Content is King But Getting the Ransom Ain’t Easy

Rishad Tobaccowala, chief strategy and innovation officer at Vivaki, the digital media unit of Publicis Groupe SA made this comment in a Wall Street Journal story related to Yahoo and the company’s dismissal of Carol Bartz as CEO:

“People tell me that content is king, but that is not true at all,” says Rishad Tobaccowala, chief strategy, and innovation officer at Vivaki, the digital media unit of Publicis Groupe SA. “Most people make money pointing to content, not creating, curating or collecting content.”

Makes a lot of sense and highlights the dilemma. Creating good content takes time and money and in many instances isn’t a big money maker. The mantra “Content is King” is still accurate from a user perspective. If you build it, readership and interaction will come. But monetizing it is the real challenge achieved by only a tiny percentage of content developers and providers.

It’s about finding a way to get the right message to the right person at the right time for the right (or some!) price.