Mediagazer has compiled a list of the top 100 sites covering, well, the media.
I’ll skip the riff arguing that the site should have been called “Navel gazer” and write instead about the incredible fragmentation evident in the top 100 list. The largest referring site, the New York Times, captured less than five percent of the market. Only the top 24 picked up more than a single percentage point.
On the one hand, this is not surprising. Worldwide, literally thousands of media options compete for time, attention and share of mind. With so many options, demand can get spread around pretty easily.
To me, the fragmented market signals at least two realities of the evolving media landscape. The first: a market spread this thin is beyond “one size no longer fits all”; it’s a smorgasbord at which we each choose our information meal.
The second: the cost and complexity of covering the waterfront, already high, may become prohibitively so. This may drive the rate at which less expensive, viral marketing tools are tried and adopted.
Admittedly, the aggregation of traffic across web sites ignores the potential concentration across geographic or industry segments. Of course, if relevance is a brand attribute, border-less coverage may become a third reality.
