Why All Media Soon Must Be Social

[Commentary] Three basic truths about the new media landscape:

1) Communities are the villages, towns and cities of the web.

2) Communities need news and they thrive on it. If you want to grow a community, feed it specialized news.

3) News needs communities to serve. If you want to grow a news operation, make sure it serves one or more niche communities.

As all content -- books, magazines, TV, radio -- migrates to the web, all media (with news and current affairs content leading the way) will rapidly turn social. Every community's need for (and ability to generate) specialized news is driving the explosion of so-called social media, which, in turn, is helping to wreck the old business models of the news business. To work in social media, journalists will need to understand how to serve niche communities, while marketers will need to understand how to nurture communities by providing real, valuable news. The rise of online communities is forcing news and marketing closer and closer to one another.