Over the past 20 years, a handful of trends have coalesced and taken the media world by storm. How does one survive, let alone thrive?

As 2025 will mark YouTube (& WatchMojo’s) 20 year anniversary, online video has come a long way. Here are the main Trends & Patterns in media, namely video.

The four trends that we have witnessed over the past 20 years have now come together and created an environment where media is more challenging than ever, now propelled faster due to a disruptive fifth one.

1) the professionalization of UGC: When in 2006 Time magazine chose “you” as the Person of the Year to reflect the growing popularity and importance of user-generated content, or UGC, the jury was out whether or not this would actually pan out. But with Apple’s launch of the iPhone, it set off a revolution whereby anyone with mobile recording and editing equipment is a producer, and the quality between professionally produced content and user created content is not discernible.

2) the democratization of distribution: When Sumner Redstone said that content is king, he meant that with new distribution platforms came new ways to monetize content. This was more accurate when gatekeepers controlled Hollywood. Then, a media company leveraged distribution to launch new publications; today audiences do not care about those relationships and choose editorial voices based on categories & POVs that appeal to them. Zero synergies to cross promote/sell new publishing brands.

3) the rise of programmatic advertising: One of the greatest moats media companies held was in their relationships with marketers. Time could ask American Airlines if they wanted to sponsor and underwrite the launch of Travel & Leisure, and so on. Today, advertisers will reach audiences anywhere, the power of a publisher to serve as a gateway to a possible consumer is nil. Data won, audience analytics (& not a publishers’ brand or relationships with marketers) matter most.

4) AI as an efficiency tool will be helpful, but for any existing organization with practices & processes, existing brands & audiences, it will face some resistance. That said, AI will push the boundaries of storytelling like nothing before it. But, again, this is all hyperbole until you can create the programming and build distribution to create the business.

Why & how media franchises are built these days.

The patterns of which consumer media brands have gained popularity and success, it’s pretty clear that successful Media Franchises are serendipitous and the overnight successes are 10 years in the making. In the past, media companies could “moneyball” their way to success. Today, the patience, diligence, attention to details – and mainly, authenticity – with regards to content creation, community building etc. isn’t something media companies can just plan and launch.

Successful media franchises over the past 20 years include:
– First We Feast’s Hot Ones (Complex).
– Barstool Sports.
– Joe Rogan Experience.
– Acquired podcast.
– Lex Friedman podcast.
– Famous Birthdays.
– Dude Perfect
– WatchMojo
– Mr Beast
– Dhar Mann
– Ms. Rachel, etc.

Media companies retain massive resources, people, brands, relationships, but the window for them to build dominant brands is closing.