Digital publishers 101

“If I was invested in one of these businesses, I would want to exit in 2016.” I do not agree with this statement from Seth Alpert, of AdMedia Partners. The opportunity to be successful usually arises when many are failing. Ricardo Bilton of Digiday is correct when he explains that there is an overabundance of media publishers who do not make the cut. The reason many media publishers do not make it is because their business models do not have sources of competencies that differs from their competition. 

Buzzfeed, BI, Mashable all provide value to a specific target market. They are all able to generate revenue. However, they cannot sustain a competitive advantage for the long term because they fail to innovate how their content is created and leave the fate of their distribution to social networks. 
Cha explains that in order to sustain a competitive position for the long term firms must have unique resources, marketing, and resource leveraging. New media publishers have the same access to the old resources, marketing tactics, and leverage on social media that Facebook provides to its most viewed media publishers. In order to increase unique viewership, popular media outlets must begin to create their own marketing campaigns and leverage other platforms. Buzzfeed's extension into Snapchat and other social media outlets is a great example of this. 

This article explains that BuzzFeed uses a unique one to 13 ranking to decide which mediums to focus on when it comes to distribution. This structure, along with the creation of   Buzzfeed Distribution and Buzzfeed Motion 
Pictures have changed the way the company will do business in 2016. They have drastically changed their sources of competencies for the better. This positioning will allow them to grow their viewership. Article: Distributed news: How BuzzFeed curates stories for social platforms