Quality content that entertains, educates and brings value to the consumer is the way forward in a highly competitive environment, said Samantha Skey, President and chief revenue officer of SheKnows Media, the online platform that includes women-centric sites such as Blogher and HelloFlo.
Shortly after SheKnows Media was acquired by Penske Media Corp.—parent of WWD, Variety and Rolling Stone—Skey joined Velocitize Talks to discuss content quality, content with purpose and why brands should walk their talk about their values.
The Penske deal was a strategic move for the company, which was previously owned by venture capital investors. In a media environment where not all companies prioritize content, it made sense to be part of a company that is already immersed creating quality content, rather than focused on reach, clicks and returns, said Skey. “You can sometimes go too far down that path and you can not give credence and attention enough to the content you’re producing,” she said.
Media is faced with a trust issue that will have to be dealt with, but there is no easy answer to restore trust, said Skey. Social media platforms don’t produce their own content, only provide a platform “it’s a dramatic shift in publishing.” Since the platforms are hardly accountable for content, it falls on established publishers to leverage their advantage of producing trusted content, she said.
The lowered barriers to publishing have other, more positive attributes, allowing more people to produce purposeful content to build their brands and audiences, said Skey. But that also puts an onus on brands to do the same, and not just in their advertising, she said: “There is such transparency now that companies need to book their values” and brands must walk the their talk in all aspects of business.
Content production is “a hodgepodge right now” with multiple organizations all running “content labs.” Each group has its own strengths—publishers know their audiences, brands know their consumers and agencies know creativity—and quality will win out, said Skey.
Watch clips, interviews and more in our new Velocitize Talks section and join us in coming weeks as we share more interviews, insights and intelligence. Come back for videos and podcasts and check out our YouTube channel to see and share the full videos from Velocitize Talks.