The week and year started off with a bang with Gartner buying Burton and Dow Jones merging two major divisions indicative of two major trends we discussed in our Outlook 2010 – thinking platforms vs. products and more consolidation at the top.  Across and within companies things are being combined everywhere as the combination of technology and the economy accelerate our industry’s moves from product-centric to market-centric. Just yesterday I spoke to one CEO who took over 100 brands and migrated them into 9.

When looking at a user or a market and working backwards to what they need to make decisions, the containers and titles become a barrier. The smartphones, readers and tablets are only going to accelerate this, so look for more change ahead. My mother used to say the only thing that is constant is change. Take good enough, the realities of all our pricing and advertising and information spending research, the notion our recession is not going to be a “V” and “recovery” continues to be jobless and you’re going to see more acquisitions and more integrations.

The result – inside each industry segment and in most companies there are the 2 or 3 gorillas and the chimps – –the big sized firms and all the little ones OR the divisions that make all the money and ‘the other ones.’   The more things change the more they stay the same. Look for more of this same – in 2010.   And we’re off – happy New Year!

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