 2000's), only to realize people were looking for local businesses on Yahoo! and Google and had shifted their behavior.

This is not an indictment of just traditional companies. Digital companies can fall victim to the same trap. Ask CityGrid Media (Formerly Citysearch) how not paying attention to Yelp in 2004/2005 cost them a market. Look at Yahoo! only living through acquisition and copycat programs, trying to be Google, and never really building something innovative or valuable,.

Playing to win!

In media sales, specifically local media sales, you either take or you get taken. You play to win, or you get played. You acquire new clients or sit and watch your client base dwindle. This goes above and beyond relationships and it is not personal.

Business owners are getting hit on all-sides by every company under the sun, always looking to find more effective ways to grow and, ultimately, will try new things to adopt to their customers' behavior. You are either bringing that to them or someone else is bringing it.

Nobody cares if your company is struggling (other than you and your employees), if you have been in business for 100+ years and are a “beacon to the community,” or how the economy is impacting your service or quality of work. Relationships can get you far, but even if you give free hugs to all of your clients on Thursdays, they will listen to the person who gets there first and one day, they just might listen.

#playtowin