We all know the past couple of years have been rough for newspapers as their circulation numbers drastically declined and print advertising seemed to take a backseat to online banners and pay-per-click ads.
“It could be argued that no segment of the publishing industry has been harder hit than newspapers or magazines,” said Joe Zarrett, President of Verndale in his January blog post, “2010: The Year of the Publisher - Part 1.”
I used to tell my clients that SEM was the new classified ad, as they contemplated purchasing a black and white 3x5 recruitment ad, costing well over $1,000 and running in one Sunday newspaper.
$1,000 of SEM could easily get them two weeks of online exposure, be more targeted and “trackable.” The inevitable shift in advertising from print to online was triggered by the altering ways readers were consuming media. Curious to see how news websites were doing today, I checked Alexa this morning for the list of top visited sites on the web and found the following rankings:
- Facebook #2
- Youtube #3
- Yahoo #4
- MSN #9
- Twitter #11
- BBC #41
The BBC, one of the oldest, largest and most respected media organizations in the world, solely focused on delivering the news was ranked #41! This brings me to my original question – what is news today? Where are people getting their news these days? Is it too obvious?
Granted MSN and Yahoo! do provide users with the news, but on their homepages this morning you will see that the top stories are: “And the Winner of ‘Dancing’ Is…,” “Best and Worst ‘Healthy’ Drinks,” and “10 Essential Style Rules for Dads.”
Has news changed? Is it now a more personalized update on what’s happening in the world that we have created? It appears to me that our news has become what we choose to click on or what shows up in our social media newsfeeds.
The recent “Social Media Revolution 2” video released by Socialnomics stated that 50% of the world’s population is under the age of 30 − is this an age group that reads the news on a daily basis?
The video also stated that we no longer search for the news, the news finds us – what does this mean exactly? What kind of news do we now consider to be important?
The Motorola BACKFLIP commercials poke fun at the way we consume media, but it is dauntingly true. Many people do get their news from these social media sites, whether they are following a news source or reading updates from their friends.
I can’t say I’m not guilty. Some days I can tell you exciting stuff like how an 18-year-old kid took $500 and built a guerilla marketing agency with $4.5 million in revenue or how a 12-year-old Oklahoma boy changed his life by posting a Youtube video of himself playing the piano and ended up on the Ellen Show 15 days later. I’m sorry to admit that I can’t tell you much about the Korea Crisis or recent drug trafficking battles in Jamaica, but maybe that’s because I choose to read the news that is more uplifting and less dismal. Perhaps society has chosen to do the same.
As newspapers continue to find new ways to stay in front of readers, our concept of news may be altered and many readers will be oblivious to this change. If this is the case, then what will news be in 5-10 years?