Why I Love Joe Cappo: eContent Show Notes
SherpaBlog reader Elizabeth Karolczak of Oskar Consulting
< http://www.oskar.com > just got back from the eContent 2001 show which was held in Northern California earlier this week. She called up with some notes, which I paraphrase here:
– More than 200 attendees went to sessions, the majority of which were paid. This is a great sign for the content industry, because similar shows earlier this year had a hard time cracking 50 paids! The folks who made it were mainly veteran content licensing and syndication execs, many of whom go way back. So there was a lot of reminiscing in the hallways.
– The trend I (Anne) noticed earlier this year of classic content distributors and syndicators, from Factiva to Screaming Media, focusing more on themselves as technology providers than being in the content biz, is definitely continuing. One speaker reportedly acknowledged, “Content really is the thing that pulls the whole chain along.” But even they admitted the point these days is to sell software and technology to corporate intranet folks who want help organizing internal content … and then integrating their current external feeds in … and then maybe a year or two from now getting around to adding in new feeds.
– Folks from hugely trafficked Web sites (such as MSN) were bullish on the online ad market supporting them. Others mentioned selling subscriptions, but it wasn’t a huge topic.
– Bad news for content entrepreneurs who base their biz models on selling content to other sites and media companies — the dot-com bust compounded with today’s economy has made licensed content buyers very wary of new companies. You need a “pedigree” of at least several years in business for them to feel safe doing biz with you.
– Joe Cappo, Senior Vice President-International & Licensing, Crain Communications Inc., was named the Best Speaker, winning his peers’ hearts with his speech, “No I will not sell you my content for five cents!
Categories: Uncategorized
