American voters ousted the Dems from the House of Representatives in the 2010 midterm elections. 62 percent of American voters declared the dire state of the U.S. economy their main concern. This defeat for the Democratic Obama government was only paralleled at the end of the Great Depression. F.D. Roosevelt’s Dems then lost 71 House seats in the November 1938 elections.

The old-media world of newspapers, magazines, radio stations and television networks has a daunting task ahead of it. New-media upstarts like internet TV, social networking, mash-ups, web stores and online gaming—with their ability to stream content direct to smart phones, tablets, e-readers, laptops and game consoles—have begun to eat the green-eyeshade brigade’s breakfast, lunch and tea. At last week’s Digital Hollywood meeting in Santa Monica, California, the question on a lot of people’s lips was how to fight back.

A recurring theme was “beyond content”. By that, the gathering of film, broadcasting and entertainment executives meant how to turn the current threat to their livelihoods into a solution for at least survival, if not runaway success. All agreed that, apart from getting their content online in the best shape possible, they needed to move much further downstream in marketing terms. In short, they should start offering services—beyond content—that add to their audience’s experience and satisfaction.

Source: The Economist

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