Mashable’s chief revenue officer Seth Rogin has warned that the pace of change in media is not fast enough – and said the industry must quickly improve its “stone age” handling of data.

Rogin, who is speaking at this year’s Festival of Media Global in Rome, told M&M Global that the “connected generation” of consumers has no patience for excuses about “business models or legacy costs”.

“The pace of change in media is fast, but I don’t think it’s fast enough,” said Rogin. “As an industry, our readers don’t care about our business models or legacy costs. They want our content where it is most convenient and relevant for them.”

“In many ways, we’re in a golden age of innovation and a stone age of data. As we all learn what to do with the mountains of data coming our way each day, media and delivery will become more precise, more targeted, which will have both benefits and detriments.”

Digital age

He believes that agencies must view publishers such as Mashable as a partner, rather than simply a “place for procurement”.

Rogin was referring to Mashable’s new ‘Velocity’ technology, which allows license-paying agencies to predict and track the viral life-cycle of digital media content. “In the digital age, an edge of a few hours over your competition can make a significant difference,” he said.

Only the media agencies “forward-thinking enough” to adapt existing business models are likely to prosper, claims Rogin.

“The smart will survive and thrive,” he said. “Media agencies have sustained through a variety of advertising environment changes. However, the agencies we see today may not all be the same type that thrive in the future.

“Those that will succeed are those that can be nimble, efficient and forward-thinking enough to stay ahead of this ever-accelerating media evolution. The best ones look at innovative publishers like Mashable not as a place for procurement, but as a resource for real partnership.”

International audience

The 10-year old digital publisher recently raised $17m in a second funding drive, and is determined to grow its international audience, which it claims accounts for approximately half of its 42 million monthly unique visitors.

Its first international office opened last year in the UK, and the publisher is keeping an “eye towards the Asia Pacific region”, according to Rogin.

Its growth may depend on Mashable’s ability to convince marketers that all kinds of ROI, “not only in a monetary sense”, add value to their brands.

“In the end, the only [metric] that makes sense is ROI, but not only in a monetary sense. There are things you can’t see on every spreadsheet, like whether or not the environment in which my ad was seen helped or hurt my brand perception,” said Rogin.

“At Mashable, we’re really interested in our community’s engagement with our content, and this includes time on site and shares on social. Regardless, of the platform, trust and engagement are key.”

See the latest list of Festival of Media Global 2015 speakers here, with many more to be confirmed soon