TechYob

There has been a lot of hype about the struggle between new and old media in the Australian and International press lately.  In the weekend edition of the Australian Financial Review, the favourited breakfast reading of yours truely, was an article about traditional media failing to understand the new wave of consumer-generated content businesses. 

They obviously overlooked Girlfriend - the Australian teenie girl magazine with circulation circa 150k.  They not only understand Gen Next, they own it.  They tout that they are Australia’s number one web property for women, and I believe it. 

They are a great example of using your customers to build the value of your assets. Through online interaction, their readers get to decide what colour the next issue is, vote on who appears as the cover girl, contribute stories and meet friends on line.  Seth Godin would be proud. 

Keep an eye out for businesses such as Melbourne’s RedBubble that enable people to take their online creations to an offline world.   

Update: Techcrunch posts about JPG Magazine which turns user uploaded photos into print.  Just the beginning in a long line of cross-over plays by my reckoning.