The future of media is bright.  So bright that I decided to launch a new entrepreneurial media venture called Big Swing Media.

There isn’t much optimism in media these days, especially from those of us in our fifties who have worked in the industry for decades. 

So why am I so sunny about the business? 

I’m a marketer at heart and media today is a marketer’s dream.  The demand for content has never been greater.  For all the gloom and doom, media consumption isn’t going the way of the horse and buggy, fax machine or Xerox copier. 

The challenge in media today is to create new business models that properly incentivize and reward all the stakeholders.  As becomes increasingly obvious with every announcement of mass layoffs, the old models no longer do that.

The model du jour is the sole practitioner; the influencer and YouTube star armed with an iPhone, distinct creative sensibilities and a tireless work ethic building their brand and audience in the “creator economy.”  Influencers are undoubtedly a force and here to stay, but my sense is in five years we will look at this time as the peak of the creator.

Regardless of your thoughts about influencers, media companies aren’t going away if only because not every creator wants or will be able to bear the burden of running the entire business. 

New media companies by necessity will be profoundly smaller and targeted toward very specific, often niche, audiences.  Broad reach is not the goal.  And that’s ok, with such a variety of potential audience interests and affinities there’s room for lots of winners.  The future will be “balkanized,” to quote Jon Kelly from Puck. 

Most importantly, media companies must have a borderline maniacal obsession with the people they seek to engage.  You aren’t just building an audience; you’re creating a community. 

And, as has always been the case in media, it starts with talent.  The importance of differentiated talent grows daily as we are increasingly flooded with sterile, commoditized, AI-driven content.  These are words I never imagined I would write five years ago:  human craftsmanship is a huge differentiator.

This is the foundation upon which we are building Big Swing Media.

Jimmy Roberts, our co-founder and chief content officer, is the definition of world class talent.  He’s one of the most accomplished sports journalists of this generation.  A winner of 16 Emmys, Jimmy has covered virtually everything and knows just about everyone there is to know in the business.  If you’re looking for talent to build a sports media business with, you’d be hard pressed to find someone better.

From a business perspective, we see an opportunity to fill a void in the rapidly growing world of B2B sports media.  Most of the resources and investments in sports media have focused on coverage of the major sports like the NFL, NBA and college football.  Yet, sports like golf, tennis and skiing receive relatively scant coverage.

And understandably so, the business is grounded in the sports that people watch.  Ratings drive rights deals, team valuations, player contracts and underpin the entire ecosystem of television.  The viewing audience for sports like golf and tennis are comparably modest.

The irony is that these lesser-watched sports fuel much broader, diverse economies on a global basis.  This is because unlike football and basketball, their businesses are built around the people who play, not those that watch. 

Look at golf:  45+ million people in the US alone play regularly, the most ever, and more than 100 million do globally.  The fastest growing segment is women under the age of 35.  Golf is no longer just a country club sport.  Technology has made the sport more accessible by unlocking innovative, creative ways to play.  40% of golf today isn’t played on a traditional course.

These profound changes have unlocked massive disruption and opportunity for a wide variety of businesses such as travel, real estate, equipment, apparel, technology, hospitality and media.  In the US, golf’s estimated impact approaches $250 billion annually.  Collectively golf-related industries employ two million people in the U.S. and eight million globally.

Through the preferred mediums of today – podcasts, YouTube, paid newsletters and custom events – Big Swing Media will provide this audience, along with those passionate golf enthusiasts who can’t consume enough content about their favorite pastime, with unparalleled access, insights, experiences and perspective.

A number of people have asked if the start of Big Swing Media means the end of Ready Golf Productions, the company I started two years ago with my co-founder Spence Kramer.  The answer is an unequivocal no. We have a number of projects we continue to develop and pitch. 

The mission of Ready Golf is to tell culture driven stories that appeal to the new golf consumer.    In fact, the idea for Big Swing Media evolved from a Ready Golf project we were working on with Jimmy.  Along the way we realized there’s a much bigger opportunity.

We see a future where Big Swing Media and Ready Golf continue to complement one another.  Just like many of the best ideas for movies, documentaries and books emerged from the work of journalists, Big Swing Media can be a powerful incubator for the longer form projects of Ready Golf.

Earlier I talked about the lack of optimism in the media business among older people.  It’s so easy to be a pessimist these days.  For the past several years media companies have been jettisoning people in their 50s with the ferocity of an exterminator fumigating termites from a basement. 

The powers that be think we’ve lost our edge, don’t understand the new world like young people do, and can no longer compete.  We represent an all-but-gone past that has the utility of a TV Guide.  (Google it kids, or ask Claude, if you don’t get the reference). 

The capital-t truth, however, is those of us who came into the industry in the late 90s and early 2000s have been grappling with tectonic changes from the get-go.  We long ago learned to pivot and pirouette in business with the fluidity and grace of a prima ballerina. 

In sports we marvel at the incredible accomplishments of older athletes doing what was unthinkable a generation ago.  Yet in media we seem to discount the abilities of the more experienced.  Why is that?  Unlike pro athletes, career businesspeople peak with age.  It’s the saddest of ironies played out on LinkedIn daily.  Companies casting aside those that could help them the most. 

And just so we are clear, highlighting the value of older workers in no way diminishes the awe-inspiring creativity, energy and vitality that youth bring to a business.  We need to make a place at the table for all ages.

Entrepreneurship isn’t easy.  Most new businesses fail, even with the best laid plans.  For myself, and my four adult children who are at the dawn of their careers, I want to try to set an example.  We get one shot in life.  The playing field in media is wide open.  When it’s over I don’t want to look back and know that I let my fears get the better of my hopes.  When my chance came to take a big swing, I went for it.