Traditionally, these have been the barriers to media entrance: cost, content, audience. Broadband has weakened those barriers in terms of cost and audience, but content, as always, drives the final bargain. But when under-the-radar Mochila officially launches its AdMatch Player next week at Ad:Tech, the final barrier is effectively breached.
Add his resume to those who help build the online presences of GE, Delta, FedEx, Sony, Toyota, and Disney, and you have a pedigree that commands attention.
Mochila touts itself as the first iTunes-like media market, where magazine, newspaper and web-generated print, photo, audio, and video content are bought and sold on an a-la-carte basis.
A la carte should get your attention if you’ve been in the publishing business since before the Internet, when Associated Press subscriptions were thicker than the bottom line used to pay for them.
“If you’re a small or medium website,” McAllister told Murdok, “it doesn’t make sense to subscribe to AP.” The expense and scope are the biggest drawbacks. But if articles are sold individually, or given away with advertising, content suddenly becomes easier to gather.
The AdMatch Player will add video news content (from places you may have heard of: the AP; ESPN; MSNBC; CNet) to Mochila’s already available syndicated text and photo content. In total, McAllister says Mochila’s roster of 365 media partners, which includes Hearst, New York magazine, the L.A. Times and Washington Post, is growing by about 10 percent weekly.
A quick rundown of how Mochila works: Content producers upload articles, images, audio, or videos to the network and set pricing for each unit of content. Publishers can search for topical content on the network and purchase it piece by piece to suit their needs. If the publisher agrees to take accompanying advertising, then the content is free. Publishers, producers and Mochila split the ad revenue three ways.
The significance behind an offering like this is, according to McAllister, is that small and medium-sized publishers have access to content they previously would have had to pay dearly for. With pre-packaged content and advertising, there is little that stands in the way of an aspiring media mogul.
AdMatch, the video player Mochila will launch next week, can be embedded to a website similar to the code used on YouTube. With the video are ads delivered via 24/7 Real Media, Quigo and Tacoda.
“Consumers now expect to be able to consume content any time and anywhere they want,” said McAllister. “The problem is the supply chain is still stuck in the old media model. We’re helping the media transform the media supply chain. We’re also making it possible for the little guy to get content from the media guy.”
McAllister also said that anyone can apply to be included as a publisher in Mochila’s network, as long as they seem to be a legitimate news organization, regardless of size.
There’s good news for freelance producers on the horizon as well. Mochila plans to launch a program in mid-summer that allows independent writers and photographers to sell they’re product via a separate publishing network.
