Here’s a word you hear a lot these days – content.  People talk about new media content and web content and old media content, and talk about how important content is, about free content and paid content.  They talk about it like it’s all one big thing, one big pile of content that you can dribble over here or scatter over there.

But all content isn’t the same, is it?  I mean, it’s like food.  There are lots of things in the world that can technically be considered food, but most of them you wouldn’t want to put in your mouth.  And there are lots of things on the web that can technically be called content, but you wouldn’t want to watch it.

Look if someone you don’t know came up to you on the street and said, “hey, here’s a free turkey sandwich I made.  Go ahead.  Eat it.”  You might, you know, hesitate.  Because although everybody loves free stuff, there are limits. 

Still: people like to talk  about “content” – how to monetize it and distribute it and aggregate it.
 
But nobody bothers to talk about what, exactly, it is.  News is different from comedy which is different from porn which is different from wikipedia.  I’m not sure the audience is ever that indifferent to what’s appearing on the screen.  And if the audience cares, then the advertisers care.
 
Whenever I hear people fuzz-tone or blur a distinction like that, or use a vague word like content, I can’t help but think they’re subliminally trying to make a really big problem disappear. 

You know, just, you know, get some content and….First, get some great content which will drive traffic.  Then, monetize it and….Content is key, we know that, so we’re going to get really great content….User Generated Content really is a great content solution to getting great content…Monetizing content is really about distributing content and then getting more really great content.
 
I’ve been in the content business for 17 years.  It’s really really really hard.  And I have the proof right here.