Evan Shapiro is a “media cartographer, producer, analyst – and iconoclast”, writes Michael Burns on IBC 365. He was at IBC in Amsterdam in September to deliver a keynote address – Charting Disruption With Graphic Content. What are his views on the state we find ourselves in?
“The Hollywood shutdown is really crushing everyone, but the whole industry has screeched to a halt. No one should be living in this house. It’s condemned.
The companies who are sitting in a boardroom in Hollywood yelling at each other because none of them can agree on how to end a strike that’s debilitating their industry, is a demonstration that the traditional media players that the world has [hitherto] looked to are rudderless.
We are without question at a real crisis. But you should never let a good crisis go to waste. The idea that you have to do things because you’ve always done them, or that the only step you can take is an incremental step from the last step, is really dangerous.”
To hep to get his thoughts and opinions across about who’s doing what (including with whom and to whom) in terms of strength, growth, M&A etc., Evan uses a Media Universe Map, which he first created for his students at NYU and Fordham University in 2020 and has since been updated almost sixty times. It is a really useful resource for anybody who needs to know where their partner companies, prospects and customers / clients sit in the industry today. The latest version shown above.