I can’t remember the last time I purchased a physical newspaper.
I’ve read newspapers when they’re lying around at a cafe or the hotel drops them in off in front of my room.
I also can’t remember the last time I purchased a physical CD.
I’ve received CDs as giveaways, but my consumption of music has pulled away from the physical purchase of CDs and that of owning specific music.
I’m a heavy consumer of media content (although that’s not my setup above). It’s not that I’ve stopped consuming. It’s just that I’ve shifted my habits. And those habits are constantly changing year over year. My behavior and others like me don’t signal the end of print newspapers, it signals the end of media existing in one consistent form forever. Some media outlets like the NYTimes is trying to stay on top of their consumers’ changing behaviors with an R&D lab testing out new presentation and distribution mechanisms. To stay on top of what the NYTimes is doing to evolve its media, follow @nickbilton on Twitter and check out his site.
Three years ago Jeremiah Owyang started a meme that launched a series of blog posts of people sharing their media consumption diet. It’s three years later and I thought I’d revisit the subject as my media consumption has changed drastically from three years ago.
The media I consume daily in 2010
Podcasting: I’m a heavy consumer of podcasts. It’s a great way to consume news, entertainment, and information during what I call semi-distracted time. It’s the time when my physical body is occupied (e.g. exercising, cleaning) but my mind is free. Check out my podcast listening lineup for 2010 for details on what programs I listen to and watch.
Twitter: I keep Tweetdeck open most of the day to get tips on breaking news from the people I follow. I also started using Feedera which delivers a daily email to me summarizing the hottest shared items from the people I follow on Twitter.
Music: I rarely listen to my iTunes library anymore. I’m bored with a lot of my own music and iTunes doesn’t deliver a great user experience like some of the Web-based music services do. I’ve played with Lala (shutting down at the end of this month) and Pandora. Both are free services that have either limited music selections or don’t let you pick specific music.
For a long time I’ve resisted paid subscription services, but after conducting an interview with the CEO of MOG and giving it a one month trial, I’ve become a convert to MOG. Given all the meta information, and database connections to other music, it’s actually a better experience to listen to my own music via MOG than it is via iTunes.
I used to be a heavy Pandora user until I realized their stations play the same music over and over again. I made the jump over to MOG because it was cheap (only $5/month) and I have complete control of what music I want to listen to and when.
Blogs: I have a slew of blogs in my Google Reader that I quickly scan multiple times a day, mostly because it’s my home page. But I make it a point every day to read all the posts on Good Morning Silicon Valley (great clever wrap up of daily tech news) and then scan the stories on Techmeme (hottest trending tech stories) and Mediagazer (hottest trending media stories).
Magazines: The only paper magazine I read cover-to-cover each month is Wired. I used to read a lot more print magazines avidly, but the Web has definitely supplanted that. And that may change even more once I become a tablet user. I’ll probably jump on the iPad with the next release.
Please share your media consumption habits as well. I love to be turned on to new stuff.
