Business, the Google, Sailing, Ad(s).

Fortune has an interesting article in this month’s issue about the future of reading.  A few industry experts lend their opinions on where things are going in the media world and what will become of companies like The New York Times and Tribune Co.  Many idealize the tablet, and much like a god-image, fantasize about their personalized ideal of what it may be.  Like a deity, they expect it to bring salvation. Others take a more rational approach — the world is changing and the tablet isn’t a savior.  I’ll take the beer goggle approach.

photo credit: hotcactuspepper

The Start Of The Microbrewery Revolution

The beer shake-up started around the 70s, when consumers started to revolt against the macrobreweries (Budweiser, Miller, Coors).  These companies produced, and continue to produce, very inoffensive and inexpensive beer. And as the big boys grew, they bought and consolidated their competitors, centralizing production, cutting costs, and providing the catalyst for revolt.  They followed the success of Coke and Pepsi — consolidation and uniformity were their selling points.

For many, there were few or no alternatives.  However, globalization and tourism increased the exposure of alternative beers.  “Why can’t I drink beer like the beer in Belgium?” consumers asked.  Grumblings began.  And technology stepped in to solve the problem — home-brew kits. Consumers, not driven by cost concerns, started to make their own beer.

The Growth Of The Market

Successful home-brewers started to expand.  Their friends liked their beer.  Their friends’ friends liked their beer.  “Could they start to sell this beer?” they wondered, and they gave it a try.  If you look at the big names in microbrewing — including Sprecher, Goose Island, Brooklyn — they all started around the same time.  The incubation of this idea happened across the country.

Fast forward a few decades and I can get Brooklyn Brewery beer in Chicago.  I can buy Colorado’s Fat Tire Amber Ale at the corner store.  And new guys keep entering the market — in Chicago we have Metropolitan Brewery along with Half Acre now challenging the incumbent micro, Goose Island.

The Macros Respond

The growth in this consumer-driven market is where the action is and the big boys want a piece too.  Budweiser released American Ale a few years ago to directly compete with microbrewery ales.  In addition to new products, the macros are reintroducing long-dead names like Schlitz and Stroh.  They’re making every attempt to appear de-centralized and non-homogenized.  They’re flooding the market with brands, because the future is no longer a single beer — it’s a beer for every palate and region.  It’s the wine model, not the cola model.

What Can The Media Industry Learn?

The media industry is going through a similar revolution.  The future was once a single, centralized news source, but that’s no longer the case.  Technology stepped in and unhappy consumers have mucked everything up.  Like a home-brewer making his own stout instead of buying Guinness, anybody with $100 and a free weekend can become a media entity on the internet.  The established companies don’t know how to respond.

One response is restricting content (tablets, apps, fee-based consuption) — and it’s a ridiculous idea as soon as you translate it into the beer equivalent — the Budweiser store experience, the only place you can enjoy the cool, crisp flavor of Bud Light, complete with specially-designed chairs and TVs to enhance the user experience.

Another response is to allow customization — tailor the CNN experience to fit YOU, send us your recipe and we’ll make your beer.  But in a sea of infinite choices, my ideal news and beer flavor already exists (and I probably don’t even know what I like).  The extreme example of this approach is to build a site entirely on the contributions of your readers — the Digg model.  Have something we should read?  Share it with the site’s community.  But social sites like Facebook and Twitter have taken the need for ‘community’ out of the equation.  I don’t need validation from faceless Digg readers; I can get that from my friends on Facebook.

The most promising is to de-centralize, or at least appear to de-centralize, so that you can more directly compete with your challengers — like the release of American Ale.  This seems to be the way to go.  AOL’s Engadget competes with both the NYT tech section and sites like BoyGeniusReport and Gizmodo.  Nobody is directly challenging a big player — there’s no New New York Times — the challengers are going after the weak points.  The Huffington Post is a great example: Your news not liberal enough?  Get it here.  Not conservative enough?  Try Fox.

So that’s my pick on the future — the wine model — a flavor for every palate.