MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit 2007

Somewhat belatedly (thanks to avalanche of day-job work) below is a distillation of my notes from last Thursday's MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit. Rather than summarise the whole conference (which would no doubt duplicate much of the Guardian's own blog coverage) I've picked out some of the key themes and stats. So, with a nod to John Crace, here is the MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit 2007 digested:

The 10 key themes

• We continue to overestimate the short-term impact of technologies whilst underestimating their long-term impact
• Underlying audience needs remain unchanged (information, entertainment and communication)
• Media companies need to focus on the impact of technologies on user behaviours rather than getting hung up on the potential of technologies
• 'Old media' has lost its stranglehold on distribution. In response, media companies need to work out what they do best/uniquely and focus on that, then form partnerships (with both amateurs and professionals) to do the other stuff
  
• Communities are not the same as audiences and require engagement not just eyeballs
• Editorship is important in the changing media space. Journalists will always be needed but the ones who will survive/thrive are those who actively listen to/engage with communities
• Young people don't care about brands/only care about brands (no consensus on this one)
• The industry's current approach to user-generated content and rights is to take down content if someone asks you to
• On-demand consumption of broadcast content won't overtake live consumption anytime soon, although on-demand listening/viewing will increase and live audiences will continue to decline
• Revenue models are still uncertain in the changing media space. What mix of ad-funded, subscription and free content will work best?

The 10 key stats

People invariably bandy stats around at conferences. Below are ten which caught my attention (with attribution).

• The Guardian's podcasts are generating 1 million downloads a month (Emily Bell)
• Reuters employs 2,400 journalists and has an estimated audience of 1 billion people each day (Geert Linnebank)
• Second Life has almost 5 million 'residents' (Justin Bovington)
• 25,000 businesses are trading within Second Life (Justin Bovington)
• The average age of Second Lifers is 33 (Justin Bovington)
• Habbo Hotel has 74 million player characters and 7 million unique users a month (Timo Soininen)
• 1 in 5 people surfing the Internet are listening to radio at the same time (James Cridland)
• 47% of mobiles sold in the UK in the last year have had an FM chip in them (Natalie Schwarz)
• Feedburner serves 21 million feeds to 14 million unique users each day (Steve Olechowski)
• Last.fm has 15 million unique users a month (Felix Miller)

The 10 key buzzwords

• engagement
• distribution
• content
  
• brand
• on-demand
  
• community
  
• blogging
• syndication
• "dead tree version" (i.e. printed)
• multi-platform
  

The 10 key namechecks

• Second Life
• The Guardian
  
• Twitter
• Google
• YouTube
• BBC
• Channel 4
• Sky
• Reuters
• BT