Content is a monetization engine

Rustic Canyon partner says content publishers with new production models are of interest

Content isn't always king. These days, aggregation seems to be.

Yet, at a time when aggregation of data, news or Web sites seem all the rage, the question does become: Do we need more people creating the original content that's being aggregated? 

Yes. There's always need for original content. In fact, there is an opportunity for content creators, according to one Rustic Canyon partner.

"Content becomes a monetization engine," said Nathan Redmond, a partner at Rustic Canyon, down in Santa Monica, Ca., who was speaking at the AlwaysOn Venture Summit this month.

There's a caveat here, however.

Redmond isn't talking about any content publisher. Rather companies that have established a low-budget way to produce content are potentially investment-worthy, he suggested.

"One of the areas that's interesting, [is] finding opportunities to develop content in a much more cost-efficient manner, in a manner that runs against the big-budge approach," he said.

"The notion of simply wanting to be a network (ad network), we’ve seen it play out," he added.

Rather, there's a "huge amount of opportunity to own the content."

Is Redmond embracing that old mantra, "Content is king?"

(For more news from the conference, see related stories below.)