I am at CEBit in Hanover speaking at a forum here with Tyler Brûlé and some other very interesting folks about the future of media. Tyler’s inspiring presentation was about how he launched his Monocle venture as adhering to specific design goals such as having “no focus groups” (or “trust that you know the market better than others”) and “no walls” (or “create a work environment where everyone can talk with everyone else”). His business model is quite unique as he uses Monocle as a platform for other ventures like special limited edition products that are only available to his subscribers, an affiliated food venture in Tokyo, and also as a means to support exquisite craft-based approaches to image creation in his magazine. Tyler made me think of an article I read in WIRED about the success of online-only gallery ventures that we read about in addition to existing galleries launching successful online spaces. There is a positive trend in our society towards endearment to quality approaches — versus just new ones. Success in this new age of media will be manifest as a combination of the new (approach to business) with the excellent (built on foundations of quality).