Guardian Media Top 100 joins other studies of Dinosaurs....

Following on from the shock that a schoolboy intern at Morgan Stanley is causing the Meedja industry (see below) it seems only right to point out that the Guardian's article on the "Top 100 Movers and Shakers" in the Meedja is probably also a study of a world of large beasts soon before a major extinction.

There are about 10 "Digital Meedja" people in the list, (it even has one blogger, and also oddly a business card printer in this group) but the rest is basically a recitation of Big Media positional power seats, even as many of those positions are tottering as their underlying businesses crumble, as the small, furry, digital mammals of tomorrow's industry burrow away at their foundations.

But then it was put together by a committee - to quote "A panel of experienced media watchers from the worlds of politics, journalism, advertising and the internet judged entrants using three criteria: cultural influence, economic clout and political power of all candidates". Personally I'd have preferred a prediction market, committees being what they are

I'd bet if they went with a Wisdom of Crowds effort they'd get a totally different answer

Funnily enough, I know something of what I speak (for a change, I hear you cry ). The talk I gave at the Media Futures conference was directly on this topic, and how the Meedja is entering a 3-5 year "Creative Destruction" period which promises to shake it to its core. We have actually done quite a lot of research and scenario planning on this (that is an in-post plug for our services, by the way) but the diagram above illustrates the point. We are moving into Pirate World, where freebooters and cut-throats of every ilk will be busy dismembering these large cumbersome beasties. And I don't just mean Olde Media - Web 1.0 companies are also under threat, as Google is finding with its core search market coming under attack.

Just as with the 15 year old Morgan Stanley analyst's work, the data is all out there - you just have to look at it without due prejudice or undue preconceived opinion. It is, as they say, what it is.

Here's a prediction - that over the next 3 years, the changes in this landscape will be the most momentous that the Media industry has ever seen, and that - let me put a number on it - about 2/3rds - of these people won't be here in 2012 (more if the BBC loses its special funding streams). Inclusion in this list may well be akin to being featured as a Great Company in "In Search of Excellence" (most hit the skids within a few years of the book coming out)