How far ahead are media company CTOs planning?
My guess is not very far at all, and new media has potential once again to shock and awe. Current media tools and pay schemes are crude and annoying, but nobody is doing much about it. Phone versions? Smart tv versions? Fuggedaboutit.
The CTO of a digital media organization has to balance the everyday operations of a (semi-) functioning website with a holistic eye towards the future, and the technologies and talent that will come with it. Over at Medium, Justin Hendrix of the NYC Media Lab has been interviewing media company CTOs about their respective roles at the helms of media outfits, and the responses shed light on how often CTOs think about the future — and how little time they have to act on it.
Google Glass and wearables come up repeatedly as examples of the CTO’s purview: When do you move forward on designing for new platforms, and who can you hire to best position yourself? But seeing as they haven’t even figured out phones, it might be a while.
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