New communications technologies have released a flood of soft content into media offices. Local, national and international media organizations receive exponentially more information than they did just 5 years ago. Decreases in advertising revenues have hit media companies hard. The industry is in a period of consolidation and trimming of excesses. Media companies are now faced with fewer and less experienced staff members. These media professionals are expected to digest and distribute exponentially more information and often become overwhelmed. As the information revolution continues unabated, media companies are still dependent on antiquated modes of information exchange. Labor-intensive approaches, including fax machines, Rolodexes, telephones, and email, are still the norm used to acquire soft content and complete the editorial product. Significant time and manpower are expended by assignment editors, reporters and researchers trying to cull soft content to generate compelling and balanced product. The long cycle time from soft content acquisition to editorial product generation translates into low labor productivity, high costs, and lower advertising revenue.

Every media company has installed high-speed Internet services but they have yet to perfect web technologies as a utility to increase efficiency and to save money. Media companies must re-invent their information gathering and distribution techniques if they want to remain competitive and relevant in this new fast-paced environment.