With the explosion of digital channels and new platforms media companies have their work cut out for them. It's increasingly hard to stay in touch with audiences, readers and subscribers in a digital media world. I, for one, cannot stay on top of my various log-in details per site, magazine, pay-tv, social, and mobile and tablet applications. As an avid consumer of media, with so many passwords, usernames, profiles and personas, I'm starting to feel schizophrenic. That's without considering the cookie trail I've left in my wake as I consume media vignettes between my daily commute, over a hasty lunch and while poorly multi-tasking in the evenings at home. Have we all become like Jim Carrey in The Mask when it comes to digital media? Somebody stop me!

In my previous blog post I touched on the advent of the EC Directive, or “Cookie Directive”, and how proper customer engagement and data management will have to be core to anyone who's serious about digital. In the marketplace, most of this attention is focussed on the advertisers or buy-side of the equation. Advertisers have increasingly advanced demand-side platforms and technologies, from Ad Words to Ad Exchanges to Agency Trading Desks, with which to manage their campaigns.

Beyond all these technical and legislative dynamics of the industry, there's a customer experience that seems to be neglected at the altar of real time media and data management. This neglect lies squarely between publications and their customers and the perceived value of each to the other.

The truth for most media companies are that they're grappling with new platforms (such as mobile and tablets) and new formats (such as video, apps, social and other rich media), combined with a changing value chain between content providers, licensees and syndication partners. This is especially true against the backdrop of audiences moving from placid consumers of media to an active community who wants to Like, +1, tweet, comment and contribute to the content.

The traditional audience or reader is now editor and curator of their own digital world, using social media (Tweets and Blogs) and sharing tools such as Instapaper, Flipboard and Readability. Just in the last few days and months we've seen the launch of a revamped Twitter which aims to be more accessible. We've already seen how Twitter can drive and influence news in 2011, but this revamp aims to make Twitter even more mainstream in the future. Google's Currents is their latest attempt at a news aggregator, although for now it is only available in the US. Then there's Apple's Newsstand which seems to be giving traditional publications' apps a boost. No wonder the basics of the customer experience and relationship management in the media world are overlooked – it's hard to keep-up...

They must keep up or else the loyal customers will not be with a specific media company, publication or title, but rather with a social community of peers and friends, who in turn provide them with content based on their recommendations or consumption patterns. It will be accessed on a device or platform of their choosing. Yes, it could likely be content originating from the same media companies, but the very nature of distribution and consumption is shifting. As such, media companies' approach to customer relationships also needs to radically shift.