Traditional Media Companies are Trying to Catch Up
CNNMoney.com has an article about the new ad network that Forbes announced recently. The article discusses how Forbes’ effort is an attempt by a traditional media company to compete with the online advertising clout wielded by the big guys such as Yahoo and Google.
It also discusses how some of the “ad networks” created by traditional media companies are pretty much just a collection of a few sites that will have a hard time competing with the large collections of inventory and data that the ad networks possess.
Also last week, it was announced that Apple passed Wal-Mart in music sales to become the biggest US music retailer. This despite the fact that the labels have done everything they can to break Apple’s stranglehold on online music sales and explosive growth, including teaming with Wal-Mart to launch a rival online music store.
To paraphrase what a venture capitalist friend of mine said on a panel last Friday, innovation rarely takes place in big companies. Despite the wealth of capital they possess, they just don’t have the creativity.