Good morning!

The Medium delivers in-depth analyses of the media marketplace’s transformation as creators, tech companies and 10 million emerging advertisers revolutionize the business models for “premium content”.

Each fiscal quarter, The Medium identifies three or four new trends that have momentum and seem poised to play out at a larger scale in 2023. These key trends pinpoint dynamic and constantly evolving developments in the media marketplace that are emerging from incremental shifts or fundamental changes. The bi-weekly mailings analyze these trends as developments emerge in real-time. 

Read the three key trends The Medium will be focused on in Q4 2023. This essay focuses on "In the shift from wholesale to retail models, there are many business models that delight consumers but no single, dominant one."

[Author's Note: Today's mailing is late for two reasons. First, I am still feeling under the weather. Second, I will be testing different mailing times and frequencies for the rest of 2023. Any and all feedback from paid and free subscribers is encouraged and welcome!]

There was a good article last week in IndieWire on the growing significance of April 8th, 2024. That is the date when U.S. tax law permits Warner Bros. Discovery to sell off any unwanted assets from the merger with WarnerMedia without incurring tax obligations on the gains from those sales. The article speculates about the traditional financial and regulatory reasons why mergers may or may not happen between legacy media companies.

Last Thursday’s essay “Disney, MGM Resorts, Flywheels, Brands & Changing Customer Demand” offered two additional lenses that the article does not consider that are worth discussion. The first is whether any M&A transaction can deliver a more consumer-savvy outcome and improve the strength of the consumer relationship with a brand. The second is whether any M&A transaction can solve for tech-savvy and deliver more consumer-centric products.

Key Takeaway

After April 8 2024, it is hard to imagine how mergers across any legacy media companies will result in a more agile consumer-savvy model like Universal’s with gaming IP, or a more agile tech-savvy model like EA’s or DraftKings or even Netflix where “the heart and soul of the organization is product and technology.”

Total words: 1,300

Total time reading: 5 minutes