Working for Gyllene Skor I get to talk to a lot of clients and help them figure out what would be the best way to do business in the digital world. One sector that currently really stands out is media. Each and every media company in Finland seems to be in some sort of turmoil. They have a huge challenge in turning from publishers to relationship companies.

Why relationship?

Digital media is turning content into a commodity. It is impossible for any company to control content once it has been let loose in a digital format. Copying and distributing is just too damn easy. Once something is published in a digital format you can be sure that it will be available somewhere else. Just like that.

Producing content is also too easy. Anyone can do it and anyone will. The media companies have very limited resources compared to the number of citizens so the odds are that someone else will be the producer of the content.

The only way to win this is to aim to be the company that people turn to when they need content. It does not matter what the source of the content is. It does not matter who got it first. What matters is who the consumers are going to turn to when they need their daily dose.

The biggest problem the media companies currently have is that their income model is based on volume. The larger the audience, the larger the bill they can send advertisers. The problem is that there is no way you can build a relationship with, let’s say, 50 000 people at a time. Building relationships is a one-on-one thing.

The second problem is that the media companies have their content stuck in internal organizational silos. If one part of the company has produced content, there is no way any other part of the company can publish the content. But digital does not work that way. Consumers are not stuck to one or two sources of content. Consumers are hopping, skipping and jumping to any place where they can get the content they want.

So, the first step for media companies is to figure out how they can start charging for the quality of the contacts they have and not the quantity. The second step is to take down any internal barriers that might hinder the flow of content from one part of the company to the other.

Then they can start thinking about building relationships. Then they can start thinking about how to deliver relevant content in a timely fashion to each and every one of their contacts. It might not even matter if you are the fastest or not. What matters is providing the content your customer wants when he wants it.

Dagens Nyheter has a nice approach to building relationships. Actually, I really hope they see their approach as building relationships and not just another way to mass distribute their content. What they have done is team up with Nokia to provide their content via a special edition Dagens Nyheter mobile phone.

I can not imagine anything more exiting. Dagens Nyheter will know exactly who their customers are and what kind of news they prefer. And the best thing: they know exactly which ads are working for which customer. Serving relevant content AND ads. Now, that is the start of a beautiful relationship.

I will be the first to subscribe when a media company offers a Kindle-type device as one of their subscription options. I will gladly pay a monthly fee for the device and get my content free. Or am I paying for the content and getting the device for free? It really does not matter. What matters is that I am getting the content that I want and the media company is getting paid for it.