Distribution is different than publishing

One of the sacred pieces of wisdom about the internet that has developed over the past decade, is that anyone can publish to the web with only a few clicks, with no money — and that this is as good as owning your own personal newspaper, magazine, or other old school publication.

But of course this isn’t true. After more than a decade, Google has yet to really solve the problem of getting the best piece of content in front of those who are looking for it, and other search engines lag behind them. Sure, anyone can publish to a web page, but distribution is still a valuable commodity.

I think different web platforms have focused more either on publishing or on distribution. WordPress in undeniably a platform. So is Tumblr. These are publishing tools that focus on making content creation easy, but leave it up to the author to develop their own methods of putting their words in front of an audience.

This is a valuable service, and it fills a great need, but it is maybe less valuable than building a distribution platform. Twitter is a distribution platform. Many people who read this post will come to it through the link I share on Twitter; it is where I have nearly 4,000 followers and my own primary distribution channel. If I want to reach the most people I can, I use Twitter.

Twitter provides infrastructure not just for posting messages, but for delivering those messages to others. This is why Twitter wants to own their own desktop and mobile clients, because the value of their network is deeply tied to their ability to control the delivery and presentation of what goes through it. Google has decided they’re going to gut their classic blogging platform (Blogger) and convert it to Google+ — a platform that provides distribution through “circles.”

Facebook of course is the ultimate distribution platform. It has managed to become the default way in which families communicate across continents, friends across campuses, and co-workers across cities. The news feed is a direct portal for distribution to your network.

Distribution in web platforms is the key to people’s attention. It is what has enabled newspapers and magazines to charge the rates they command for advertising. On the web, it will be no different.