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By Daniel Lagani
I've always liked music and technology, so I was struck on several levels the other day when I heard the Police’s “Too Much Information” while listening to Pandora. First, I had to get over the fact that the song was nearly 30 years old—and that I actually bought the album on vinyl (Ghost in the Machine) when it came out in 1981. After I got past my age issues, what really struck me was how relevant the lyrics are today:
"Too much information driving me insane...Too much information running through my brain..."
It captured exactly how I'm feeling lately—where not a day goes by that I don't stumble across a new Web site, iPhone app, blog, e-newsletter, magazine, Twitter feed or TV show and where I don't feel worn out by simply trying to keep up with it all. What started back in 1440, when Gutenberg invented the "modern" printing press—and really took off with the digital age—shows no signs of slowing. There is simply too much information out there. Just look at the results from a couple of recent searches I did:
- “Golf Rain Gear”: 34.6 million matches
- “Hawaiian Vacations”: 21.3 million matches
- “What's Wrong with A-Rod?”: 13 million ( I'm surprised this one was so small...)
- “Labrador Retriever Training Tips”: 644,000
- “Target Cholesterol Levels”: 570,000
- “Investment Diversification Strategies”: 390,000
- “Tomato Plant Fertilizer”: 246,000
Beyond noticing the strange brew of topics that interest me, the results make a couple of things clear. In a world of too much information, information is no longer power—insight is. It's also clear that the future holds huge opportunities for brands and companies that sift through the mess for us to offer meaningful, credible insights.
Certainly, you can find insight in traditional and still-powerful forms, such as op-ed pieces from the likes of Thomas Friedman of the New York Times. His knack for simplifying the most complex and heavily reported issues in the world makes him a must read for millions. And there are brands like Mediapost, which in addition to original content about the media business curates the day's top stories from a wide array of outside sources, providing a time-saving, simplifying approach to staying current.
Perhaps the most interesting experiment right now is what Tina Brown is doing at The Daily Beast. The tagline "Read This. Skip That" sets the tone for the brand mission to "sift, sort and curate" from among the most interesting stories that the editors have seen and read elsewhere on the Web. Its design is smart and easy to navigate. Center column features like “Cheat Sheet—Must Reads From All Over” are supplemented with original pieces from well-known experts offering insights into some of the day’s big stories. The Daily Beast approach is also more appealing than a product like Google News, which lacks both design and the sense of voice or insight that differentiates curation from aggregation—shortcomings that seem to amplify the information overload issue.
The jury is still out as to whether The Daily Beast will prove to be a profitable business, but no doubt they're onto something powerful that we're likely to see more of in the future—brands built on mixing content creation with a heavy dose of content curation to create an informative, simple and insightful user experience. It's a model that will likely be replicated across multiple categories from general news to special interest subjects. It may also be one of the best opportunities for traditional content companies to reinvent their business models. Just think what you would be willing to pay a trusted resource to wade into "cesspool"—Eric Schmidt’s one-word description of the Internet—for you to deliver simple, useful insights on the topics that mattered most to you.
Most recently, Dan Lagani served as president of the Fairchild Fashion Group, overseeing media brands including WWD, WWDMen’s and WWD.com; Footwear News; Fairchild Summits, Books and Classifieds; and Fashioncareers.com.
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