The wake-up call for lifestyle media

Consumer lifestyle media companies in magazine publishing and cable broadcasting are realizing that for some time now Google, Yahoo, eBay and Amazon have been snapping up early stage companies to gain affinity among what traditionally has been the emerging audiences sought by the media companies. They now know that their next generation online properties can not simply be media storytelling sites. And they can not simply add the basics of community. They must fulfill more of the audiences' needs and desires for the optimal digital lifestyle. They must sell real stuff to help their audiences.

Last month I was at the University of Missouri Journalism School and its New Media Research Institute as one of 10 current and former owners of advertising agencies. The summit focused on the place of advertisers and advertising for the next generation online communities from media companies. In lifestyle media, one question I'm exploring with lifestyle media companies is how multiple advertisers can beam messages to viewers when the executable Web is going to reduce or even eliminate the 'paginess' of the viewing experience. Stay tuned for more.