Posts Tagged ‘death of mass media’

With the announcement of Gourmet’s death, this week and House and Garden a few years ago, we realize that specialty consumer directed media publications are not immune from the shift to digital.

Revolutions don’t come overnight. They are the climax of incremental changes in perspective that sneak up on you. Until one day you realize that there is another way of doing things.

For several years I have supplemented my daily reading of my local newspaper the Post and Courier (gotta know whose doing what and where and why and see the pics and get the newsprint on my hands) with online professional readings. They come from many sources. I particularly like Ad Age, Marketing Sherpa and a few more. I also am an avid reader of news headlines and news videos on Yahoo!. I love the ease of seeing the vid, clicking, reading the story for more information. Google News is my go to for alerts on any kind of breaking information by client name, sector or issue. Although I am addicted to printed information, I find online sources are most immediate and I expect to get the latest news NOW.

The lust for the NOW has changed the way newspapers format themselves. People want more local news on their front pages knowing that they can get national, breaking news all day either on their phone or computer. And even though I know evening news broadcasts have their audience, for most, the best channel is either one to one through social networking sites or RSS.

However, all this being true and being of a certain age, I will still be a holdout for holding the printed word. My spouse loves his e-books on his PDA. I like the heft of the book which I borrow from the library. (Sorry authors, I would rather read and return.) If it changes my perspective on the world, I will buy and keep the book. The only volumes I seem to keep are those of poetry. So, I am a hold-out for print too, being of the Baby Boom generation.

The NOW of advertising and communication is all digital as far as I can see. What about you? Do you see the same NOW? Many argue that we still need mass media. The recent campaigns I’ve organized using newsprint, commercial radio and television have generated impact for clients but how long will it be before it’s all one to one, on demand? I say it’s NOW. The revolution is done. It happened while we were changing channels.