You’d have to be mad to launch a media business in the midst of this recession – wouldn’t you?

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(photo from Billerikson on Flickr)

It has now been 3 weeks since I officially left Incisive Media. It seems like a lot longer. 

The general business climate is clearly worsening and the business and professional media industry is right in the eye of the storm (as I discussed in my previous post on structural change). In fact there could hardly be a worse time to be out of work. And yet…

…the more I read about what is taking place in the industry the more I become convinced that we are in a fairly unique window of opportunity for media startups.

Looking through recent results announcements from major publishers, all of them are having to radically restructure their businesses – through merged editorial teams, closing print titles and publishing online or just slashing overheads. The universal problem they have is that they manage legacy media which is losing revenue relevance in a digital age. CEO’s talk about repositioning for a digital world but this is a lot easier said than done – it takes time and the operating margins are very different. Most senior execs know only too well what their media properties should look like in 2009 but to get there they have to cannibalise their existing businesses at exactly the time when they’re trying to squeeze every last drop of revenue out.

We are in an unprecedented period of disruption and yet the key incumbents who have traditionally owned their market sectors are unable to react. 

There’s the opportunity for web savvy business media professionals to launch properties fit for a new media age & with an operational structure which works for today’s business climate.

Hmmm…

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Tags: business media, online publishing, startup