How Demand Media Is Redefining Content

While traditional media companies agonize about how to charge consumers for expensively produced content, other providers are approaching the challenge of the post-Media Meltdown content market differently. Demand Media's disruptive model uses technology to ascertain what consumers want to read or watch. It then calculates the potential revenue each piece of content can generate before tapping into a network of writers and filmmakers to create large volumes of cheap and, theoretically, profitable content. Other companies can learn from Demand Media's model, which also relies on and exploits the changing concept of what online content is for. When content is commoditized, it needs to be cheap, useful, and targeted to an existing audience. Companies should explore how technology can bring new efficiencies to their content creation and distribution.