By Tom Noda
There maybe no definite date yet, but “print media is going away,” according to Matt Mullenweg, co-founder and CEO of the blogging platform WordPress.
Mullenweg, who visited the Philippines recently as part of a tour to meet with WordPress communities in different countries, said in an interview that the media business is currently unbalanced in favor of traditional media such as print, radio, and TV even if it is the online media which is transforming the industry.
“So much amount of [advertising] money is being spent on print and on TV than it is online but more and more attention is now shifting online,” Mullenweg said. “It’s really lopsided.”
Mullenweg said the growing prevalence of mobile computing devices of different shapes and sizes is giving people more time to consume things and create things.
“Print is going away absolutely,” Mullenweg said. “Now that you can use your phone, and your tablet while the plane is taking off and landing, I almost never want to buy a magazine anymore.”
Mullenweg, who is also the founder and CEO of Automattic ? the company behind WordPress.com and Jetpack ? said he is excited more than ever about the future of content because of all the different screen sizes of mobile devices that people have with themselves all day and all night.
“As more and more money come online, I think it will enable a new generation of publishers to reinvigorate the existing generation to have new business models,” Mullenweg said.
Prior to the Philippines, Mullenweg met with other WordPress communities in South Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, and Japan. It was his third visit in the Philippines, one of the early adopters of WordPress in the early part of the decade.
He said about 22 percent of the world’s websites today are powered by WordPress. Even prominent news organizations such as The New York Times, Time magazine, and CNN are all using the platform as their content management system.
Because of the mammoth growth, Mullenweg said the company plans to open up this year two new data centers located in Singapore and Hong Kong. It plans also to hire 150 new employees.
A local mobile operator together with a Davao-based bloggers group organized and hosted Mullenweg’s recent visit, held at the Bonifacio Global City.
Over 120 members of the local WordPress community composed of bloggers, developers, designers, and WordPress enthusiasts, gathered to learn more about Mullenweg?s expertise on Web technology and online publishing.
