Partnerships with golden future

Chris Brogan asks what magazines with a huge print following should do in order to get the best out of the web and engage their huge reader communities there.

My answer to this would be: Let the magazines partner with someone who actually knows what it means to engage people online within their specific niche. In many ways this would bridge the gap and make it possible to get the best things from both the offline and the online world. So what’s standing in its way? Egos are.

It’s a known fact that a lot of media companies, magazines etc. are the center of their universes. They have a hard time imagining that anyone can do what they do better. Hence if they plan to go online at all (some still don’t, remarkably enough), they plan to here people in to take care of that. But while hired people may often be good, noone is ever as good as the real experts. The ones who are perhaps already catering to this particular niche in the online space.

So why not partner? The offline company wouldn’t need to hire and understand what’s going on online (something a lot of them fail miserably at anyway) plus they would get a cool online story to tell shareholders. And the online company would gain a new marketing channel, branding and access to new groups of potential end users.

I realize a lot of media people would say that having online capabilities inhouse is key to strategy and creating long term growth for shareholders. But is it really? If you look at what you achieve today, tell me honestly where you see more than little value? I dare you.

If you on the other hand embraced the designated experts out there, not only would you be able to really sit tight on your niche. You may actually experience that people will spend more time and money on your combined off- and online offering. And that is bound to rub off on you - and create real value for your company well.

It’s just a matter of giving partnerships the kind of detention it presents (and no: Partnering is NOT selling).