Just read a new report from Forrester analysts Nick Thomas, David Card and Erik Hood titled “Every Company is a Media Company.” Here’s the exec summary:

The media meltdown — where traditional media business models based on scarcity and controlare fundamentally challenged by the new realities of digital media consumption — is creating huge problems for media companies that create and distribute content to users. Users want more and more content for free, and advertisers are struggling to engage fragmented audiences. But as we move from a distribution paradigm to a consumption paradigm, the meltdown is also creating opportunities for nonmedia companies — including telcos, hardware manufacturers, and FMCG brands — to increasingly use content directly to engage users. In other words, they can become media companies — and, as such, they have to embrace new ways of thinking.

Hmmm, that all sounds very familiar. In fact, I seem to remember an article from Tom Fomeski at Silicon Valley Watcher quoting Dan Scheinman predicting that “every company is a media company” … in March 2005.And although one intrepid reader of the @CiscoEos Twitter stream disagreed with this article as late as last week, I think Nick, David and Erik are spot on. The media & entertainment experience IS radically changing -- primarily due to the digitization of content, and the proliferation of broadband -- making it far easier/cheaper/convenient for content to be delivered to an individual wherever they may be in the globe.The interesting question not really addressed in this new Forrester report is: if every company is a media company, what’s the role/relevance of the actual media companies? Let us know what you think this means for media co.s.