Every media company is a media company ... and there's the rub

Every company is a media company because every company, no matter if it makes ball bearings or diapers, as to publish in many different channels and formats to be visible. If you aren't seen amidst all the media noise, you don't exist.

It's not easy being a media company because you need to develop the skills to do it well. But lots of businesses know that they need these capabilities and they are beefing up by adding former journalists, and other media specialists, to their staff.

The media those companies produce is a loss leader, it's a cost of doing business.

And that's why media companies lose money, media is a loss leader. But unlike other companies, they have nothing else to sell.

Every company is a media company — but every media company is just a media company -- and that's the problem: they need to also become something else. They now live in a world where they have more competitors than God -- it's no wonder they can't make money.

Media companies will be able to weather the storm of disruption if they adopt what I call a "Heinz 57" business model — they have to develop a variety of revenue streams -- in addition to how they currently make (or mostly lose) money.

When every company is a media company you'll lose if all you are is a media company.