The Media Landscape: From Showtime to Screen Time

The media landscape is changing quite rapidly. Many users spend most of their waking hours online and consume more content than ever, which they can reach through a great variety of devices — often using more than one simultaneously. They can be entertained and informed in multiple ways. Media companies struggle to define their strategies; some integrate forward, trying to reach customers directly, while others focus on content and attempt to widen their audience by using as many distribution channels as possible.

We have tried to understand the situation of the industry through the eyes of the executives who manage the companies in the ecosystem. We interviewed 26 top executives from media companies, those people that “make it happen” in the industry. Some agreed to be cited by name, and we did so when authorized, while others preferred to remain anonymous, in which case we respected their wishes. When we cannot cite by name in this text, their quotes reference their role and the type of company they work for, such as “executive from a leading digital news portal.” In any case, the understanding of the industry reported in this paper stems directly from the ideas conveyed by these executives, explicitly cited or not, who volunteered their time for the interviews.

We have complemented the executives’ views with data available from published sources and our own understanding, developed from working with media executives in the Media AMP program, the Digital Mindset focused program and a number of custom programs for media companies we run at IESE Business School in our Barcelona and New York campuses.