Web first or digital first?

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Time to dabble in a question that some might contend is purely semantics.  To them, I disagree and offer the following as my rationale.

Chuck Peters (@cpetersia) shared a post from Dan Conover (@xarker) with some fantastic commentary and insight into the new media.  It is a good investment of time and I applaud Dan for his effort (hey, it’s a lengthy post, full of ripe mental fruit, so he deserves KUDOS for the time it took to put it together).  Early on in the post, the question of transforming from a print-first paradigm to web-first.  I bet Dan has a few spears thrown at him, but he was spot on with his take…except for one upon which I wanted to expound.  Before I start, I offer credit to Dan for answering the question in the language as it was posed to him.

Print-first to web-first is “tricky” as Dan notes.  Is web-first, though, really where the new media needs to be headed?  Put it this way: all that question really addresses is how media companies can retool themselves to fully adopt and succeed in a realm that has existed for over 2 decades.  Dwell upon that for a minute.  We are not talking about media companies creating new frontiers or even positioning themselves to rapidly exploit new frontiers as they might emerge.  No, this is just how do they catch up our internal organization and processes in order to utilize the web (which is usually seen by media as a highly branded, strongly controlled presence).  Play along with me on this and turn the clock forward a bit (pick your own time frame).  If we define the web by way of the general behavior of packaged pieces of content on strongly branded, pre-existing, media-owned sites, imagine a future where consumption of content is not tied to that definition.  The consumer is out there with a variety of tools that allow them to get at content in a more ubiquitous nature and target specific content items based on semantic grounds vice engaging by way of brands.  Just imagine that!  Uh, stop imagining and look around you – RSS, feeds, social networking, etc.  Sure, this might just be about individual and organization definitions of “web” and I will concede that point at the risk of sounding Clinton-esque.  A strict adherence to web-first may just end up painting some media companies into a new corner.  Retool yourself so well and so rigidly and it is conceivable that a media company could find themselves as ill-prepared to leverage new engagement environments as they are to engage the web now.  Web-first is okay for now, but the gold standard will be to ensure that the creation of content is primarily a digital-first mindset with the most package agnostic characteristics possible.  Commit to that and you can chase web-first as your calling card all day long.  Then, when the “web” (in its current relatively static sense) is eclipsed, the only large adjustments needed should be on the packaging end of things.

I submit digital first is the higher, more necessary and most useful science in this discussion.  For those who feel this was just a matter of semantics…thanks for agreeing with me!