Media mogul Lew Dickey on the future of media

Larry King: I started in radio in 1957. Then it was radio, then it was satellite radio, then it was television, and cable television, and then around the world cable, and now the Internet. Where’s this all going? You call it the new, modern media.

Lew Dickey: I called it the new modern media because we have as you just outlined legacy media, and then new media which was digital when it first came on. And I believe that the two ecosystems, because they really do operate independently today, one has been disrupting the other, and I believe that over time, really over the next decade, those two ecosystems are going to come together and create simply one. It will in essence be legacy content with digital distribution. And so those two will merge and become one.

Larry King: And how does this affect Joe Smith in Pittsburgh watching?

Lew Dickey: Well Joe Smith in Pittsburgh is going to be the beneficiary of this. And so, one of the key things that’s going to help, going to help really consumers today is they’re going to have a great deal more choice. There’s a great parallel with retail and media, and secondarily with financial services. But on retail, think about how much choice you have today to go online and shop. So I talk about the four Cs in the book, but you really do. You’re connected, you have convenience, you have choice, and cost. And so those in retail, you can go online shop for anything. You can comparison shop so many more goods and services are available to you online than ever were before. Same thing on media. Think of content as just another product. And now all content, in essence, has been disaggregated from bundles. So we’re used to having albums, Apple started this in the early days, you now have individual songs. We used to have a newspaper full of stories or a magazine full of stories, you now have individual stories. And you can have those brought to you on demand, on your smart phone, curated is the fancy word they all use, but in essence tailored to exactly what your tastes are.

Larry King: All is created by technology, right?

Lew Dickey: All by technology. Absolutely. And so it’s going to be more content, and cheaper for the consumers.

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