CoreMedia's recent announcement that are targeting Media and Entertainment customers with set of specific -- albeit somewhat vague -- new functionalities for that segment raises an interesting question. Whilst on the face of it, functionality based around community, personalization, and adaptive device delivery clearly have broad application.  But the emphasis here also indicates a desire to take on the WCM incumbents in the media industry.

Polopoly (owned by UK-based publishing systems giant Atex) and Escenic (owned by German Norwegian digital media supplier Vizrt) have long dominated the publishing-derived WCM market in Europe, especially the UK where Escenic drives the majority of national newspaper websites. Both products originated within newspapers or had newspapers as their original primary customers and as such have a wealth of experience in delivering media-driven websites.

Like other WCM vendors, CoreMedia in the past has had its fair share of dalliances with the media segment (with a particular emphasis on broadcast media), offset by waves of interest in other customer verticals, like telcos.  The vendor's new media-tuned version will have to prove compelling enough to tempt media organizations away from established tools and vendors, as well as comparatively sophisticated bespoke platforms, and that's not always easy. Customers should welcome more competition, though.

As ever, we'll be monitoring with interest. All three vendors are covered in detail in our WXCM report, and we'll be looking forward to hearing from CoreMedia customers about how these new functionalities work in practice.