Traditional Editorial, REST IN PEACE

This is the headline that greets you when you land on a web page erected as a monument to commemorate the decline of traditional media. A photograph of a man who appears to be in trouble and possibly just lost his job accompanies this headline. If this doesn’t paint a bleak picture, he continues to read the 548 headlines that sing along to the following:

  • Bad Times: NYT Says Revenue Dipped 13.9% Last Month – Forbes.com
  • Arena men’s monthly magazine to go out of print after 22 years – Guardian.co.uk
  • UK publisher Cosmopolitan to cut 100 jobs – Guardian.co.uk

There’s even a website called Newspaper Death Watch that chronicles all the newspaper and publishing houses that go out of business. All pretty morbid, don’t you think?

the deadly spell

Let’s take a quick look at traditional media and how the Internet casts its death spell.

In the old days, we are talking about 500 years ago; Gutenberg revolutionized the printing industry by inventing the printing press. This meant that the bibles could be produced in a fraction of the time he used to. This also meant more copies in a shorter time and the Word of God had a greater reach in a shorter time. Newspaper houses and magazine publishers still use a printing press today (well thanks captain obviously).

Much later, shortly after the advent of electricity, the world was blessed with a few other advances in media, namely radio and, a few years later, television. Marketers and ad agencies had it all figured out by designing integrated marketing campaigns with astronomical budgets. Ah, the good times. Well, to the dismay of many of these agencies, this media landscape began to change.

Behold! Enter the WWW

At first, a website was seen as a cute way to put your company brochure online, and furthermore, the disastrous era of dot bombs generated skepticism that labeled the Internet as a bad media and business channel.

Fortunately, since then the Internet has matured. Now, in countries where broadband has achieved high levels of home penetration, the web has become the preferred medium for consumers.

Because? Because people can research, shop online, watch videos, and connect with friends, all from the comfort of their own homes. People can choose what media they want to consume, where and when they choose too, especially with mobile connectivity. Marketers can no longer dictate what advertising messages people are subjected to.

Social Networks, The New Black

Then there is the phenomenon of Social Networks. He changed the media landscape forever. Social networking websites have allowed consumers to connect with friends, family, colleagues, and peers in ways that were never imaginable a few decades ago.

Technology has empowered the consumer to become the Prosumer. Prosumers are consumers who produce content such as videos, photos, and blogs that can be instantly distributed and shared among millions of people through social media platforms. This is also known as User Generated Content or UCG.

Here’s some interesting trivia about the reach of traditional media vs. Internet and Social Networks.

Years it took to reach a market audience of 50 million:

  • Radio – 38 Years
  • television – 13 years
  • Internet – 4 years
  • The iPod – 3 years
  • Facebook – 2 years

So how does the Internet affect traditional media?

The Internet has diminished the need for traditional media by allowing consumers to join social societies within their neighborhoods, in their countries, and internationally. It has allowed them to chat in their spare time, 24/7, with friends.

Taking into account all that has been said, the demise of traditional media can be largely attributed to the following factors:

  1. Decrease in Readers: The distribution of free news and information on the web has led to a declining readership of traditional publications.
  2. Decrease in income: The decrease in readership means that advertisers will spend their money elsewhere and this leads to a decrease in ad revenue.
  3. Real time updates: Traditional media cannot compete with instantly updated user-generated content that is immediately available for the world to see.
  4. The Rise of UGC Websites: People have the freedom to make unlimited real-time comments on content, whereas traditional media is static and a one-way communication tool.
  5. Online audio/video channels: People can choose what they want to see and hear, when and where without ads interrupting their experience.

Just put. The Internet has revolutionized the way things are done today. It has revolutionized the way we do business, the way we communicate and has broken down the walls of traditional media.

A recent example is Unilever UK’s decision to sack Lowe’s, its advertising agency of 15 years, in favor of crowdsourcing, which means it has opened up the brand’s creative field to agencies and basically anyone who wants to. can think of an idea, in the whole world. This is done on the Internet, of course.

Traditional media will still be around for a while, but the Internet is becoming more and more integrated into our daily lives.

Think about this. I could do without Mail & Guardian or MensHealth Mag for quite some time, maybe live quite happily without it? But you dare to cut that ADSL connection…