Niches vs the government media

I have written a new blogpost on Mediawatch. This time it’s about content companies operating in the niches while complaining that government subsidized media is killing their business by also entering these very same niches.

I find the whole argument more or less pointless. Because this is not a question about government backed media like the BBC competing with private niche oriented media. This is really about niche media not really cutting it in order to make a profit. In the end its about strategy, business development and product development.

The fundamental issue for these niche companies is that a lot of them are actually doing something that pretty much anyone else could do. Its not hard to make good content, if you have the experts who can report in a way that people would want to see, read or hear about.

What is hard is to compete against a product that’s much more multi-faceted and extended into a lot of areas, where government backed companies can’t go because of legal issues and private competitors have a hard time going because of lack of insight and expertise. And thats why that is the only sustainable road ahead for these niche companies. Whining won’t cut it.