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.

Earlier in my marketing career it was drummed into me that one of the hardest things to change is consumer behaviour. How to get customers to switch from one product, brand, service provider or media outlet to another was seen as a challenge that you either feared or relished – but few achieved. Since the advent of the Internet it’s become increasingly evident how through its power to inform and share it has shifted control more to customers and hence the game of marketing change has entered a new era.

Remember 1999?  That rather wonderful moment when the advent of the web made everything possible and shattered the key economic principle that a business needed a revenue model to sustain itself?  And, of course, the promise to all of us that it would deliver fewer working hours, greater information and access to riches.  
 
The future gazing of 1999 confirmed one thing. Predictions are a mugs game and a really special kind of mugs game where technological advancement is driving change so very quickly.
 

In recent months I've been following the rise of content farms , a topic that a few journalists are starting to write about, but one that is already having a huge impact on the web.  These companies are churning out literally thousands of pieces of content every week.  In fact Demand Media - one of the leading companies in this space - is pumping out 4,000 new pieces of content every day -

The pace of change in the Internet over the past 10 years has been stunning. Who could have foreseen the massive uptake of search, social networking and e-commerce, which have truly transformed the way we conduct our business and personal lives?

What is even more striking is that this pace of change is not slowing down. Who knows what we'll see over the next decade. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say we'll see even more personalized and targeted use of the Internet in our business and private lives.

The moment I read Nicolas Negroponte's book 'Being Digital' in the mid nineties, was the moment that my ambitions and expectations skyrocketed in a blur of ones and zeros. Ironically I went down the digital technology path from a broadcasting perspective, looking at video on demand and complementary services such as electronic programme guides etc. A decade later and that initial vision of digital television has become commonplace.