Media 03 May 2007 03:19 pm
Whither Goest Media?
Social Media Disrupting Information Channels
We are all aware of the move of consumers to get information faster online. We observe this daily and the trends in advertising that have been emerging now for some years keep showing huge growth in online services not just for search, but for ads.
Concurrent to this mass movement is the oft-cited decline in print ads.
This is a very real issue and the trend is even more brought to light by Paul Gillin’s new book, “The New Influencers,” just now being published by Quill Driver Books (www.newinfluencers.com). Social media is disrupting the media and marketing worlds, creating new dynamics of influence shaped by millions of voices.
Gillin, founding editor-in-chief of Tech Target and former editor-in-chief of Computerworld, explains his thesis in his article “How the Coming Newspaper Industry Collapse Will Reinvent Journalism.” (www.paulgillin.com)
Its key points:
- The 150-year-old newspaper business model is broken. People can get their news faster, online, and advertisers are moving fast the past few years to online products such as Google’s AdWords where ads can be placed and seen across the world in virtual seconds. Ad results can be measured by AdWords users.
- Capital costs of newspapers are extensive. In addition, the costs of people to be trained to run the presses, gather and edit the news, sell ads and deliver the papers all contribute to the high fixed-cost model of newspapers. And for that matter, of printed magazines as well.
- Emerging media—not only the Internet itself, but also podcasts, webinars, blogs—is growing in understanding and usage at warp speed. The advantage of this is instant gratification of information for Internet users and people seeking news.
Concludes Gillin:
“What emerges from the rubble of the newspaper industry will be a fresh, vibrant and very different kind of journalism. It will make a lot of traditionalists uncomfortable.
“But it will ultimately be an evolution of the profession into something that is richer, more inclusive and much more dynamic.”
Larry
Save This Page
Subscribe to this site