Is the company's new app-generation scheme schmaltzy or savvy?
Kutcher: Media Turning Back Over to Consumers
With 3M followers, Kutcher has tried to seize on the social trend and bring TV, feature film and digital content together.
Related
Slideshow
Through the years, Playboy has managed to attract some top flight talent to appear in the all-together. So in honor of the Bunny's half-century milestone, TheWrap takes a look at some of the top celebrities who have taken a turn as Playboy cover girls -- from sultry sirens such as Pamela Anderson to funny girls like Marge Simpson, with a mercifully short stop-off at the truly frightening. (Sorry LaToya!)
The focus moved to Twitter at the Fortune Brainstorm Tech Conference as Ashton Kutcher, who has nearly 3 million followers on the social network, extolled the many uses of the site -- from philanthropic projects to political campaigns to promoting a movie.
Still, Kutcher did also manage to go beyond the barrage of Twitter questions to note how the site embodies a far greater trend -- the emergence of digital media and the imminent dominance of the consumer as a content creator.
“We’re turning media back over to the consumers of the media,” he said. “They are becoming the creators of the media and the editors of the media. Through that collaboration that is existing on the web, that has and will forever change media."
Kutcher has tried to seize on this trend with his company, Katalyst Media, which has divisions for TV, feature film and digital content. Though technically separate divisions, Kutcher emphasizes the overlap between them and tries to find ways to bring them together.
“We’ve been able to successfully produce content in other environments,” Kutcher said. “We can produce it on the web and cross that over -- web content becomes TV content, and TV content becomes web content.”
Echoing IAC Chairman Barry Diller, who spoke earlier in the morning, Kutcher said that this convergence was furthering the decline of traditional advertising -- or in the case of the web, display advertising.
“People who have grown up on the internet have trained themselves to not really see it, remember it or retain it,” he said.
Others suffering from the transition to digital include Kutcher and his colleagues -- the movie stars. “You can make good content for $3 or $5,000 and not pay movie stars,” he said. “They are not going to be able to demand the fees that they get and will become less and less relevant.”
Kutcher, whose acting career has suffered of late, found increasing relevance through Twitter, where he has more followers than CNN.
RELATED FORTUNE COVERAGE:
DW's Jeffrey Katzenberg: Silicon Valley & Hollywood Are Married Already
Tim Armstrong: AOL and premium content can find the way ahead
Disney's Bob Iger: People will pay for web content
NBC's Ben Silverman: NBC fall ad inventory way down.
Comments
RITA PERRINI Says
I saw you on Fox Friday night and see that you cover business as well as
show biz.
Have you seen Morgan Stanley's beautiful ad?? But did you know that they are
not beautiful// My husband and I are seniors. He was very ill which prompted me
to go through our strong box of papers. I found a check for $18,500 dated
October 1991. He tucked this away and doesn't remember anything about it.
It is from an Dean Witter account we had (they are now Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Our attorney said to go to our local office with check in hand and
say "this is a stale dated check, reissue a new one." I did this and they
confirmed the account was closed and a stop payment was issued.
I said show be the back up documents. Either you have our money OR not.
They said it probably was burned in 911.
I said if records are available to prove there is an account, then you should have the correct paper work to show us what developed in 1991.
We could surely use that money, with my husband's medical bills.
In the 1970s, we had a family business for 25 years and had back up customer invoices copied, kept in files every day and then kept it in steel cabinets in our garage. (marked with the date.)
I sent certified letters to three executives at 1585 Broadway 40th Floor,
one to Andy Wildauer in Utah, one to Erik Haggstrom in Jersey City
I researched Morgan Stanley and they are famous for holding back clients
files and paperwork. The made the SEC wait almost two years to address
compliance requirements and furnishing SEC with records. They were fined
15 million. Just google a question about this firm, you won't believe how
I don't have two years. Is there anything you could maybe publish on this
I will forward you the letter the sent me stating, the executives have to review,
it has gone to a research department, the analysis is be performed.
I feel I am getting the run around. And to matters worse, my attorney said
it is an interest bearing account.
The attorney said filing a law suit will take up to two to three years before
it is heard, and filing with SEC will take longer. He said keep writing, so
I am, but don't have much hope.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Rita Perrini
ALex Says
The future. I don't see people sitting around the computers and twitter pages forever. Sooner or later they'll be sitting in front of a computer at their job or school and even the young will say 'Wow, this is boring, we need to get our lives back.'
Jan Simmonds Says
I wrote this a while back but it is proving increasingly relevant!
http://blog.famebook.com/famebook/2009/03/twitter-breaks-down-the-wall-b...