You Don't Know Schmidt About Magazines

[via JackMyers.com]

Google's Eric Schmidt's spoke to attendees of the American Magazine Conference about why he believed the "high quality content" of branded magazines was desperately needed online:

"There is a danger", Schmidt exclaimed, of the Internet “becoming a cesspool...in a world of disinformation, which is the future, brands are the solution. Brand affinity is hard wired and fundamental to the human condition – who you trust and who you don’t. People want real value, real information, real leadership and messages of hope."

I believe him, because while YOU may still not have found what you're looking for, Schmidt KNOWS what you look for every day.  And exactly how much it's worth.  And YouTube just passed Yahoo in terms of daily searches?  Jeepers.  I swear I only look for funny cat videos and Hifana joints:

Comments

[Ethan Bauley]

Mr. Schmidt's quote is truly "epic", as the kids say.

Oh, the irony: as much as social media has destroyed the economic rational for brands...

http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/02/the_shrinking_advantage_of_bra_1.html

...new brands built from reliable, trustworthy, machine-aided human contact will save us from information hell.

PageRank is good, but we'll need a lot more help constructing what I'd call a "perfectly rationale market for information"...

(Your post re: "truthiness" was hitting on that, too)

What's most interesting to me is charting how specific firms will influence the information markets relevant to them...

Does it behoove a shoe maker to be the most trusted information source about shoes?

Answering that question might go a lot longer towards figuring out what business said firm is actually in...

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=99205

...than figuring out a sales strategy in an age of reverse markets:

http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2008/03/shift-happens-t.html"

...but it's still a useful question in my opinion ;-)

Thanks for another killer reference! Priceless...