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In his new book “Hit Makers: The Science of Popularity in the Age of Distraction,” Derek Thompson busts some big myths about how popular stuff gets popular. Myths like: “Content is king,” i.e., good stuff rises to the top because it’s good.“
Distribution is more important” than content, Thompson said on the latest episode of Recode Media with Peter Kafka. “You can say that a song is the best song in the world, you can say that an idea is the best for people’s welfare, or a movie is the best documentary of its kind. But without a distribution strategy to reach people, nobody hears it.”
Thompson, a senior editor at the Atlantic, challenged the idea — popularized by other pop-sociology writers like Malcolm Gladwell — that ideas can go viral, spreading and reproducing in a biological way. Instead, he said, everything from memes to tech companies can “piggyback” on existing social networks....
In his new book, "Hit Makers," Atlantic Senior Editor Derek Thompson challenges common misconceptions like "content is king." Key reading for marketing pros. 9/10