Online Video Is Getting Hotter

As I predicted in my post last December, online video continues to heat up as a key topic for publishers. The February issue of BtoB Media Business has a feature article on video, “Focus on Online Video: Publishers Get Ready for Surge” (although funny enough it’s the one article they left off of their web site from the February issue). Similarly, Publishing Executive also has a feature story on video in the February issue, “2007: The Online Video Era“. The story evens contains a photo of a really sharp looking emedia guy (at least my wife thinks so … thanks sweetie).

I’ve talked with a lot of publishers who are getting into online video or want to get into it soon. It has the same buzz in media circles that vertical search did last year. I was never a big fan of vertical search as a business model (with the exception of normalized databases like Globalspec, ThomasNet, etc.), but I’m much more hip on video as a viable business model for all kinds of publishers: consumer, enthusiast, news, and B2B. Quite a few publishers are adding video programming to their mix, but few have developed long-term sustainable and profitable business models. The articles mentions a couple publishers who have found the right combination including Forbes and, yes, Penton.

Four thoughts that I want to leave you with:

• Online video is here to stay in publishing and it’s only going to get hotter. Get in now while you can.
• Online video will indeed be a sustainable revenue stream, and it won’t be just one business model. There will be a wide variety of business models that can work. It will depend on the dynamics of each market.
• Online video is NOT as hard nor as expensive as you think it is. You CAN do this with just a little homework.
• You can bet I’ll have a lot more to say about this over the coming months!