Jared Grusd, '00: How Digital Publishing is Evolving for the Future

As the future continues its armageddon through entire industries, I’m reminded of legacy industries that have been shattered, broken, and recreated. T. As I think back to the days of my family going to a store to rent our Friday night movie, I never knew until now that in the year 2000, a young 40-year-old, Reed Hastings, founder of Netflix, attempted to pitch Blockbuster on the future of video. I think their internal battle to find effective leadership and a business model driven by late fees blinded them on actually “hearing” Mr. Hastings, and for lack of better words, Blockbuster forgot where they came from and what business they were in. The young disrupter surpassed the innovator, and now Netflix is $70 billion company.

The news and journalism industry is another legacy player that has been at war for the world’s attention through the dissemination of content ever since blogging and social media emerged. The battle is no longer just with other publications, but it’s also with individual independent bloggers who are building their own brands and viewership. The independent bloggers are making a march across the internet dispersing their authenticity in exchange for viral engagement, and it’s working. Some publishers have fallen by the wayside as they have intentionally created disingenuous content for clicks and redirects. Readership is in a generational shift, and the industry is three clicks from the climax on the roller coaster to the next phase of the future. In 2005, Huffington Post launched publicly and helped to generate the winds that have now become the forceful storm that is digital publishing.

Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richwinley/2017/06/15/huffpost-ceo-jared-g…